Dear Scargillians
This week has been really cold, and snow still covers the hills around us, but we are now starting to see many snowdrops – the promise of spring, as they are a sign of hope.
It has been a joy and a comfort to connect with you during these challenging times, and we are glad to announce our next programme which takes us up to Palm Sunday weekend. Please do have a look, you will find both short retreats and programmed events, as well as our regular Forum and Quiet Days. We are very thankful to work with such speakers as Bridget and Adrian Plass, Bishop Chris Edmondson, David Runcorn and Russ Parker.
This coming week is Half Term which is always the most challenging of them all, and never more so than it is during lockdown. So, please do look up our Half Term activities based on C.S. Lewis’ ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ – there are plenty of fun activities to be involved in including a cook-along.
We had our first Crafternoon this weekend, which people really enjoyed, and our next one is going to be on Saturday 27th February at 3pm. Please e-mail hello@scargillmovement.org if you would like to be involved.
Last year we journeyed through Lent through the first lockdown, and here we are, a year later, starting Lent in lockdown 3. Who would have thought?
Below is Di’s reflection as we approach Ash Wednesday. Enjoy!
Diane writes:
Can you believe it? Lent starts this week with Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, so perhaps we should be thinking about depriving ourselves of some small pleasure or indulgence and offer that sacrifice up to God.
Here is a painting by Carl Spitzweg entitled “Ash Wednesday”. At first glance the painting and the title do not seem to match. Here is a ‘mardi-gras’ clown sitting in a prison cell after a nights revelling. He has perhaps woken up to the painful reality of pushing the spirit of Mardi Gras a bit too far and gets to spend Ash Wednesday in jail. The downcast carnival clown is seated in the corner of a cell with head bent and arms crossed. There is no clowning around here! No laughing at life or ignoring of the rules. Despondent perhaps but there is also hope. The clown is bathed in light from an upper window; perhaps this prison cell has ‘become a place of retreat, repentance, and conversion’. The dark archway, directly across from the clown, shows us where he has come from however the window above lets in the light, and the rays point the way upward, inviting the clown towards a change of direction from darkness to light. (Daniella Zsupan-Jerome on Loyolapress)
As a child I was brought up attending our lively Congregational church, I have no memories of either a Shrove Tuesday or Ash Wednesday service, although warm memories of eating many pancakes – with lemon and sugar, of course! And we did often talk about ‘giving something up’ for Lent; I have to admit mine often contained a ‘figure changing’ element rather than a spirit enhancing one! But it has occurred to me that during this past year we as individuals and as a nation have already given up so much that it would be difficult to think how this tradition would be of any benefit.
Thinking about this the bridegroom passage from Matthew 9 came to mind where Jesus says to his disciples “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?”, as I have mentioned in an earlier reflection ‘God is not elsewhere’, that must in turn mean that God is here with us right now, so perhaps this is not the time to fast. Perhaps this Lent is the time to become aware of the bridegroom’s presence through spending time with Him, quality time, getting to know him, getting to recognise His presence.
And I’m thinking (again), can we, like the clown, have a change of direction, but unlike the clown can we move from a penitential Lent, to one where we are free to treat ourselves, free to be kind to ourselves and free to invite God into our lives. Because God cares for our souls, but he also cares about our bodies and physical welfare. Our bodies are given to us to do God’s work. As Christians taking caring of our bodies is therefore taking care of the place where the Holy Spirit dwells (Patrick van der Vorst -12.2.21). As we open up time to spend with God we can begin to open our hearts, our whole selves and our whole lives back to Him. And surely this is what Lent is all about.
P.S. Phil has just read this and rejoices that chocolate remains a possibility!!
With love and prayers