Dear Friends
This latest letter comes with much love and prayers. The COVID crisis has become more complicated and restrictive for many of us so please know that we hold you before Jesus in our Chapel prayers, in whatever the circumstances that you face, especially as we enter what is going to be a challenging winter. The importance of connectedness and relationships, where love can be shared, warmth experienced, even if it is in Zoom land, will be so important in the months to come. Let us know if there is anything we can pray for by emailing – prayer@scargillmovement.org
Please check out our online programme here. There will be something that will be nourishing and warming for you during these days ahead.
You will also find the links to our ongoing free quiet days and forums here.
There is also an addition to the programme! We are delighted and excited that Bridget and Adrian Plass will be with us in December helping us discover ‘Laughter in no man’s land’ here. I love the title.
There are many other thought provoking and relevant courses and good speakers, John Bell, just to mention one, so please have a look. We would love to see you and hopefully be an encouragement!
And talking of encouragement – here is Di’s latest reflection – enjoy!
Diane writes:
Queuing – The British like to queue, or we like to think we like to queue. We like to think we are better than most other countries at queuing and when living in London if anyone dared to ‘jump the queue’ they were very much frowned upon.
On Thursday last week at the Forum, which, by the way, I enjoyed very much, Gordon, in our breakout group, mentioned queuing and the great conversations he had. Sadly, for me this has not always been the case. There have been times when the 2m distance, the muffled speech and apparent deafness, that comes from wearing a mask, has made queuing a very quiet and perhaps anxious affair. We are left trying to communicate with our eyes, which is almost impossible, so we smile and nod to one another BUT there is hope: Mother Teresa wrote “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” I’m learning to smile with my eyes!
Queuing reminded me of a woodcutting by Fritz Eichenberg (1951) called The Christ of the Breadline and the nights when Phil and I would go down to Charing Cross station to serve homemade soup to the homeless. Here we see Jesus Christ standing in line at a soup kitchen, waiting with the rest of the Homeless for His turn to be served. In front of Him and behind Him are other scruffy people, hands in their pockets, wrapped up in thread bare layers, anxiously waiting for food, a meal they couldn’t prepare for themselves. They’re all together, the riff-raff, the vagrants and the homeless.
This though is not a typical portrayal of Jesus. Here Paul Luikart notes Eichenberg’s Jesus is weak, wrapped in a blanket. He’s entirely in shadow and like the ‘riff-raff’ stands silent and still. They stand, with the Lord of the universe in their midst, motionless in their deep poverty and hunger, wanting the same thing He wants—rest, fulfilment, and an end to suffering. Although Jesus is the central figure, and the only source of light in the entire image is His halo, the details are with those in the soup kitchen line standing with Jesus and not Jesus Himself. Paul Luikart also observes, ‘they can only be seen by the light of His crown.’ An interesting thought.
Jesus has come for all of us, every one of us, the whole world. Jesus is here with us, the question is, where will we find him? Today in 2020, in a year so full of turbulence how will we meet Jesus in the here and now? Will we meet Jesus in our queues? As we queue will others meet Jesus in us?
Remember Mother Teresa said: “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”
May Jesus our Hope be with us during these difficult days.
With love from