Words from Bede Circuit
Dear Friends
You will all know the feeling of a day going pear-shaped! We can make all the plans we want but sometimes, a phone call, email, letter or text can completely scupper our plans and, instead, we find ourselves muddling through the day. To a larger extent, that is what happened in March 2020 when the Prime Minister instructed us all to stay at home and stay safe. All our plans went pear-shaped! Our churches closed and suddenly we had to find different ways of doing worship, prayer, and meetings. Zoom and Why-Pay became our norm. Now as restrictions are eased, rather than being instructed what we should do, we are being advised what to do and to proceed with caution. Most of our churches have reopened for Sunday worship and some are beginning to plan for other midweek groups to return but what are we returning to? I have just been in a meeting with colleagues in which we were thinking about how we can continue to use Zoom and Why-Pay, alongside meeting in person. What can we keep of what we learned and what was good, as we move forward? It occurs to me that it is rather like a large jigsaw puzzle.
I enjoy doing jigsaws because I can forget about everything else whilst I am doing it. Last week I opened up a new puzzle entitled The Village Fete and yes, the picture is a medley of colours. Dark greens and browns of trees, lighter greens of fields, bushes, and flowers. Then there is a maypole with dancers in every colour of clothes imaginable, colourful bunting, haystacks, houses, stalls selling all manner of things. I am slowly working my way through trying to identify pieces of people, dancers, maypole, grass, and trees. There is such joy when suddenly several pieces all fit together but I have to say it is one of the hardest Jigsaws I have done! I just cannot sort out the different colour greens!
There is a lesson here for us, as we try to resume our lives, whether that is meeting family and friends in larger numbers, dining out, going on holiday and yes, within our churches too. It is as if “our picture” has been all mixed up and we are now trying our best to bring some order and colour where it is supposed to be. Sometimes that is easy and at other times it is hard. What do we begin again? Are there some things that have come to a natural end and are we content to leave them in the past? What are the new things that God is calling us to? It is all rather like trying to gather the pieces together to make up a picture that shows the church, as it will be in months and years to come. Let us pray that when putting those things together goes well, we will remember that God is with us. And, when like those greens (!!), things seem hard and it feels as if we will never fit things together again, let us trust God to see us through and encourage each other to see God’s picture built upon His love for us in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:15-16, “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”
During the summer we will continue to meet in prayer on Wednesday mornings at 10.00am.
For more information, please contact your pastoral visitor or minister.
With good wishes and prayers
Revd Deborah Wainwright, on behalf of the Bede Circuit staff team.