Dear Friends
This comes, as always, with much love and prayers.
We would like to thank you for joining us on the day of prayer for new community. During the day, praying in the Chapel, there was a sense of well-being – acknowledging that God very much had this in His hands. Since the day of prayer there have been some green shoots with some enquiries to join community which is looking hopeful.
Di’s reflection this week is centred around the wonder of creation, how we are so much part of it and how we are called to love it.
I have just returned from an A Rocha Partners-in-action retreat and the forthcoming COP26 in Glasgow was a major topic in our conversations. A Rocha are going to be at the conference and, needless to say, we will be holding the conference in our prayers throughout the two weeks which starts on Sunday 31st October. We will be trying our best to put reflections, prayers and updates onto our website and Facebook page.
Our next online Quiet Day is on Saturday 20th November, reflecting on Christ the King.
In the House, there are still opportunities to book residentially for:
Mon 1st – Thu 4th Nov Fuzzy Church: Exploring Gospel and Culture in the North of England
Fri 12th – Sun 14th Nov Time for Justice (also online)
Fri 12th – Sun 14th Nov Divorce Recovery Workshop
Tue 16th – Thu 18th Nov Church Leaders’ Retreat led by ReSource (also online)
Our new programme, which will take us from beginning of March to end of August 2022, should be with you by the end of November.
The Wednesday Evening Prayer Livestream services will continue for the foreseeable future.
Diane writes:
This month Glasgow will host COP26, the United Nations climate change conference. And it feels that we have reached a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change.
So here is my aboriginal painting entitled Creation by Jeremy Devitt Wunongmurra, which I bought when visiting Phil’s sister in Australia. Placing this photo out in the garden not only brings the painting to life it also reminds us that creation is all around us. Yes even in the cities; although it was difficult to find a city backdrop in our garden! ‘God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning–the sixth day.’ Genesis 1 v 31
The background of this painting is full of muted colours, really quite beautiful, and if you follow the spiral into the middle there is a flower in full bloom with its petals reaching out into the world, sadly they seem to become distorted the further out you look. Well, that’s what I can see! The Aboriginals believe that the entire world was made by their Ancestors, way back in the very beginning of time, the Dreamtime. They have a profound spiritual connection to land. Tom Dystra an Aboriginal elder says ‘We cultivate our land, but in a different way from white man. We endeavour to live with the land; they seem to live off it’. Sadly I think this is true, hopefully this is what COP26 will try to address.
And that is not all, I remember being excited when I first unrolled the painting and saw on the back much more than I had expected. Jeremy wants to give us a sense of his rich heritage, of what makes him who he is and his paintings what they are. Jeremy “Mudjai” Devitt is descendent of the Nganyaywana, Daingutti (Dhanggatti) and Gumbainga (Gumbaynggir) nations and has English, Irish and Scottish heritage. He also tells us his skin name which is inherited at birth and forms part of a broader kinship system that spans across Australia. This kinship system dictates daily life, social relationships and responsibilities, rights to land, ceremony and Dreamings, and of course, the Aboriginal artworks they share. (ARTARK)
“Mudjai” is written in the palm of, presumably, Jeremy’s hand and in Isaiah 43 we read “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” And later in Chapter 49, ‘I (God) have written your name on the palms of my hands.’ He has called us by name and made us his very own beloved children. I began to think what would I write? What makes me tick, what makes me who I am? Is there a rich heritage to be found? Well, for me, family is important, very important. Not only my familial family but also in knowing I belong to the family of God. Surely there can be no richer inheritance! ‘You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.’ Ephesians 2
And being fellow citizens brings us back to Creation. In Genesis 2 v 15 we read ‘Humans were placed in the Garden of Eden and instructed to ‘work it and take care of it’. In other words, God has given us the responsibility to act as stewards of his creation – to care for, manage, oversee and protect all that God owns. Which does not give us free licence to exploit and abuse God’s earth. No! God commissions us to rule over the creation in a way that sustains, protects, and enhances his works so that all creation may fulfil the purposes God intended for it.
We must learn to manage the environment not simply for our own benefit but for God′s glory. Perhaps we must learn to ‘live with the land not off it.’
With much love and prayers from