Dear Friends,
We continue to value your prayers and support especially during this time of transition.
We are excited to say that the Director’s post has been re-advertised. Here is the link. Please do pass this on to anyone you think would be suited for this role. The closing date for applications is Friday 20th March. The interviews will take place from Tuesday 5th to Thursday 7th May.
If anyone would like to have a conversation about the role, we would be pleased to hear from you (email: phil@scargillmovement.org).
Please also see our advert for a Community Support Lead which is also a very important role within Community. Again, if you know anyone who would be interested in this post do pass the link onto them.
We would like to thank all of you who have been joining in using our Community prayer for a new Director, and we very much value you joining with us on Tuesdays and Saturdays to pray it together. Of course, we would love it if you pray it every day!
Gracious God, we thank you for Scargill,
a place where lives are shared and transformed,
where Community is celebrated in Jesus’ name.
We thank you for your generous provision over the years,
and we look in faith and hope to what the future holds.
In this time of transition and change,
we choose to keep our eyes on you,
and we believe that you will bring your chosen person to lead the Community.
Stir up within them the call to join the adventure.
Come Holy Spirit,
release us from our anxious thoughts,
hold us in your love and joy,
and help us to be courageous as we journey with you.
In Jesus’ name. Amen
Please find below Di’s reflection on Jesus’ Baptism. Enjoy!
Icons are intended to serve as a window into the divine rather than as a mere piece of art and in the Eastern Orthodox tradition icons are viewed as ‘a reality, a truth, belonging to the entire church; speaking to all believers’, and this icon spoke to me; I hope it will to you too.
I first stumbled across it when Phil and I were leading a ‘Picturing the Gospel’ weekend last year. It immediately drew me in, stilled my mind and I felt I was encountering a sacred moment, a moment with Jesus. Perhaps, even a moment with the Trinity.
I feel sure that the bold areas of beautiful blues, green and turquoise depicting the waters of baptism create a calmness that is only enhanced by the orange circles indicating the presence of divinity. Onlookers stand aside, but they too appear calm and also have orange elements. One is pointing towards Jesus, perhaps even moving towards him or are they representing those who live on the margins who like John the Baptist felt unworthy to be baptising Jesus.
There is the Jordan River running vertically through the painting, connecting the action of Jesus’ baptism to a seemingly endless sea of water that appears to me, to be gently replenished by the Holy Spirit, which I have to be honest and say looks like a Spitfire. Now, me being me, I began trying to think what symbolic significance this could have!! Probably best not to, but I did.
If, as I believe, this icon is a window into the divine and all three persons of the Trinity are present, then Jesus is there in the flesh, the Holy Spirit hovering at the top with God’s voice saying ‘loud and clear ‘This is my son in whom I am well pleased’’ Could the loud voice of God be seen in the spitfire after all? There again perhaps not! Anyway, as well as the colour it is the minimalistic element, the removal of less important details, ornaments and decorations that help to create the sacred essence of the moment.
This icon is about inviting me back to the heart of worship, where I can stand /sit before Christ, as I am, no pretence, no excuses, as little clutter as possible, no list of failures, no preconceived ideas about what prayer should be or how I should feel or who God is. Just standing or sitting in God’s presence open to the sacredness of the moment. Yes, just a moment or two or three, not necessarily long.
For Jan 21st in ‘Loving God Whatever Through the Year with Sister Jane’ I read:
‘….. it is the experience of open, empty givenness to God……It is in your own prayer, trying to receive God as he is and not as we suppose him, that we shall learn the heart of what we need to about making relationships.’
Each day holds out the opportunity for us to re-immerse ourselves in God, to discover again his love and his grace and all the potential life can offer. Each day holds a sacred moment with God for each of us.
With love and prayers from Phil, Di and the Scargill Community