Dear All,

Did you witness the eclipse?! Did you stand, colander in hand, white card at the ready, looking for exactly the right spot to set up? Or perhaps you managed to get hold of the elusive ‘eclipse glasses’ which made everything except the sun turn black!

The 1999 eclipse found me in a swimming pool in a small hotel in southern Hungary – one of the few places which saw total coverage. It went dark quite slowly and, frankly, I was too busy having fun to notice. Suddenly, though, the solar lights around the pool became visible and the birds – who usually took their lunchtime snooze at that time – began to sing with somewhat confused gusto. Two minutes later everything started to return to normal and I went back to swimming.

The 2026 eclipse saw me outside Cyncoed Methodist Church – where there were more people but considerably less water! Their ‘Eclipse Party,’ consisting of crafts, games, prayer stations and God Slots, saw over 100 visitors, some of whom planned to come and others who stopped to see what we were all doing and whether we had any spare glasses!

During the two ‘God Slots’ – one juuuuuust as the moon appeared at the corner of the sun, and the other when it was as dark as it got – we talked about the miracle of God’s creation, and how we struggle, sometimes, to make sense of it all. One thing Cathy said, though, really caught my attention. “Light always finds a way.” She reminded us that, even during a total eclipse, it never gets completely dark. Sunlight leaks out around the edges of the darkness. Darkness cannot win.

As we enter a new church year, and for some of us a new school year, let’s remember the Light of Jesus that shines in the darkness, and which cannot ever be fully hidden from us.
Love and blessings,

Laura