Dear friends,

When you get to read this we will be celebrating Mothering Sunday, a day which has been lost to the march of time. It came about in the Middle Ages and is traditionally the half way point of Lent. It was a time when the fasting could be broken and also the tradition dictates you should attend your ‘mother church’ or the church in which you were baptised.

Obviously in the post Christendom era which we now inhabit the idea of Mothering Sunday has been grabbed by secular society and turned into a money making initiative, called Mother’s Day. For those wanting to know about post Christendom it is a period where Christianity is no longer the dominant civil religion, and the church is moving from a position of cultural influence to a minority status, requiring a re-evaluation of its role and mission. Sadly in our country only 46% identify as Christian in the 2021 census down from 59% a decade earlier. Now over 37% identify as no religion whatsoever.

So we are half way through Lent, and we prepare ourselves for the final journey through Holy Week, with its trials and tribulations and then ultimate victory. As we head towards Easter Day, we are reminded of God’s love for us, and the fact that God is in charge and can turn darkness into light; can change despair in to hope and there is nothing that happens that God does not see.

As we head towards Easter let us remind ourselves that Christ crucified; buried and risen from death is with us on our spiritual journey. The disciples at the time of Jesus arrest had lost hope. The Messiah was brutally taken from them. This was not how it was supposed to happen. They had made plans of how it was going to be. But they had nothing to fear because God was in charge. The disciples had to learn very quickly what it was like to be without Jesus and they had to find their own way through the Jewish traditions and create a new way of being community that was relevant for the time and supportive of each small community where they gathered.

So it is with the local church – as we are exploring new ways, strange ways for many who yearn for the old days of church. Those days are no longer relevant and just as Jesus died and rose again so we need to look at what we do and why we do it. Is there something which needs to die so that something new can be reborn out of it?

All very scary but the God of Abraham, Moses and all the other prophets, the Father of our risen saviour isn’t done yet. He still has plans for us. As we will celebrate together at Easter let us share the good news with our communities.    

Happy Easter

Mark and Gill