Pastoral Letter - March 2021

Dear Friends

Greetings, as we journey through Lent together. Journeys are not things we are familiar with at present. Covid 19 and its consequences have limited me to circular walks, and the odd visit to the supermarket and the Crematorium (not at the same time). Wouldn’t it be lovely to be going to a big city, or the coast, even more to be visiting the wider family – a proper journey, where you packed a bag and planned a route.

So, in the absence of travel, I’m thinking about Lent as a journey, with Jesus, to Jerusalem. I’m also conscious that as we entered Lent we were given a kind of roadmap, with steps along the way to the lifting of restrictions. Also, personally, I was called in to receive the vaccine on Shrove Tuesday teatime – so instead of pancakes I had the AstraZeneca jab, without sugar and lemon. With the vaccine comes the sense of setting off on a journey to something new, and that feels quite appropriate for Lent.

I do see it as a journey to the new, rather than a return to old ways. Whether we are talking about moving out of lockdown, or following Jesus to his time of testing, we cannot expect the familiar. God is always making things new, and we should find challenge and comfort in that.

As part of the journey out of lockdown I have asked local churches’ Leadership Teams to consider some questions:

• How might our congregation have changed over the last year (e.g, numbers, volunteers, confidence, and experience of worship)?
• What kind of balance of paper/on-line/face-to-face opportunities for worship might be necessary going forward?
• What kind of pattern and frequency of face-to-face worship opportunities would we seek to provide (e.g. monthly, fortnightly, weekly, Sunday, midweek, joining with another church)?
• How might we consult our members? How might we start small to test the water, and then develop?
• What new things might we do?

Perhaps you might give some thought to these questions too?

At the same time, the Circuit Leadership Team is working to determine the right strategy as we move forward together. We did some work with the Circuit Meeting in December on zoom, and this continues. The strategy headlines we see emerging are fourfold:

• Outward focus – our calling to serve our neighbours, share the gospel, grow the faith.
• Inward focus – our calling to grow as disciples, develop our spirituality, be people of prayer.
• Viability – our calling to live as church in ways that are honest and caring and kind to one another.
• Online development and investment – our calling to use and develop new ways of being church.

Can I ask you to pray about these things, and to pray for those in leadership in church and circuit. These are not easy times, with a collective tiredness brought about by the inability to journey to places and, more importantly, people who matter to us. Pray that, despite all the weariness and uncertainties of these days, we will have confidence in God’s enduring love, and find strength and peace in God’s gracious presence on the road.

Every blessing,
Nick.