|
Dear friends
I guess many of you are planning times away during school holidays to nice places with sea and sand or mountains and adventures. Or maybe you’re among the lucky folk who don’t need to be constrained by term times to enjoy some time away and luxuriate in the empty roads in July and August and simply spend time at home?
Whatever you’re doing, life often does seem better and more fun when the sun is shining and the days are long. In Northern Norway where we holidayed in June, this is exaggerated to an extraordinary degree, so that we saw the sun at midnight and had to remind ourselves it was really time to sleep. Yet in winter those same places have no sun above the horizon from as early as mid-November until January. Can you imagine how hard it is to hold to an ordinary daily routine when even the middle of the day exists only in a hazy dusk, and the majority of the time is spent in darkness?
The image of light permeates many of the ways in which we express our faith: the flame of the Holy Spirit, the light of Christ, our faith shining out as a light in the darkness, our deeds as beacons to draw others into the community of faith. We remember those whose minds are closed to God as living in some sort of darkness – a place in which they can lose their way morally and emotionally. I hope that all of us would want to bring light to those around us. This could be by explaining the joy of our faith to them, or simply by sharing our love and friendship with them. We can do this personally, and we can do it as a church family.
The churches in Shoreham, Lancing and Southwick got together recently to discuss ways in which we can contribute to the ‘Big Society’ we hear so much about. I think we concluded that there was very little that was new in this concept and churches have been doing it for centuries! We don’t have always to be thinking about bringing people to church in order to offer God’s light to them. It could be that by doing something together in and for our local community we can be increasing the light without actually preaching the Christian message in words.
Lancing Churches Together are helping to challenge poverty locally through the provision of a Food Bank for those on the breadline. Brighton and Hove churches are offering loving and peaceful support to the night-time revellers who may have put themselves at risk from too much partying, through the Street Pastors. In Shoreham, we would like to be seen to be offering something practical to people on the margins – no strings attached. Whether it’s shelter for the homeless, or support for those in debt, we hope that a practical project can be found over which we can co-operate and offer help to people in our locality that will really make a difference and demonstrate what our faith is all about.
We also discussed the fact that many church members quietly get on with doing this anyway, through being involved as a volunteer in a local project – such as Worthing Churches Homeless Projects. Perhaps you have an idea of ways in which we could do this? Why not write about it in Shore Line next month and share your thoughts and experiences? Who knows, it may inspire more people to volunteer and really put their Christian faith into practice.
Have a wonderful time over the summer, and keep spreading that light around!! With love - Gail
| |
|
