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Pastoral Letter from the Co-Superintendent – Winter 2024

colorful bokeh lights forming a christmas tree against a dark blue sky

Dear Friends,

As we approach Christmas with all the services, mission and general festivities, as much as we love this time of the year, it is also one of our busiest. In many of our churches plans have been underway for exhibitions and Christmas fairs pretty much since the start of the connexional year in September. As I have travelled around the circuit, getting to know people and churches, such plans have been shared with me and it is really good to see how the anticipation of the season is already radiating hope.

It's not just planning for Christmas that has kept our churches busy though, I have been encouraged to hear of some wonderful projects taking place as our churches continue to share the good news across the county through new projects, service, mission and outreach. But it would be false to paint a wholly bright and hopeful picture, for along-side the positive planning, preparing and general work of the church community there is also a level of weariness, a degree of despondency when there are not enough people able to actively engage in mission, and a sense of fatigue at the level of secular and administrative work that threatens to overwhelm our good intentions to serve God.

This did make me wonder how often our church communities take time out just to simply be rather than to feel the constant need to do. There is something to be said for the church away day, or even a weekend, when the people of God can share in a time of rest, reflection and restoration. Indeed it is often the case that in these times of simply be-ing we are more inclined to hear the still small voice of God rather than in the often turbulent times of all the doing. It is out of such quiet, reflective times that we find the creative spirit emerging to inspire us in ways we may never have otherwise thought of.

A time of rest is important for all people, whether it is in the form of a sabbatical, annual leave, a day off each week or even a few hours each day. Indeed such an imperative is this that it is written into the very story of creation as God takes the 7th day as a day of rest, and later deems this to be a practice that all should follow. For the church, Sunday was deemed the day set aside for God, when worldly work should be kept to a minimum. And it's not been so very long ago when this was part of the structure of society. Shops and other places of work didn't open on Sunday's. This was a special day of the week set aside for worship, for time with family and friends, and for rest; in other words sacred time.

Today no such boundaries exist as working life goes on 24/7. I am sure many of us leave the Sunday morning service and head off to the supermarket on the way home because it is convenient to do so. Yet the principle of the sabbath does not have to disappear as secular life takes over. Being intentional about carving out sacred time, perhaps for an hour a day, a day each week and a few weeks each year is vital for our spiritual well being as individuals and as church communities. God is very prescriptive about this!

So as the days and weeks unfold, and as the busyness of Christmas recedes. I wonder if your church would benefit from a time of retreat – even just for a day or an afternoon? Could you personally be more intentional about taking sabbath time out, no matter which day of the week you take it, to spend time with God in nature or in creative pur-suits; the operative word here being 'intentional' no walk in nature is restful if we spend the entire time worrying about all that needs to be done when we get back! Why not buck the trend and forget about the protestant work ethic, for that was never ordained by God – Sabbath rest however was.

So here is a challenge for you all. Rather than focusing on all the great things you have or have not been able to do in recent times, challenge yourselves to simply take time to be still with God, to rest in the peace Christ came to share with us, for if we don't are we not rather missing the whole point of the coming season..

As Wendell Berry puts it: "Sabbath observance invites us to stop. It invites us to rest. It asks us to notice that while we rest, the world continues without our help."

Blessings,

Jayne

PS – Does your church have a beautiful garden or a peaceful location where we might point people to in order to enjoy such restful space? I know there are quite a few in the circuit and was delighted to discover Fairford's garden recently. Please let me know and let us see if we can promote spaces for sabbath rest across the circuit. J

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