| Dear Friends, Di and I and the whole Community would like to wish you a joy-filled Easter. In this newsletter there are three sections! Firstly, Andy Arnold, Chair of Trustees, shares what the current position is on finding a new Director and how you can continue to pray with us during this season. Next, we are pleased to announce a Scargill Tour running Friday 17th to Monday 20th April which involves Rob Halligan (songwriter musician), Andreas and Anna Weister-Andersson (musicians and former Community members) and myself (Phil Stone). The Tour is an opportunity to share something of the life of Scargill through song, conversation and laughter. Each of the evenings are free entry with a voluntary donation, The Tour dates are in Coventry, Greater Manchester, Bradford and York. See the poster for timings and venues information. Please do share the poster and information widely – spread the word! We very much look forward to catching up with some of you at what should be enjoyable and fun evenings together. Thirdly, but definitely not least, is Di’s reflection on ‘prayer’. Enjoy! Phil and Di Stone, and the Scargill Community |
| Current position on finding a new Director – from Andy Arnold, Chair of Council Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for the appointment of the next Director for Scargill. You will no doubt be surprised and saddened to know that after the last round of advertising, we did not receive any applications. However, we are not disheartened nor giving up! We had planned a Council and Community Day for Thursday 26 March, the day before we were hoping to shortlist. The morning was led by Adrian and Bridget Plass, who have been part of the Scargill Adventure since the resurrection in 2009. As always they brought both wisdom and humour as they shared memories and reflections on the past sixteen years since Phil and Di Stone were appointed. In the afternoon Phil S. enabled us to share with one another our feelings, our questions and our responses to the position we found ourselves in. Far from being anxiety laden the tone was positive, hopeful, expectant and trusting that God was in charge and Scargill was secure in his hands. Several community members reflected afterwards what a good day it had been and how excited they were to see what would happen next. Instead of the shortlisting meeting planned for the Friday, the shortlisting group spent the morning reflecting and praying with leaders from the community. This was, of course, the beginning of an ongoing conversation as we began to explore the way forward. We have fixed a time for this group to meet together again at the beginning of May in order to decide a proposal to take to Council later that month. It is too soon to share details at this point but once again it was a very positive and creative time as we listened to one another and, we believe, to God. Please continue to pray for all the work that needs to be done between now and then, for the community as they move towards a time of transition and especially for Phil and Di as they prepare to leave. Talking of Phil and Di leaving, if you have not yet written something on the Kudoboard (https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/v4rgXfja) or sent in a contribution towards their leaving gift, the deadline for this is the end of April. Gifts can be sent to: Barclays Bank, Account Name: Scargill Movement, Sort Code: 20-78-42, Account Number: 33810402, Reference: Phil & Di Gift. Thank you to everyone who has given so far. You have been very generous. |
Diane reflects on ‘prayer’
Yesterday, on our day off, I was at long last going through a huge pile of correspondence that had been building up since Christmas and I came upon this poem by R S Thomas. It was just there on the table, I had no idea where or from whom it came from but there it was and, as I read, it began to speak into my soul, into how I was feeling, into where my belief, my faith is at the moment.
Corinna Laughlin writes, ‘Thomas playfully evokes the hard work that prayer is sometimes, and how elusive God can seem. Only by recalling that “movement of a curtain,” that sense of God’s presence, do we keep going, keep tossing gravel at the window like Rapunzel’s prince, and longing for union.’
R. S. Thomas, “Folktale” (1986)
Prayers like gravel
flung at the sky’s
window, hoping to attract
the loved one’s
attention. But without
visible plaits to let
down for the believer
to climb up,
to what purpose open
that far casement?
I would
have refrained long since
but that peering once
through my locked fingers
I thought that I detected
the movement of a curtain.
[Part of a painting by Johannes or Jan Vermeer entitled Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, c. 1662 which is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.]
As we continue to pray for Scargill Community and the appointment of a new Director may I leave you to ponder this poem, and maybe our ‘locked fingers’ in prayer will once again ‘detect the movement of the curtain’.
Bless you,
Diane