Dear Friends,
As we have said goodbye to the summer, we have now been welcoming the autumn over the last couple of weeks. The leaves on the lime trees down the drive have turned golden and the air has definitely an alpine bite about it. This time of year the Community is also in transition. We have said goodbye to a good number and welcomed a couple of new people to the Community. We would value your prayers during this changing season and your prayers for others to join the Scargill adventure.
We are currently working on the new programme; it will be published, all going well, in the first week of November.
As always we so much appreciate your love and prayers, and if there is anything that you would like us to pray for please email at prayer@scargillmovement.org .
Our new website is now up and running so please check it out.
Below is Di’s latest reflection on the book of Ruth – enjoy!
Diane writes:
Two weeks ago, we started a new series of morning prayers looking at the book of Ruth. Ruth is only four chapters and it is a delight to read, a marvellous story of love and grace – both from a human and a heavenly perspective. It is a sign post to Jesus and there is a happy ending – what more could you want!
Well, what I didn’t want was Chapter 1 v1-5. Probably in literary terms a good opening to a gentle but exciting story – a family tragedy. The family are all named then half of them die! leaving Naomi, whose name refers to the kindness of God, having encountered everything but God’s kindness.
We meet a family displaced by famine, seeking refuge in a foreign land. ‘What initially appears as a practical choice for survival soon turns tragic and we are confronted by a moment of deep grief and uncertainty’ (Chat GPT). Naomi loses her husband and two sons, leaving her in a foreign country without the support of the men who provided for her. She has been abandoned, forsaken even the future must have looked and felt desperate.
Fortunately we know that Naomi will not be left alone. Ruth was prepared to walk beside Naomi and Naomi to walk beside Ruth. They had both felt loss, bereavement, fear of the unknown and loneliness – but they supported each other. And we see this beautifully in the painting Ruth and Naomi ‘Whither Thou Goest’ by Sandy Freckleton Gagon. Ruth with an arm around Naomi’s shoulder holding the billowing cape is sheltering and protecting her against the storms of life. Naomi though is leading the way -staff in hand, her grey hair signalling wisdom and experience. Together, the figures form a unified whole, stronger together perhaps than they would be if they had gone their separate ways.
Phil often talks about lament; he is far more in tune to lament than I am and was determined we would have a lament prayer station in the walled garden, which is absolutely the right thing to have done. The lament station, so well used, allows us to say it is ok to acknowledge the hardship without rushing to a hopeful ending, it is ok to sit with God in our brokenness, trusting that even though we cannot yet see the way forward, He is with us in the sorrow and hurt.
These five opening verses have encouraged me to embrace the honesty of lament and the fact that there those in our communities who need to sit with God. The news daily reminds us that around the world there are many whose lives have been and continue to be besieged by fear and violence, with whole communities living in lament.
So what can we do? As well as prayer, maybe there is an answer in the painting. Albert Camus wrote “Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
Perhaps this what this reflection is all about.
With love and prayers from Phil, Di and the Scargill Community