Words from Bede Circuit
Dear Friends,
Looking back on my school life it was plain to see that each child had a propensity for being better at English or Maths, there was probably a fortunate minority that would be good at both. Those of you who are used to reading my written word will not be surprised to note that I was always better at Maths. Without wanting to boast (but I am going to) at High School I managed in one year to get 100% for an Arithmetic exam the figure for general maths though was less impressive. You see you know where you are with numbers three plus four is always seven it is not a perhaps or maybe, a maths answer is black or white not a shade of grey. So, in my employment I often worked with numbers latterly working in a finance department where I would hold in this strange brain of mine all sorts of numbers, colleagues would ask me the company registration no and I would know it off by heart. I could tell someone from the office corridor that indeed that invoice no 17345 for £370.27 was still requiring payment. Consequently, in these days of pandemic I have got in the habit of checking on the website for each days COVID-19 numbers, they give the hope that things are getting better, I see the line on the graph going now thankfully steeply down. Those numbers are though somebody’s life and yes ultimately someone’s death and they pose questions to us that are not a simple answer not a number but a why, when and how.
As we go through this life, we have many questions many with hurt involved that are difficult to answer not with a nicely defined number but full of mushy greyness. We do though have the answer in numbers we have 1 God who loves us so much that it is unquantifiable a thousand zero’s does not get close ,1 Jesus Christ who went to the cross for everyone millions and trillions of people, with grace that not even the widest column on a spreadsheet can deal with and 1 Holy Spirit who empowers us to fulfil God’s mission here on earth. So our relationship with God isn’t like some complicated mathematical equation it is simple but powerful and can be summed up in the following words from this well-known song “Day by day dear Lord of these 3 things I pray to see thee more clearly, to love thee more dearly, to follow thee more nearly day by day”
The circuit staff continue to encourage you all to engage with A Methodist Way of Life during Lent, looking at the four areas of “Our Calling”, Worship, Learning and Caring, Service and Evangelism. Sunday services on Zoom and Why Pay, a service sheet written by circuit ministers, and Bible studies each week will help us to consider what it means, not just to be Methodist but to be Christian in what will (eventually) become a post-Covid world! Let us pray that as we engage with Lent and A Methodist Way of Life, we will be changed too; able to travel through the wilderness and look even beyond the Cross of Jesus to the possibilities that will come to us in His resurrection power!
Sunday worship continues on Zoom at 10.30am
Zoom Bible studies on A Methodist Way of Life on Monday at 7.00pm and Thursday at 10.30am
Zoom Wednesday Morning prayers are at 10am
There are also Sunday services using Why pay telephone conferencing and a Sunday worship sheet.
Please contact the Senior Church Steward (Brenda Wallace) for more details: wesleymemchurch.pr@gmail.com
With good wishes and prayers on behalf of the Bede Circuit staff team,
Rev Neil Maynard