News – Page 13

The Benefice Churches
of Epperstone, Gonalston, Oxton and Woodborough

Dear Friends,

Perhaps it is when we get older that time seems to rush by. It doesn`t seem long ago that we talking about Christmas and New Year yet here we are thinking about Lent. It might feel as though we have been in the season of Lent for a very long time. Because of the pandemic we weren’t able to celebrate Easter properly last year and the remainder of the year had a distinctly penitential feel to it, as has the first part of 2021.

There has been so much sadness, grief and loss during these past months and we shall be living the consequences of COVID-19 for years to come. My hope and my prayer, though, is that not all of those consequences will be bad. We are all invited to consider our hope for fullness of life and these days there are many ways to share Lent’s invitation to reflect on our purpose.     

This year the Church of England`s theme Live Lent is God`s Story Our Story. It invites each of us to reflect on our own story of God and how we might share it through our everyday lives as part of our Christian witness. Everyone has a story, an individual story, a past, present and future. The story of God, and your story and mine culminates and is most clearly and fully portrayed in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.   

If there is one lesson that has emerged out of all that has happened in 2020 it is our interdependence on one another. If one part of the community is sick, we are all in trouble. We have all been together on this journey, and it becomes part of our story. Neighbours have done each other’s shopping; we have had to make sacrifices and change our ways of behaving to protect one another. St Paul’s body metaphor for the Church in his message to the Corinthians is relatable to the whole of society “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” So, I hope our new ‘normal’ will see us a little more aware of what it means to be the human family. Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was for unity and oneness. Rich and poor, young and old we are all reliant on one another. The vaccine will only really work if enough of us take it to get the infection rates under control. We take it for ourselves and each other. Each of us has an opportunity in the coming year to help and to heal, to befriend and to bless one another. It is my prayer that as infection rates are brought under control, we may increasingly come together with renewed commitment to the needs of all. May we find joy and gratitude in the smallest of things and may we be one as Jesus intended, as he becomes part of our story.

With every blessing

 Lynn