Prayer and message from the Rector 15 May 2022
Fifth Sunday of Easter Christian Aid Week
Heavenly Father we come to you in the busy times of our lives so help us to find that moment of stillness when we can come to you and hear your voice. Help us to see your vision for this church and our individual places in it. Enable us to journey, with you wherever you lead, and to walk alongside each other even in the harder places of life. To the glory of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen

I think this is a moment when we need to take stock of where we are and look at what we are doing and who we are doing it for. We have been advised that, if we wish to, we can go back to sharing the common cup at Holy Communion but as we have a number of people in our church community just recovering from Covid 19
I think that would be a bit premature for us.
Holy Communion reminds us of the meal of the Last Supper when the disciples were gathered in the upper room. It was at that meal that Christ gave us the commandment to love one another. This is not a suggestion of Christ’s, but a command. In this season of Easter we look to the risen Christ who comes to us in the power of the Holy Spirit and bring us closer to the Father.
We remember that everything we do should reflect the love of Christ in the world and that includes loving one another. We are called to love God and one another. During the pandemic it was difficult to gather to express our sense of community and people are still struggling with the idea of going into a place where people gather.
Then we have the war in Ukraine and we see such inhumanity. The cost of living is increasing. We are worried about climate change. The Church nationally and locally is struggling to be what it was before 2020 and coming to terms with a new way of being. I would like to say that we are resilient and whatever the changes there are in the world we know that God loves us and that we can never be taken from His hand. There are times when we simply have to do what we think is right and trust in our God. We are okay. Blessings Richard