Back!

It is lovely to be back with you all after my two week holiday. Thanks must go to Jude for keeping everything ticking over over in my absence and I am sure you all enjoyed a different approach and a fresh look at things. I am most grateful Jude - thank you!

So much has happened in the last two weeks. It does feel odd to wear masks everywhere now, though I did frequently beforehand too. Have you forgotten yours yet? I have certainly got out of the car and thought as I walked away from it, what have I forgotten, only to come back having remembered, as I approached others or a building!

The weather has been gorgeous and Devon was beautiful, uncluttered and very shut up where we were. We had planned so much, but could do very little and then on top of it all, my sciatica prevents me walking more than about 300 yards at a time, so time to sit and dream! It was a rest. It wasn't the usual time to holiday but was a good time nevertheless.

One of the emails I delighted in reading on Saturday was from my Methodist colleague who is at long last, soon to open the church for worship, here in the village - The Gathering Place. It has been a very long time since March. The Church has had, like us, rules and regulations about opening, the hows, whens and wherefores in each situation, the sanitation and social distancing and now of course it looks as if they won't be open long either! It does seem to some outside the Church, just daft regulations or why we can't be more like stores etc and just get on with it.

For us all it is a journey of faith we are on, which can be so hard - trusting precautions are taken and playing our part in following it through. Helping and enabling where we are able and once again being that church whether in building and worship or in community and life. These are strange days certainly, but there is so much opportunity for us too, the door is never closed! We are being challenged, uncomfortable it might well be, but equally, an opportunity to act, to follow and walk more closely with God.

I well remember Mary Hopkin's "Turn, Turn, Turn," based on Ecclesiastes 3 v1-8. Do you recall its impact in those swing sixty days? This reading always popular in all sorts of occasions, do these verses remind of of times and opportunities for the good and the not so good, opportunities to be in touch with life and emotions. To be real and normal people who live a life which holds so much for each and every one of us, good and more difficult.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace."

As we continue our daily pilgrimage let us be open to the challenges of following and serving God in the good days and those more challenging.