Many thanks to everyone who sponsored Sharon and John during their Ration Challenge in Refugee Week. We raised £1,406 for Concern Worldwide. The Ration Challenge UK this year overall raised £834,156, which will feed, educate and offer medical help to 5,416 refugees. Thank you. https://my.rationchallenge.org.uk/sharonfrancis“
Dear Friends
I am writing this on Trinity Sunday, the Festival when we celebrate how God reveals himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We sang a lot of hymns which tried to explain how God is Three and God is One. But, as Adam found to his peril, if you think you’ve got God sussed, you’re probably in trouble. God remains a holy mystery, beyond our fathoming.
We had a beautiful reading this morning describing how Wisdom was with God the Creator at the very beginning. This Wisdom figure is considered to be Christ, the Son, the Word, calling creation into being with the Father. I love the joyful imagery of this passage, and especially the words of Wisdom at the end of this passage:
‘… then I was beside [the Creator]
like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him
always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.
Proverbs 8 (verses 1-4 and 22-31)
We are called to join this eternal dance of the Trinity in our relationships with others and with God. We are the ones called to rejoice in this inhabited world and to delight in one another, and in the whole human race. But our earth-bound lives are not always as jolly, or as simple, as this text suggests.
Apart from being Trinity Sunday, today also marks the start of Refugee Week (16-23 June). John and I have taken up the ‘my ration challenge’ campaign and will be living on the day rations of a Syrian refugee in a camp in Jordan. We hope to raise some funds for Concern Worldwide (UK). I’ve just had my Sunday lunch of boiled rice flavoured with a little cumin. Hardly yummy. We have six more days to go on meagre rations of rice, flour, lentils, beans, chickpeas, cooking oil and a tin of sardines each!
These special campaigns are good in raising awareness of situations that exist for the inhabited world and for our human race. We are now one global family and we have a social responsibility towards one another both near and far. Let us work and pray for ‘fairer shares’ of the earth’s resources, so that we can all rejoice in our inhabited world and delight in our shared humanity.
In this new church season of the Trinity, may you know
the presence of the God, who dwells within your days,
the mystery of the Christ, who drenches you in love,
the blessing of the Spirit, who bears you into life anew. Amen. Sharon
If you can spare a little of your time to take people to doctor’s or hospital appointments, we would love to hear from you. We have offered this valuable service for many years and now – when it is needed more than ever before– we think we will have to cease the service in September, unless we can attract more drivers. This voluntary role is subject to a DBS disclosure and Safeguarding training. Those using the service should cover cost of fuel and parking.
Please contact Ann Saunders (860586).