31st March 2024
Dear Friends,
I love Easter - particularly Easter Day of course! And one of the reasons I love it is that, when we gather together in worship (or, if you're like me, you also listen to worship music at home through headphones) we sing hymns or modern worship songs which are upbeat - a very fitting banishing of winter and the spiritual shadow of Good Friday.
This year, in Locking, we've just led the Easter Assembly at the village Primary School, and the song we used as part of the time together, was the well known Graham Kendrick anthem "Jesus put this song into our hearts" (its 376 in Mission Praise if you want to look it up!).
As you read this, at the end of March, and we move into April, we move from one phase of our Benefices life (the advertising for a new vicar) to the phase of considering the various applications (yes, we're in faith there will be some!) and setting up the parish visits and interviews at the end of April. When a leader leaves, it unveils a question…….are we a cohesive or dysfunctional family? Do we pull together or pull apart?
V2 "Jesus taught us how to live in harmony…different faces….He made us one". How do we instinctively "feel" as a two church benefice? Walking side by side with linked arms? Or playing our own tunes? I can't answer those questions for you, dear readers, but what I can say is that as a Leadership Team, not only do we feel a strong bond between us, but we sense that the absence of a vicar has, if anything, made even clearer the level of unity and love across our Benefice.
And that leaves us with V1 "Jesus put this song into our hearts …… it's a song of joy no-one can take away". The empty tomb on Easter Sunday - the ultimate triumph and shout of freedom for humanity.
Let us rejoice!
Cliff Dumbell
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