Dear Scargillians
We pray that your new year has started well and this comes with much love and prayers from the Community.
We have just finished a closed period, with our own retreat, fun and training together, which was very enriching.
Although we have had a couple of Community leaving at the end of their contract, we are glad to say that we have some new Community joining, as well as some people on sabbatical. Please continue to pray for new Community to join us.
We open our doors today to the first of our two Friends’ and Companions’ weekends. Next weekend’s event is open for folk to join us online, and if you wanted to join us online you would be very welcome – check it out on our website here.
We have resumed our online Wednesday Evening Prayer services, back to Wednesdays from next week 18th January (4:30pm start), and we also have an online Quiet Day on Thursday 26th January. You can find these via our website.
Shaun Lambert has written an article for the Baptist Times reflecting on the year that has passed: 2022 – A Year of Symbolic Loss and Fatalism…- see it here.
Here is Di’s reflection – Enjoy!
Diane writes:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8).
Last week in mornings prayers Dave mentioned God’s holiness and, although we may sing about it, holiness is not often forefront in our conversations, well mine anyway!
This reminded me that for quite a while now I have been using these opening lines of The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father in heaven,
May your name be kept holy
I also recalled that, recently driving to Grassington I was so struck by the beauty of the sun rising that I stopped and took this photo. To be honest I’m not sure why it had such an impact on me, the world was cold and still, it was early, I was alone. But it was a wow factor, an awe and wonder moment when I felt very close to God and that God felt immense. This greatness being along the lines of God perceiving all things (Omniscient), being present everywhere (Omnipresent) and possessing infinite power (Omnipotent). I had to look these up! Here was God’s holiness.
Of course we love the idea that God is with us, here amongst His people but we also need to remember that God is beyond our everyday experience, he is beyond our ordinary – back to Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent. God’s holiness means that he is sinless, He is absolutely and purely good. Only God is perfectly holy. God is love. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). This should fill us with reverence and awe, I do hope so!
So should the fact that God’s also requires His people to be holy. We are called to be like him. We too have been set apart. Jesus’ call to follow him is much more than an invitation to simply pray with him or to him. It is a call to follow him with our whole lives, meaning we have to lose the lives we think we want to have and find new life within him.
Our being made holy by God takes place in love. Every day we can re- experience God’s love for us, and we can express our love for Him in return. Every day we can participate in, contribute to, the holiness of God. Which I believe is summed up and hopefully lived out, in the greatest command Jesus gave us – ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other greater commandment.’ Mark 12:30-31
Perhaps it was through the Holy Spirit that I recognised God’s holiness that morning, perhaps it was the Holy Spirit that drew me to the line ‘May your name be kept holy’. Perhaps it is the Holy Spirit encouraging me to encourage us all to keep God’s name holy. There is a greatness to God beyond my comprehension with the implication that somehow we are called to keep His name holy.
As the sun has risen on a new year – it is January 1st 2023. What a wonderful way to start the year recognising God holiness, His greatness and His love. His love for you and for me and for all those we walk alongside.
With love and prayers from