When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’

Acts 1: 9-11

After the trauma and confusion of the crucifixion and resurrection, the disciples have spent forty days walking with Jesus as he reaffirms his teachings and prepares them for the day when he will no long be a physical presence among them. Now, with one final promise of the coming Holy Spirit, he vanishes from their sight.

Can we really blame the disciples if their eyes followed him as he went? True, they’re no strangers to miracles, but there is something final about this one and Jesus is their friend. Of course their eyes stray to the place where Jesus was.

if you ever fancy causing some harmless chaos try standing in the middle of the pavement staring at the sky for a while. Eventually others will join you, straining to see what you’re looking at. Those who are trying to go about their business will eventually get annoyed and ask you to move. Oh, and you’ll get neck-ache.

The disciples watched Jesus ascend to heaven. Naturally they stared after him, hoping to catch another glimpse, but then they did that bravest of all things – they stopped staring at the place where Jesus was and went to where he would be next. God was already moving and if they’d remained, eyes glued to the sky, they would have missed it. More than that, they would have got in the way of those going about the business of the gospel.

We, like every generation of Christians since, are tasked with using the teachings of the past to bring about God’s Kingdom in the present. God is moving among us – of that I am absolutely certain. Our task then is to figure out what God is already doing – where God is already working – and to join in. Oh and try our best not to get in the way!

Love and blessings,

Laura

And so we approach the end of the period we call ‘Lent’.

The number 40 is of special significance in the Jewish-Christian Scriptures: Genesis tells of a 40-day flood; the Hebrews spent 40 years wandering the wilderness before reaching the Promised Land; Moses fasted for 40 days before receiving the 10 Commandments; Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry.

Lent is a 40 day period – not counting the Sundays. For some it may present a useful opportunity to give up habits that are life-draining rather than life-giving. Others take it as a time for reflection – a sort of ‘Spiritual Spring Clean’. True, we can do this at any time – much the same way as we might enjoy pancakes for twelve months of the year – but Lent provides us with a special opportunity to pause and prepare ourselves for whatever lies ahead in our own lives.

Speaking, albeit indirectly, of pancakes – this Lent our community at Conway Road have been doing something a little different. Yes, I’m talking about the sourdough! ‘Bob’, as he is now almost universally known, has been touring the groups that use this building, bubbling away in the upstairs kitchen, and providing occasion for much fun and laughter as well as some fascinating opportunities for conversation around the importance of ‘sharing bread’ in the life of the church and what it means to call Jesus ‘The Bread of Life’. I have honestly been blown away by the openness with which people have engaged with the project.

Which brings me to a very exciting piece of news:

The Methodist Church Media Office have got wind of the Sourdough Project want to create an article about it for circulation further afield – an article that will include photos / possibly a short video.

AND YOUR HELP IS NEEDED! If you are available on the afternoon / early evening of Thursday 10^th April, and don’t mind being in the background of material that will appear on social media please can you come along to the New Room to do things like:

            Be in the background drinking tea/coffee, eating bread and looking friendly

            Knead dough

            Measure out flour and water to feed Bob

You don’t need to stay for the whole time and will not be expected to speak to the camera – although let me know if you’d be happy to do so. We’ve gone for after school in the hope that many of our junior church will be able to attend (parents will need to sign consent forms) but it would be brilliant to have the place buzzing and to show Conway Road for what it is – a warm, friendly community that is committed to spreading the Good News in ways that are relevant to those we serve.

Love and blessings this Lent, this Easter, and always,

Laura

About 5 years ago I undertook a three day walking trip in Derbyshire.

The ‘Peak Park Pilgrimage’ covers almost 40 miles of countryside; meandering from village to village and from church to church. The terrain covers everything from concrete to sheep tracks to rocky and uneven stones, and there were one or two occasions where my friend and I found ourselves in the middle of nowhere and wondered whether we were still on the path at all!

Every village reached represented a completed stage of the journey and the achievement that, even if we had been a bit lost at times, we had somehow managed to end up in the right place. The local shops were a haven for essential supplies (mainly chocolate!) but it was the churches that will always stand out in my memory.

Tiny village chapels – very often without such luxuries as toilets, kitchens and cushions – but each containing, somewhere in full view of the door, a green box. Opening the box revealed an ink stamp (to be applied to the guide books as proof you’d been there) and a quote from Scripture as a reminder of the pilgrimage that we all walk together. As we journeyed the once empty pages became filled with Scripture, and also reminders of the many communities that are continuing to show the love of God to those they serve.

That particular pilgrimage, unfortunately, remains incomplete. Not long after returning home from what we hoped would be the first of many trips, COVID hit. Each of us had our own experience, but for me life shrank drastically. Every inch of land within three miles of my manse – I lived in a rural area – was explored and re-explored. Ministry became a hybrid of digital (social media, recorded services) and analogue (letter writing). The community came together to create face-mask ‘extenders’ for the local hospital. A few of us began a lighthearted competition to see who could make the best sourdough bread – I did not win!

I’d forgotten that until a couple of weeks ago when Philippa suggested making sourdough starter as a community activity over Lent to involve the groups who use the church, as well as the Sunday congregation.

So, this Lent we will be trying something different. At the service on Sunday 9^th March (the first Sunday in Lent) we will be mixing up a sourdough starter which will be ‘fed’ by user groups throughout the following week. By Sunday 16^th March it should have ‘grown’ enough for those of us in church to take some home to feed and use (simple instructions and recipes will be available!) and/or give to friends or family. It will also be distributed among the user groups. Let’s see how far it can travel and how many people can get involved!

While not a ‘pilgrimage’ in the traditional sense, the process of making sourdough – watching and waiting without hurry, learning its rhythm, trusting in the end result – lends itself to the season of Lent.

Watch out for flyers with more information!

Love and blessings,

Laura

I am no longer my own but yours.
Your will, not mine, be done in all things,
Wherever you may place me,
In all that I do
And in all that I may endure;
When there is work for me
And when there is none;
When I am troubled
And when I am at peace.
Your will be done
When I am valued
And when I am disregarded;
When I find fulfilment
And when it is lacking;
When I have all things,
And when I have nothing.
I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you, as and where you choose.
(The Covenant Prayer: Methodist Worship Book pp288-289)

The annual Covenant Service has been key to Methodism since its beginnings in the 1700s. The Covenant Prayer – which we say together during the service – doesn’t make easy reading.

Perhaps you’re very familiar with it, or maybe you’re seeing it for the first time. Either way, try reading it through slowly several times. Which phrases jump out? Are there any that concern or delight you?

Throughout our lives we make promises. I’m writing this on New Year’s Day having made several New Years Resolutions few of which are likely to survive the fortnight. What can I say? At least I mean well. Similarly, at a first glance the Covenant Prayer looks like a list of standards we can’t possibly live up to. Aren’t we making promises we can’t keep? Setting ourselves up for failure and its associated guilt?

No. Not in the slightest. We enter into these promises knowing perfectly well that we don’t have the strength to keep them all by ourselves. They aren’t a list of things we ‘must’ do in order to earn God’s love but rather opportunities to connect with God and show God’s love in the world. In the Covenant Prayer we experience the challenge of the gospel and are reminded that, ultimately, we are not in charge. We live in God’s world, not God in ours.

Our Covenant Service will take place on Sunday 26^th January at 10.30am. All are welcome!

Happy New Year!

I wonder what is the first thing you think of when you hear the word ‘Advent’. Or ‘Christmas’ for that matter.

Maybe it evokes an image of an Advent wreath; candles waiting expectantly for their turn to be lit. Maybe there’s one church service in the season that’s particularly special to you. Perhaps it brings thoughts of decorations or preparations for visiting family. Maybe the first image that comes to mind is a memory of a previous Christmas.

Whatever it makes you think of, it seems difficult to get away from all things Christmas-related. Some of the shops seem to have been playing Christmas songs for months and the earliest recorded sighting of a Christmas tree this year was mid September!

The word that comes into my mind most frequently at the moment is this: Hope.

Okay, so that’s probably got as much to do with the ‘Forward in Hope’ initiative we’re exploring as part of the Circuit, but nevertheless it seems particularly relevant as we step into Advent. Advent is a time of watching and waiting; a time of gathering excitement, when we anticipate a celebration of the hope that was fulfilled in the coming of God incarnate into the world. As Christians we travel the Advent road alongside a billions of others worldwide and down the ages; a road that began before time itself. A road that does not end in Bethlehem. For many of us it’s a road we have walked many times and yet, as we hear again the familiar and yet hugely challenging words of The Greatest Story Ever Told, there is always something new and exciting to discover.

This Advent I hope that every person reading this, whether you are in the habit of singing ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ in September, or put up your Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve (or are somewhere in the middle) will have the time and space to step back and marvel at the glorious, surprising and varied journey we travel with one another and with God. 

I wish you a joyous Advent and a very merry Christmas!

Our Autumn Fayre will be on Saturday 9th November from 10.00am until noon.
Come and enjoy a morning browsing the stalls and enjoying a cup of coffee with a slice of cake.

A fundraising event not to be missed!

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Part of a traditional Franciscan Blessing

At the moment it seems scarcely possible to turn on the television, open a newspaper or read the news on the internet without being faced with images of our neighbours, both near and far away, who bear the image of God’s face and yet are without food, shelter or the essentials of life.

It seems poignant, then, that by the time you read this it will be November, we will have entered a season of remembering and be approaching Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. We will be remembering those events within our history that have shaped, and continue to shape our world, and the people who were and are still caught up in them. Men, women and children. People from all walks of life; of all nations and places; of all races and religions. We remember the millions of people whose lives can never be the same again as a result of conflict, and those who have lost their lives.

In the face of all this it can be difficult to know what to pray for. There is so much to think about that it can seem impossible to get our heads around. This Franciscan blessing asks God for foolishness: not the kind of foolishness that views the world through rose-tinted spectacles, but the sort that that recognizes oppression, injustice and cruelty and has the courage to speak out against it, believing that we can make a difference.

I’m reminded of the story of the young boy walking along the beach throwing beached starfish back into the water.

‘Why are you doing that?’ asks his friend. ‘There are thousands of them. It won’t make any difference.’

The boy reaches down for another starfish, turns to his friend and says ‘It makes a difference to this one.’

May God bless us all with that foolishness.

Dear Friends,

Like everyone who grows fruit and vegetables, my harvest has been affected by the bizarre weather we’ve experienced in recent years.

As an amateur grower of whatever I fancy it’s been a minor inconvenience and a chance to experiment.  I’m fortunate not to depend on my produce for survival. Right now, everything that survived the recent rain seems to have come into its own. Plants I’ve been peering at for months are suddenly growing at an almost alarming rate They almost seem to have forgotten they’re seasonal plants.

Fruit and vegetables are not the only harvest to behave like that. The harvests of our lives can feel the same. We watch, pray and work for a cause or hope that is close to our hearts, seeking to serve God. We seem to wait a long time before things suddenly begin to slot into place – not necessarily as we expected. Or perhaps we’re sure our lives are heading in a certain direction and then something happens, circumstances change, and we’re pushed off course. We still reap a harvest, just not the one we anticipated.

How does this relate to your life?

Has God ever sent you down an unlikely path?

Have your actions ever led to unexpected consequences?

’You reap what you sow,’ says Paul. I pray you will sow love and compassion in your community and reap it tenfold.

A Garden we might plant (Anon, Australia)
First, plant four rows of peas:	Presence; Promptness; Preparation; Perseverance.
Next plant three rows of squash:	Squash gossip; Squash indifference; Squash criticism.
Then, plant five rows of lettuce:	Let us obey rules and regulations; Let us be true to our obligations; Let us be faithful to duty; Let us be loyal and unselfish; Let us love one another.
No garden is complete without turnips:	Turn up at meetings; Turn up with a smile; Turn up with new ideas; Turn up with determination to make everything count for something good and worthwhile.

 

“Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.”

                                                                                                The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

This is the final sentence of the book ‘The Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel. It’s the story of a young Indian boy (Pi Patel) whose father, the owner of a zoo, makes the decision to move with his family to Canada. Unfortunately while on the journey they are shipwrecked and Pi finds himself adrift in the middle of the ocean in a small lifeboat with only a large Bengal tiger (the somewhat improbably named Richard Parker!) for company. After many adventures and an indeterminate period of time Pi and Richard Parker arrive in Mexico where they are taken into custody and questions are raised about Pi’s account of himself and his experiences.

This is only a very vague précis of an interesting book (I recommend it to you!) and there’s much I could say about it in this message. From reading the final line it might be possible to deduce some of what the story is about. At any rate, one might gather that ‘Mr. Patel’ had been shipwrecked and coped at sea for a long time despite the presence of a tiger. However, in order to discover the whole story it would be necessary to read the book from cover to cover many times. Even then I suspect most of us would miss bits!

The saying ‘Never judge a book by its cover’ is as applicable to people as it is to works of fiction. Our media-focused age makes it almost inevitable that every day we will read stories in the news papers or online, or see images on the television, about people or places we know very little about. The challenge not to rapidly draw conclusions based solely on the snippets of information we’ve heard or seen is very real.

Perhaps to a lesser extent we may find the same challenge in our relationships with those who we see everyday.

Reading one line – even the last line – of a novel may give us a taster of what the story is about; but it’s only by sitting down, preferably with a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits, and taking the time to really engage with the whole book that we can hope to get a full picture. So it is with our relationships with one another and those we meet from day to day. Just a brief glance at the gospels is enough to tell us how much Jesus valued open, honest sharing with those he came into contact with. Conversation without judgment. Love without strings.

May we all take the time to sit and listen to one another and so deepen our relationships with each other and with the God who knows the whole story.

Every blessing,

Laura

By the time you read this I will probably be away at Methodist Conference. Conference meets every year and is made up of lay and ordained representatives elected from every district in the country, as well as visitors from further afield. Any Member of the Methodist Church can be elected to Conference, and this is the body that makes major decisions in the Methodist Church.

This isn’t my first Conference, but my experience has been rather odd. In 2017 I was Ordained in Birmingham – well, Wolverhampton actually, there were a number of ordination venues scattered around the area – and stuck around for most of the week out of sheer nosiness. Discovering that it was really quite interesting, I put my name forward as a rep to Conference 2020 for the Southampton District but… you’ve probably already spotted the problem… COVID happened. I was a rep at both the 2020 and 2021 Conferences, both of which happened online!

The work was done, but it wasn’t the same. As is always the case when a group of people with shared interest get together, Conference is a loud, buzzing gathering. Yes, there will be a lot of business – that’s what comes of having a system of consultation rather than one or a few people arbitrarily making decisions; But although the formal business takes place with all due reverence, most of the ‘putting the world to rights’ happens over a cuppa (or something a little stronger?) at the end of the day. Personally, I’m going with a long list of people I ‘really must catch up with’ and expect to come away having seen about half of them, but with a head full of ideas and excitement about where God might be leading the people called Methodists.

Because, make no mistake, God is moving in the national church – not necessarily conventionally, but when has God ever been conventional?

It’s our task to pray, expect God to answer, and then follow God’s lead.

Love and blessings,

Laura