Dear Friends
Autumn is coming to the Dales. The trees on the estate are beginning to change colour with beautiful bronze and golden colours, and we are also getting our fair share of rain!
The building work is going well with the work currently focusing on the Marsh Lounge roof. The other parts of Phase 7 (front of the old house, woodland car park, new sewage plant and widening of the entrance ) are making progress and work has started on the Walled Garden walls. Lots going on! Please continue to pray for all those who come on site that they may experience the love of God, and our ongoing good relationships with them.
This Autumn Community has changed shape. We are delighted to welcome Sarah who joins the Admin team, Annie, Chaplain, who will be on the Pastoral and House teams, and John who is on the Kitchen and Estate teams.
We are still looking for new members of the Community who can be a lead on worship and youth – Job Descriptions are here. We are also looking urgently for a new Community member to join the Personnel team. Please do pray with us for the right people to join the Scargill adventure.
We would also value your prayers for St Oswald’s Community (many of you will remember Jackie, Paul and Michyla).This Community was founded in partnership between Scargill and the Sisters of the Order of the Holy Paraclete Whitby (OHP). This was to continue and develop the ministry of the sisters at St Oswald’s Pastoral Centre which they own. OHP, due to their own financial difficulties, have decided to sell St Oswald’s – this has not been an easy decision for them. This obviously puts in jeopardy the life of this fledgling Community and a beautiful ministry of hospitality that has been so well received by those who stay. Please pray for the Community and their Trustees (Phil is Chair of Trustees) as they discern a life giving and creative way forward in a future that is uncertain – here is a link to their website
Here is Di’s latest reflection on the gift of colour – enjoy!
A Bit of Colour (by Anonymous)
Grey was the morn, all things were grey,
‘Twas winter more than spring;
A bleak east wind swept o’er the land,
And sobered everything.
Grey was the sky, the fields were grey,
The hills, the woods, the trees –
Distance and foreground – all the scene
Was grey in the grey breeze.
Grey cushions, and a grey skin rug,
A dark grey wicker trap,
Grey were the ladies’ hats and cloaks,
And grey my coat and cap.
A narrow, lonely, grey old lane;
And lo, on a grey gate,
Just by the side of a grey wood,
A sooty sweep there sat!
With grimy chin ‘twixt grimy hands
He sat and whistled shrill;
And in his sooty cap he wore
A yellow daffodil.
And often when the days are dull,
I seem to see him still –
The jaunty air, the sooty face –
And the yellow daffodil.
Recently Margi and I led an Enneagram course away from Scargill and we were given an Airbnb for our stay. It was a small 2 up / 2 down very clean, neat and tidy. What struck me the most was the grey sofa, grey blinds, grey curtains, grey carpets. The grey kitchen, grey bed, grey bed linen, even a grey garden path leading to grey wicker chairs. BUT there was a vase with white silk flowers and, yes you’ve guessed it – green leaves. HOORAY a touch of colour!
Without colour life has been described as ’a dull canvas’ – without vibrancy – monotonous – dull. And to be honest I found the house oppressive, hanging my red pinafore dress not in the wardrobe but on the back of the door to give me a splash of colour. A splash of colour that I believe many of us need in these disturbing and difficult times. Colour reminds me of God. Look around you. The world, both the rural and city are full of colour. Life itself is full of colour – in the characters we meet along the way, the places we visit, the conversations we have. God’s world is not black and white and ours shouldn’t be either.
Bringing colour in to our lives is bringing God into our life. God has given us, his children, a precious gift of vivid colours for us to enjoy. And enjoying life is central to all that happens here at Scargill; whilst our official colour is blue I am convinced we radiate yellow which is the perfect colour for laughter and is associated with joy, happiness, and humour or perhaps orange which is the colour of comfort and warmth, playfulness and social interaction. Maybe red which represents love or green which is all around us bringing springtime, freshness, and hope. Perhaps the colours of Scargill should be the colours of the rainbow a symbol of God’s promise to all.
We know there are times when the colours we encounter are grey or black or red or purple . . . the hard things of life. But then by faith we know that like ‘the jaunty air and the yellow daffodil’ God’s presence is still here, all the time, within all and all around, whether we see Him or not. Perhaps this is the time to remember that often a stormy grey sky holds a rainbow high for us all to see.
We have a choice, we can choose the positive and see all the colours set out before us, or we can choose negative and live in a perpetual storm of grey. We can choose friends who bring us down or friends who help us see an orange sunset when colour eludes us. Allen Klein wrote ‘Your attitude is like a box of crayons that colour your world. Constantly colour your picture grey, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colours to the picture by including humour, and your picture begins to lighten up.’ And this can be a beacon to others – the way we get through challenges and live out our lives in the love of Christ, can make a significant and lasting impact as they too begin to look for the colour in their lives.
Historically, I would have instinctively seen things in black or white, in shades of grey, in the negative rather than the positive, in the half-empty rather than half-full glass. I have learnt to work at choosing to have fun, to unlock my stuffy personality and stop being as reserved and self-conscious as I naturally am. To let the bold and funny side of me out and wear my purple dress! In fact to be more alive, more fully the person God intended me to be.
Why not today join me in bringing the colours of the rainbow alive however we are, wherever we are.
With love and prayers from