Dear friends, As I write to you this month, I’m looking out of the window over a snow covered garden. Winter has definitely been present with us the last few weeks, and the cold days and nights have made it difficult for a number of our members. Not only is the cold more challenging, icy […]
Dear friends, For the past few years, I’ve written a short ‘End of Year’ summary of the year that’s past; its highs and lows, and things to look forward to in the year to come. It gives me a chance to reflect on what has been, and to be hopeful for things that might be […]
Dear friends, Over the past few weeks, from my desk I’ve watched the trees lose their leaves and turn themselves into barren silhouettes in the garden. The rich rainbow of colours that came in early autumn have been replaced by the bare branches and naked twigs of winter. Everything seems to have gone into shutdown […]
Dear friends, This is the third of my musings based on the sermon I shared in August. In the sermon, I suggested that the Church exists for three reasons: to wrestle with God (as Jacob wrestled with God); to feed the needy (as Jesus did to the multitudes); and to give hope to the world. […]
Dear Friends, After thinking in last month’s letter about what it means to wrestle with God, my focus in this month’s musing picks up on the second theme I raised in August’s communion service – that of the Church as a place to feed the needy. We can immediately think of this as an act […]
Dear Friends, Over the past year or more, we’ve spent much time thinking about what it is that we might see ourselves doing as a Church. That’s been timely with my arrival – but also an opportunity as a Church to consolidate thinking and resources, to take a look at what is possible and to […]
Dear friends This Summer I’ve run my first race since I left school. It wasn’t a big race – it was only 5km (3.1miles) – but it needed me to prepare and to get myself ready for the activity. While the distance was longer than one of the traditional sprints, it was far from the […]
Dear friends On one of the windows of my study, there was recently the ghostly outline of a bird’s wing, left when an unfortunate pigeon got confused and flew into the glass. It had left a white silhouette outline of a single wing, enough to show that it had been there, but not enough to […]
Dear friends, At the beginning of June we mark the celebration of Pentecost. This festival highlights the birthday of the Church – when the Holy Spirit came upon the people and they were given the ability to speak in tongues to all manner of people, with those present each recognising one another speaking in their […]
Dear friends If you’ve tried to leave Whitley Bay by road at any time in the past year or so, it won’t have escaped your attention that a large number of our roads have been under some form of redevelopment or another. In some places this has been minor, while in others some considerable construction […]
