Thank you for love and support which we so very much appreciate. Thank you to those who joined the online prayer and praise meeting last week – it was a great encouragement to have many ‘screens’ joining us!

We have much for which to be thankful here at Scargill. The building work is going well with the extensive refurbishment of the Marsh Lounge. The Old House bedroom windows have now been replaced and are looking wonderful and the roof tiles have been re-laid. Please continue to pray for the building work and our ongoing good relationship with the Contractors and all that come on site, and pray that they may know the love and peace of Jesus while with us.

The Community continues to change. We had a wave of new Community join us within a fortnight! The Community is just over 30 and I will say more about that in the next newsletter. This week though we say goodbye to Fernanda who has been an amazing Community member. She returns back to Brazil this coming week and we will miss her loving joyful presence.

The other big news with Community is that Helen Cook will be leaving us in September. Helen has been with us for 4 1/2 years leading and co-ordinating our worship and music which many of you have really appreciated. Helen will be begin training to become a Methodist Deacon at Queen’s College Birmingham. We will miss her and we have very much valued her contribution to Community life.

With Wendy (see previous newsletter) and Helen leaving, we have two significant roles that need filling in coordinating youth and music, as well as their valuable contributions to the Admin and Personnel Teams. Please pray for us about this – the adverts are here and please pass them onto those you think would be interested.

Shaun has written a wonderful article, ‘The upwelling of the Holy Spirit’ you can find here.

And here is Di’s latest reflection on a beautiful painting, ‘Grace before Meal’ – enjoy!

‘Grace Before Meal’ painted in 1875 by Franz Defregger (1835-1921) can be seen in the Museum der Blilenden Kunstw  Austria. I think it is a most beautiful painting of a mother or perhaps even a grandmother encouraging her grandchildren/children to say grace with their mother standing by. You can’t see much of her face but there is the sense of an older person smiling as they gently hold the child’s hands in prayer. There is pride as each child, hands clasped together, show their youngest sibling how to pray.  A busy yet peaceful painting with the dog joining in and the chickens already feasting.

In Matthew 19:13-15 we read:
‘People brought little children to Jesus, for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer. The disciples turned them away, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children alone, and do not stop them coming to me; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’ Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way.’

Last weekend Phil and I were ‘down south’ visiting family, the main reason to go was sharing in the dedication of two of our grandchildren on the Sunday. It was a real joy to be there and feel very much part of the promises the parents, god-parents, us and the church family made. There was a deep conviction that the responsibility for nurturing these two boys was a collective task. We had all been commissioned to care for, nurture and pray for them. What a responsibility and one not to be taken lightly.

Then this week in my search for a painting I came across an article by Loren Marks and David C. Dollahite and Laura Mckeighen which first appeared in Public Square Magazine in 2022 and was entitled, ‘Will My Kids Keep the Faith? Parents’ Hopes and Children’s Choices’.

Early in the article they write, ‘Among all the many things parents aspire for in a child, one of the strongest desires and greatest dreams of many parents is that their faith will be passed down.’

As a parent with a deep faith it was really important to me that my children grew up with an understanding of what I believe in. Not because I wanted to control them or dictate how they should live their lives but because I wanted them to know the freedom, acceptance and love that comes from being a Christian and following Jesus.  As a parent and now a grandparent I have wanted to equip all our children and grandchildren to be resilient, to stand up for what they believe and to be bold enough to be different at times. This means they may walk away from faith and, if so, we must let them be. Our task now is to keep on praying for them, keep on loving them with the hope that after exploring for themselves they will come back to the faith in which they grew up in.

As Anne Frank wrote in The Diary of a Young Girl,“Parents can only give good advice or put their children on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” How wise and from such a young person.

Soon after a lovely lunch we started the journey home leaving our grandchildren confident in the knowledge that they would be well nurtured and loved, not only by their parents but also by all those who had stood with us that morning.

With love and prayers from

Phil, Di and the Scargill Community

What excites me about the new Peregrini Community is their commitment to live by the unforced rhythms of grace (Matthew 11:28 from The Message). As they say in their little booklet, ‘it denotes a series of aspirational statements that, when embraced, will nurture spiritual growth, foster Christian discipleship and enable missional encounter.’

So, here are the 5 rhythms which all begin with ‘By God’s grace….:

– I will seek to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.

– I will be open to the presence, guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.

– I will set aside time for prayer, worship and spiritual reading.

– I will endeavour to be a gracious presence in the world, serving others and working for justice in human relationships and social structures.

– I will sensitively share my faith with others: participating in God’s mission both locally and globally.

Aren’t these just brilliant?

I have been thinking about The Message’s wonderful translation of Matthew 11:28 – living by the unforced rhythms of grace. I love it – but what does it mean?

I think we get an idea of what it means when we look at the baptism of Jesus as we glimpse the wonder of the Trinity. It is by God’s grace we are called to join in with the glorious love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which is a community of self-giving love and joy. The early Christian Fathers used to describe the life of the Trinity as a round dance – a sort of Godly Celidh! It doesn’t matter if we have two left feet for we are all invited to participate. Thank goodness we are not talking ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ expertise here. As David Runcorn says, “it is a dance that is wholly possible because the life of the Trinity is one of pure giving. Nothing is claimed, nothing is demanded, nothing is grasped”.

It is this unforced rhythm of grace that you and I are called into. It is creative, full of self-giving love, and fun. Let’s do it!