On Tuesday 10^th June, 8-9pm we will be having a livestreamed Community Praise and Prayer in the Chapel which will be available for you to journey with us online and take part through the chat comments.
https://youtube.com/live/YyoWObwXYug

In this Praise and Prayer we will be thanking God for his generous provision and we will be looking forward to the next Phase of our building project. We will also be thanking God for the ministry of Scargill and praying for new Community members to come and join the costly, yet joyful, adventure of Community life.

The Community are doing really well but we are stretched so please do continue to pray for us and our ongoing need for new members.  If you know of anyone you think would like to join Community for a short or long time, then do point them to our website here.

Below is Di’s latest reflection.  Di and I will be moving on from Scargill to ‘retirement’ next year in June 2026. We would very much value your prayers as there has been a lot of thought about succession planning. We will be advertising for a new Director in the late Summer into September with interviews in late November, and are praying that someone will join the adventure at Scargill at Easter time 2026, where there will be a transition period before we leave.

Di and I would value your prayers as we have yet to discern where God is calling us to live. Here is Di’s reflection. Enjoy!

As many of you will know Phil and I have begun thinking about where we might live when we retire; which seems to be quite a daunting task. Hence, I was pleased to find this painting ‘Springboard’ by Charlotte Evans who puts pools–and especially the ladders that go into them–front and centre of her delightful canvases’ (Jeff 2016 ‘Oh, By The Way’ blog). You see the task does feel a little like stepping off the top diving board!  But oh, the sheer joy that comes later.  

Now I only ever dived from the top board once or twice at the most but I still remember that slow climb up, then standing on the edge, trying not to look down, willing myself to dive because I knew what was to come – exhilaration, a sense of achievement, freedom – followed by the determination to reach air!   But if you don’t mind, we will not mention how the actual dives went, possibly ‘nil points!!’ I would though still love to have the courage to do it again.

Courage is required because stepping out in faith and doing something that God has called us to do can be scary. When you step out into the unknown to do what you believe is God’s will, He may not give you a blueprint to work with, you might need to make that decision to climb to the top board, not knowing how the dive will go – are you going to fall crisply into the water or not? Does it actually matter? No, not really, the only thing that really matters is are we following God?

Now that is the million-dollar question to which I do not have the answer. In fact, it often feels like I am wrestling with God repeatedly asking the questions When? Where? Why?  Maybe help can be found in the word ‘wrestling’ – wrestling can lead us to resting which in turn leads us to rest. Now that’s worth noting. Perhaps I need to remember to stop, and intentionally or un-intentionally create a space and invite God in. Not to wrestle with him but for a few minutes to still myself and quieten my restless mind and listen for the still, small voice of God and like Augustine of Hippo allow ‘God to speak to me in the great silence of the heart.’   

One of our prayers says:
’Like the sun that is far away, but still close at hand to warm us,
so God’s Spirit is always present around us. 
We live breath, work, rest and have our very being in You God.
Open now the windows of our souls so that we can see you.
And when we can see God, we are free to truly love.
Free to truly live.’                             
Amen

As we seek to understand out next adventure, Phil and I will walk in faith, which is one of the greatest treasures that we possess. Whether we make the wisest decisions or not I do not know but I do believe God will be walking alongside us all the way. As I have said many times before,’ if God is not elsewhere then that means God is here’; here with us now, today, and tomorrow – wherever that will be.

With love and prayers from Phil, Di and the Scargill Community

We are delighted to announce that our new Programme and latest Momentum magazine is launched today (28th April)– going live in the morning (during office hours).

This publication opens bookings for new events from September 2025 to the end of February 2026, as well as having lots of lovely articles and updates from the life of Scargill. 

Our website events pages are now live, coinciding with printed copies of our publication starting to reach your doorstep. When the programme is released, do put in your booking requests via the website (rather than by ‘phone) to help our lovely Admin Team deal with your booking requests in the order that they are made, and we thank you in advance for your patience as we work through each booking in turn.

Also do look at our website for online and in-house events (May to August 2025) that still have space – we would love to see you!

We would like to highlight the following upcoming on-line events for you to join from the comfort of your own home:

Wed 21 May – Online Quiet Day

Sat 7 June – Online Quiet Day

Fri 20 to Sun 22 June – More humour, more wholeness, more healing? Adrian and Bridget Plass

Thu 17 July – Online Quiet Day

With love and prayers from Phil, Di and the Scargill Community

This comes, as ever, with much love and prayers as we move closer to Holy Week and the wonder and mystery of  Easter. The Community this week is closed to guests as we have our own retreat – it’s good to have an ebb in the usual flow, sometimes strong current, of the everyday life of Community within our offer of hospitality.

You are very welcome to join us online for our Holy Week and Easter reflections – check it out here. Please note there will be no Sanctuary services for the next two weeks – our next service will be on Wednesday 23rd April.

We are beavering away on the next Momentum and programme (covering new events from September 2025 to February 2026) which should be on your doormats during the week beginning 28th April. When the programme is released, do put in your booking requests via the website (rather than by ‘phone) to help our lovely Admin Team deal with your booking requests in the order that they are made, and we thank you in advance for your patience as we work through each booking in turn.

We are now beginning to plan for Phase 8 of the Masterplan. Our buildings are always about making a guest experience beautiful and enriching. Please do read this ‘Building a future letter’ which is an invitation to join this adventure through an Appeal we will be running from Easter to Pentecost.

Please find below Di’s reflection on Maundy Thursday. Enjoy!

Phil and I were leading our recent Lent Retreat looking at various pieces of art and poetry. We as a group noticed the lack of women in the images we were looking at.  So I was delighted to find that in the 1450’s  Fr Angelica was making a positive statement about women, here in the Easter story.

This fresco comes from Cell 34 of 44 in the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence, where in the mid-fifteenth century Fra Angelico and his assistants painted on the walls various religious scenes.  It is very unusual, not only in having women present but also because Fr Angelico gives us the names of each of the figures in their halo.  From left to right we have James, John and Peter asleep in the garden. Whilst within the house, we have Mary and Martha awake and at work.  Also have a look at the angel holding out the cup of suffering, a reminder of Jesus’ pleading with God the Father to let the cup of suffering, pass him by.

As you can imagine it was the two sisters who drew me in. Hidden from view in the garden Mary is reading a book, continuing her study, her learning from Jesus and Martha is praying, actively praying – of course!  I love the idea that Fra Angelico not only deliberately added women but also gave them positive roles to play in the scene. They are awake, vigilant and watchful, waiting through the night, whilst the disciples on the other side of the wall have their heads in their hands, emotionally exhausted, sleeping. You can’t really blame them! But they do seem to have lost their trust in the prophecies leaving the women to keep vigil, to hold their friend, their teacher in their prayers.

But for me, this fresco primarily speaks into the times when we find it difficult, impossible even to pray, when we no longer know how or what to say, when hope has vanished. It is into those times, on the other side of our walls, that I believe people have been called to pray, to hold us in their prayers, to sustain us. Those are the prayers we are invited to join each lunchtime, in the Chapel. They are the prayers we are all called to pray for a remembered friend. A nudge! a letter received, a ‘feeling’, a dream, a word spoken can help us become aware that we have been called to pray.

The women watching and waiting through the night trusted in the prophecies and kept vigil supporting their Lord in his suffering. This Maundy Thursday we are asked the same, we are asked to “keep vigil” to be fully present to Christ’s suffering and spiritually awake to his will and direction. A direction that I hope leads us to grow in expectation, ready to hear the call to pray for others, to ‘keep vigil” for them, to bring them into the love of God.

For some of us this may be easy, for others like the disciples, it may be a bit of a challenge but if we listen, we will hear the call:
Stay with me    Remain here with me    Watch and pray   Watch and pray

With love and prayers from Phil, Di and the Scargill Community

Dear Friends,

We wish you a joyful and peaceful Christmas, through the celebration of Immanuel with us.

Thank you so much for all your love and support this year, it means a great deal to us.

Tomorrow, the residential Community disperse  for their Christmas break, and will return ready to welcome guests for the New Year House Party which begins on Sunday 29th December. Our next livestreamed Sanctuary service will be on Wednesday 1st January from 4:30pm.

With love and prayers from Phil, Di and the whole Scargill Community.

Here’s is Di’s latest reflection:

Last weekend, I was visiting All Souls Church in Leeds and for most of the morning I found myself comfortably sitting in front of this altar table.

I was repeatedly re-drawn to its gentle depiction of the nativity story. It was the curve of cloths uniting the Magi with Mary, then Jesus and finally Joseph which held my focus. In this world of war and conflict, fear and pain, Jesus came in all simplicity to save and to serve. 

Here I also saw humbleness and respect flow between the Magi and the Holy family, perhaps asking the same of us but also reminding me that Jesus came to bring peace and healing.

After a while I became aware that the curve continues with the candlesticks, forming perhaps a cup or a chalice reminding me that this is also the place to come before God and receive both bread and wine. A place where we can commune with God and God with us. A place where forgiveness is given, and love is offered.

I pray that you will have, allow yourself, the time to stop and rest, just for a few moments and sit before this altar table.

I wish you all a God-filled Christmas. 

We are delighted to announce that our new Programme and latest Momentum magazine is launched today (18th November)– going live in the morning (during office hours).

This publication opens bookings for new events from the end of February to the end of August 2025, as well as having lots of lovely articles and updates from the life of Scargill.

Our website events pages will be made live to coincide with printed copies of our publication starting to reach your doorstep. When the programme is released, do put in your booking requests via the website (rather than by ‘phone) to help our lovely Admin Team deal with your booking requests in the order that they are made, and we thank you in advance for your patience as we work through each booking in turn.

Also do look at our website for online and in-house events (November 2024 to February 2025) that still have space – we would love to see you!

We would like to highlight the following upcoming on-line events for you to join from the comfort of your own home:

Online Quiet Day (for December) -Sat 30th November led by Annie Naish (one of our chaplains)
Online (hybrid event) ‘Doing it Yahweh’ – Mon 9th to Thu 12th December led by Dave Hopwood and Phil Stone

With love and prayers from Phil, Di and the Scargill Community

As I write this, we are just over half way through our Summerfest season and it has been wonderful. It has been a joy to have so many young people with their parents and grandparents enjoying Scargill.

We would very much value your prayers for Community as we will be soon saying goodbye to some members who have added much to our life over the last few years, and at this moment we are not sure who will be coming to join the adventure here at Scargill from the Autumn. So, please pray for us and if you know of anyone who you feel may be called to join Scargill Community then do encourage them to get in touch.

Below is Di’s reflection – ‘Sun on the hill’ – enjoy!

Diane writes:
Let the name of the Lord be praised now and forever. From dawn until sunset the name of the Lord deserves to be praised.’  Psalm 113

It is so good to be back in Yorkshire which really is a beautiful part of the world.
Summerfest has started with the rare occurrence of sunshine for more than a day! And this morning I took a photo of the sun rising down the hillside whilst holding the camera at a quite precarious angle, as the windows have limited opening powers!  To be honest I have taken several over the past 14 years – in fact nearly every time I caught the shadow moving. And when I do, I always find myself standing in awe of ‘a transcendent God who cares enough for humankind to look down, reach down, and raise up the poor and needy of the earth’. Also, from Psalm 113.

As I look across the valley my thoughts ramble along in no particular order – how straight and neat the sunline is and remains, how we see the light of the sun rather than the sun itself, how the movement down is so slight it is almost imperceptible, how the shadow is slowly but firmly being pushed down, pushed away, that there is a period of time before we are able to actually see the sun, but we know it is there. And then I say to myself ‘SURELY there must be a reflection here!’ And would you believe it  when working with the primary children later in the day we read in Matthew 5.14-16 :

‘You are the light of the world…… let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’ 

So, at last, I am putting pen to paper!

For me, this photo shows me that God is always reaching down to us although as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13: ‘Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror (or the sunlight on the hillside). Later we will see him face to face. … For now, there are faith, hope and love. But of these three the greatest is love’.

In John’s gospel. Jesus calls us to love one another, ‘You must love each other just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples. John also in his first letter writes, ‘My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. ….  No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts’. 

This is where we need to be the light coming down the hill side, for others. We often talk about going that extra mile to help, of being generous with our time and resources, of seeing with God’s eyes and acting accordingly.  I feel sure this is our calling, and not just here at Scargill. We are all to be people with big-hearts and open-hands; a ready smile, full of joy and laughter. To have the mind-set of “I care about you as a person”, just as you are; with all your shadows and gifts. This is contagious because, like the sun, it warms the hearts of those it touches and allows the love of Christ to be visible – in all we do, all we say and particularly through who we are.    

But don’t forget the light in the photo was for all to see. As well as being light to others we need to spend time in God’s presence and to become more open to seeing the light, the glimpses of glory, all around us. Matt Whitney, an artist I have used for several Advent weekends, wrote ‘riding the bus forces me to wait.  It’s in these waiting moments that I seem to have glimpses of glory – kind deeds done amongst strangers crammed into an overcrowded bus, catching a sunset over the Ballard Locks, or the seemingly random flourishes of inspiration that strike me when my mind wanders. Spaces between immanence and transcendence are revealed. I have a heightened sense of spiritual awareness when I ride the bus – such an unlikely place for this to happen!’ Or is it?

So next time you see the sun rise or just the light on the hill give thanks to a God who ’showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life’ and be expectant for the moments you can share that love to others.

With love and prayers from

Phil, Di and the Scargill Community

This week we have had hopeful and encouraging news! The Government laid out their roadmap to bring us out of lockdown, subject to conditions at every stage. So, if this goes to plan, we will reopen to residential guests in early June. To begin with, it will be for a limited number of guests but, at last, we can see some light at the end of this very long tunnel – how life-giving and warming is that. Thank you for the journey that we have shared, and continue to share, through this time together. It gives us hope.

By the beginning of May, we will publish a programme that will take us through the Summer, at this point we will start taking bookings for these residential stays. In July another programme will be released which will take us through to the end of the year!

In the meantime, we will continue to offer an online programme and in the new post-lockdown world Scargill will continue to offer an online presence alongside residential events.

The online programme until Palm Sunday is on our website, and we will soon be releasing details of what it looks like for Easter and beyond.

We would like to highlight a few of the events coming up – we would love to see you online:
‘Heal the Land’ next week led by Russ Parker – Tuesday 2nd to Thursday 4th March
‘Quiet Days’ (same content on each day) led by Phil Stone and Mike Leigh – Friday 5th and Saturday 6th March
‘Dust and Glory’ – Lent Retreat led by David Runcorn – Tuesday 9th to Thursday 11th March
‘Scargill Forum’ – Wednesday 10th March
‘Younger than Springtime’ led by Adrian and Bridget Plass – Friday 12th to Sunday 14th March
Additionally – Scargillians are invited to a free special online concert put on for us by Simeon Wood at 7pm on Saturday 20th March. The link for this, and more details, will be publicised nearer the time.

I hope that you enjoy Di’s hopeful reflection.

Diane writes:

“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”
1 Chronicles 29:11

February always feels like a long month that drags on at the best of times, not much happens except perhaps the start of Lent!  But last weekend I went for my COVID vaccination, a very pleasant experience, in fact the highlight of the week / month. The icing on the cake was driving back home listening to Karl Jenkins’ “The Armed Man – a Mass for Peace – Benedictus” being played on Classic FM. As I listened I, quite unusually for me, became aware of the goodness of God, of a deep inner peace and a sense that ’all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well’. (Julian of Norwich)

Then on Monday, following rumours and speculations, the plan forward was laid before us, it was going to be a slow move out of lockdown. Excellent News of course, but there were also anxious thoughts and uncertainty about what the future might hold, how do we leave the safety of our homes, however small and begin again to meet friends and family without fear?  

So what should I write about this week?  Well instead of a painting I found two poems that excited me and gave me hope. One written in 1860 and the other in 2020. Emily Dickinson wrote ‘“Hope” is the Thing with feathers’ 160 years ago and it still speaks to us today, well to me anyway!

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

Emily Dickinson’s poem has been described as a kind of hymn of praise, written to honour the human capacity for hope. Recently I read (‘writers-on-line’) ‘If ever there was a poem that reminds us not to give up hope, it’s this one – hope can take flight even in the darkest of times, and if that tiny brave bird can keep singing, then so can we’. The poem portrays hope as a bird that lives within the human soul, that dwells inside the human spirit and sings a wordless tune come rain or shine, gale or storm, good times or bad; not stopping under any circumstances. This ‘tiny brave bird’, for me, is the Holy Spirit, often seen as a dove! God’s Spirit that keeps me in tune with His grace, truth, goodness, mercy, justice, knowledge, power, majesty –  all that He is.  Paul reminds us (Corinthians & Romans) that Christ isn’t outside of us as some kind of Helper in our time of need. No he actually lives in us and is with us all the time. ‘…that the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God’.   

I smiled when I read this second poem ‘The Orange’ by Wendy Cope and remembered Sister Jane’s quote “Humour is near to holiness, and love to laughter” and that a good healthy laugh relieves tension and stress and so allows us to hope. Many of us will be able to recognise ourselves in this amusing and in many ways light hearted poem.  But, at its core, this poem holds a deep truth for all of us. It shows us how to make the most of the small, quiet pleasures, such as sharing a fruit with loved ones and that these small pleasures enable us to get through difficult times. The poem ends with counting the biggest blessings – love, life itself (and of course laughter) – as a reminder of what is really important. And both these poems remind us of the power of hope and how little it requires of us, it is a gift freely given by God.

The Orange
At lunchtime I bought a huge orange –
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist. 

With love and prayers

Phil, Diane and the Scargill Community

One reason why I love this festival, is that it’s a wonderful excuse again to go over the top with candles, to fill the church with candle light as we celebrate the one who is the light of the nations. It is good and proper to go over the top!

The encounter of the holy family with Simeon and Anna is deeply moving and the long wait for them to see the Messiah is at last fulfilled. Simeon, in the Orthodox Church, is referred to as St Symeon the God-Receiver, as the Greek text indicates that he receives Christ into his arms. It is a beautiful and vulnerable encounter. Simeon in the fraility of his old age receives in his arms the vulnerable, totally dependent Christ child. Simeon’s arms are open to receive Jesus, there is a willingness to receive, to hold close, the “consolation of Israel.”

When thinking about Simeon’s encounter as the God-Receiver it led me to consider my prayers and my willingness to be open to Jesus, to hold me and receive him. I’m not sure I’m that good at it. Henri Nouwen in his book “with open hands”, says that prayer is no easy matter, and that the first challenge we face is to open our hands which are often clenched (metaphorically and literally). It is difficult, if not impossible, to receive when our fists are clenched. So why do we have clenched hands? Well for all sort of reasons, we could be holding tightly to jealousies, resentments, anger, our ambitions, failures, perhaps our need to be in control. Whatever we are holding tightly, seem indispensable and they begin to shape our lives.

When we dare to open our hands we are making ourselves vulnerable, as we begin that long journey of trust that all Jesus has for us is unconditional love, for as he gives himself in this love it is vulnerable, generous, self-giving and transformative.

I pray that you and I might be like Simeon, a God Receiver, hands and arms open to receive all that God has for us – I think we will be joyfully surprised! And as we are to able receive we will begin to shine his love to those around us, yes perhaps like a flickering candle, vulnerable and inviting.

The story so far – Naaman has gone down to the River Jordan, swallowed his pride, (and who knows what else!) and dipped himself seven times. He comes up cleansed from his skin disease, grateful, with a changed heart, acknowledging Elisha’s God ‘that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel’. And of course, it was this exclamation from Naaman that made him realise the difficult and complex situation he was going to have to face when he went back to Aram.

He tentatively and apologetically asks for forgiveness for when he goes back he will have to go with his King to the house of Rimmon and bow down while the King leans on his arm. Poor Naaman, having just experienced and realised the truth about God he finds himself in a place of compromise where he would be outwardly going against his earlier emphatic declaration. Adrian Plass, who writes on this wonderful passage, says, “Well is it OK to do that? Or not? Or what? Have I got to make a stand?”

Elisha’s response is surprising, liberating, and gives hope to all of us faced with on-going difficult times or impossible situations, ‘Go in peace’. Not exactly the response he expected yet what beautiful three words they are! Adrian goes on to say, “that was all Elisha said and it seemed to be all that was needed on that particular occasion. Through a prophet, who is more interested in hearing the authentic whisper of the Holy Spirit than blindly following patterns and pre-conceptions, God was cutting Naaman a little slack, and this new follower of the one true God was probably even more grateful than before, don’t you think? How lovely to be told that you can go in peace when you are expecting a thick ear or a thunderbolt.”

The wonderful truth about these words ‘Go in peace’ is that it gives us opportunity to have a dynamic, life-giving dialogue with God. These three words are not closed but are open and spacious words.

Elisha cut Naaman some slack, and Jesus cuts us slack too. Our community promises has the response – “with the encouragement and guidance of the brothers and sisters who share this pathway, we will try our very best to follow the example of Jesus”. Each night I reflect on my day and sometimes I realise how my relationships or attitudes has not lived up to the promises I have made. I have messed up, and I can’t quite get it right at the moment. Jesus forgives, he says have a good night’s sleep, lets work together on the difficulties, ‘Go in peace’. And he says this with affection and love.

Elisha begins to give us an understanding of God’s compassion and Jesus shows it to us fully. I pray that we will learn to live and move in it.
In the All Age services during SummerFest we sang our Naaman song – words by Bridget and Adrian Plass, sung and produced by Anna Andersson on the attached music file – enjoy! We had three weeks of it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g5YeJ6jPdw

Our theme has been Naaman’s story from 2 Kings 5 – check it out it is a good read. It is the story of Naaman’s healing of his skin disease that came in a very unexpected manner, it is a healing, which was far more than skin deep, it was conversion of his heart. It was a radical and life-changing experience.

We read that Naaman arrived outside Elisha’s house with all his soldiers and chariots, and mules laden with gold and silver. Naaman’s identity was bound up in his wealth, his position and his success. He came to Elisha displaying how powerful he was, desperately wanting to buy his healing. You can imagine that Naaman was well put out when Elisha would not come to greet him as he felt his rank deserved and, adding insult to injury, he is told by Elisha’s servant to go down to the murky Jordan and dip himself in it seven times if he wants to be healed. Naaman was besides himself with anger. He was a huffy old Naaman! Yet with the courage and love of his servants he is persuaded to go down and dip himself in the Jordan. Isn’t it good that we too can have friends who are able to speak the truth in love, to save us from messing up?

It is very significant that Naaman ‘went down’ into the Jordan. He had to make himself small. He had to give up his identity that meant so much to him. He went down as a proud and successful general with a serious skin disease and came up with the skin of a young boy, with a childlike heart, declaring, “there is no God in all the world except in Israel”.

It is a story peppered with grace, yet it is grace that could only be received if Naaman was willing to go down. John Stott writes, ’Pride is your greatest enemy, Humility is your greatest gift’. It is true for us all that if we want to discover the grace God has for us we have to make ourselves small, we have to go down. If you are ever privileged enough to go to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity you have to bow down to get through the doorway.

So like Naaman when we go down, bow down or make ourselves small we understand a bit more of who God is, and what He is about. As it says in the Jerusalem Bible, “The fear of Yahweh is a school of wisdom, before there can be glory, there must be humility.” Proverbs 15:33

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at Summerfest with good friends from St Stephen’s – great fun!

At the time we were pumping water from our spring, which runs close to the river, and this swept into our water supply making it undrinkable. We had brown water with bits in – not nice. And, of course, we then had the challenge of having no drinking water for 70 people. It made me realise just how dependent we are on water, this life giving stuff, and we soon found ourselves down in Skipton buying out all the 5 litre bottles of water. We got through 40 of these in one day. We take clean water for granted but, of course, for many in our world it is not so easily available.

On the Wateraid website it says that “every minute, every day, people suffer and lives are lost needlessly because of a lack of safe water and sanitation. This daily reality is for 748 million people.”

One of the things we did at Scargill during our Summerfest programme last year, which was great fun, was to raise money to twin our toilets to provide safe and clean loos across the world (see www.toilettwinning.org).

One of our pathway promises is about speaking out for those without a voice ‘ will you speak up bravely for people who are rarely heard, helping our heavenly Father to fulfil his dream of seeing the hungry fed, the sick looked after the naked clothed and victims of injustice release from their chains.’

This week made me think that perhaps there is more we can do to help our brothers and sisters across the world. Wouldn’t it be good if we all twinned our toilets? It only costs £60 and it would make a real difference.

Back to our water. The Estate Team worked hard pumping out our reservoir – cleaning it out. Today our water is running nice and clean, and tomorrow we will be able to start drinking it again.

We love our Estate Team, and we also love our spring water – and we are grateful to God for it.

When I was thinking about all this, I was reminded of Jesus’ words from Matthew 10 v 42 ’And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.’

Not a bad incentive!

Back at Scargill , we have just said goodbye to our Easter houseparty. An amazing week where we journeyed with Jesus through Holy Week to the joy of Easter Sunday.

One of the things that struck me is how Jesus went out of his way to show people who he was through his actions. A good example of this is Palm Sunday where Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on a donkey, and the significance of entering the city from the Mount of Olives.  Jesus didn’t speak a word yet he was saying so much through his actions. He was saying, ‘Look, I’m your King!’. And, of course, the Resurrection is the amazing sign of who Jesus is and what he came to do, but yet even though some his closest friends didn’t get it. Just look at Luke 24 and the story on the road to Emmaus.

So some of the questions I have been asking myself are, “how do I recognise Jesus today?” and “is my life dulled to the presence of Jesus or preoccupied with self-interest ?”

On another point on the same subject, I challenged the Community recently to think how people could recognise Jesus just through our actions, through the way we treat and serve people? Loving actions, a welcoming smile, to be kind, a willingness to say ‘yes’, to go the extra mile can say much more about God’s love than words that are divorced from action. And, of course, Jesus longs to show his love through us even though we are weak and fragile. St Paul reminds us:  ‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.’ 2 Corinthians 4: 7

I heard a lovely story about Rowan Williams when after they had walked the stations of the cross he rhetorically asked the question, ‘Why is there no stations of the resurrection?’,  which he answered, ‘we are the living stations of the resurrection’.

So, how do people recognise Jesus? Through you and me.

It is lovely when we have people who know us well and come with love and blessing. And talking of blessing, they shared that often blessing does not come through life being easy or our prayers being answered in the way we would hope. There was a wonderful song from Laura Story called ‘Blessings’, which they shared with us. The chorus is:

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise’

There are a lot of ‘what if’s” in the chorus, and the song is asking the question, does God bless us through the disappointments and difficulties of life?’

Many guests who visit us at Scargill are living with very hard and stressful situations, and it is difficult to see where God is in it all, but what if that somewhere, somehow, in the darkness our compassionate God wants to bless us with His love? I wonder if Romans 5 v 3-5 echo something of what this song is saying?

‘And not only that, but we also boasting our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.’

Just what if?

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Laura Story: Link to the explanation and link to the song itself on YouTube

Someone, after their second visit to Scargill, said that it was like coming home. We often hear that from people, when referring to their visits. I love it and I am very appreciative that people feel this way about Scargill.

I love the bit from the ‘Last Battle’, the final book of the Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis,  when the Unicorn cries, “I have come home at last, this is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I’ve been looking for all my life.” Not everybody feels as over the top as this when they visit Scargill, but for many it does feel like Home.

I was questioned recently, ‘Are you a Christian hotel?’ I was surprised by my strong reaction to that question. “No way!”. Of course we have many marks of a hotel (food cooked, bedrooms prepared) but we are definitely not a hotel! I have been to some fine hotels, some of them Christian ones, and they are very different from Scargill. You sit and have your meal, not usually with other people, and you don’t have prolonged conversation and share your lives with the staff, however nice they seem to be. And that raises the first big difference between Scargill and a hotel: we don’t have staff, we are a community. That means that we have a very different model of hospitality. We eat on shared tables where Community serve and eat with guests. We have conversations and relationships that at times go deeper than superficial. Scargill Community are very much about inviting people into our home. It’s a hospitality that is relational and can be transformative in a deep way.

Scargill at its heart is ‘lives shared – lives transformed’, with Jesus at the centre. So Scargill is a place of sharing, mutual laughter, a place where we are encouraged to be open to one another and particularly to those who may be very different from us. A safe place where people can meet and be open to the love of God through His Holy Spirit.

Every week we welcome another group of guests, some of them come on their own and by the end of the week we have grown into a community of mutual respect and love. At our best (and of course we are not always at our best) the words of Jesus have a truth and reality, ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.’ John 13 v 35

J.R.R. Tolkien describes Rivendell in ‘The Hobbit’ as the ‘last homely house, which is a sanctuary and refuge for the weary.’ Not a bad description of Scargill.

Acceptance has to be an important characteristic of life at Scargill for guests and Community. The Community here is so diverse. We have people from different countries, languages, and different experiences of God. Community life is dynamic and it most definitely stretches us, yet what enriches our life is the acceptance we try and offer one another. Interestingly our particular spiritual flavour or denominational backgrounds never really come to the fore, as what is so important to the Community is to offer an accepting safe place which allows people to encounter the living God. As someone once said after a visit to Scargill, ‘It’s a safe place to say dangerous things.’

Of course, accepting people can make others think that we agree to everything they believe in, that we have the same world view or theological understanding, and that may not be the case. Accepting isn’t the same as agreeing. Bishop Chris Edmondson, in ‘Leaders Learning to Listen’, writes: ‘I believe we often confuse acceptance and agreement, or, to use a road sign analogy, giving way and giving in….acceptance and agreement are not the same.‘

I suppose what’s key for me about life at Scargill is not trumpeting a particular theological, or ethical stance, but being a place of love and acceptance, and to allow space for the Holy Spirit to do His renewing work in the lives of all who come to us. We want to be about ‘lives shared – lives transformed’ with Jesus at the heart. As Anne Lamott puts it, ‘God loves you as you are, and far too much to leave you as you are.’

We have found here that eating together has been the place where lives are most shared, where joy and laughter can be freely expressed and opportunities to behave in a childlike way are encouraged! I think that eating together is one of the special gifts that Scargill offers to guests as we share our lives and welcome them into our home.

Eating together is one of the best of things. It stretches us, and I am not just talking about our waistlines! Eating together is not about entertainment or show. Eating together is about creating community.

Jean Vanier writes: ‘Meals are celebrations where we meet each other around the same table to be nourished and share in joy.’ And he goes on to say, ‘you cannot build community without wasting time together.’ There is nothing more spiritual and more human than the activity of eating together around table.

Jesus obviously enjoyed eating and it would seem that he had a particular gift at cooking fish. Being creative in finding time to eat with others is such an important part of what it means to be human. In fact, self-service could be one of the worst inventions ever with our own sachets, trays and prepared meal (Vanier says it could be like spending every meal on an aeroplane). Eating together, within a warm, accepting atmosphere, allows us to be real and vulnerable. Where mutual laughter can be shared and, through each other, we encounter Jesus.

In Latin the word companion literally means ‘to break bread together’. Whatever our tradition is to do with Holy Communion it is full of power and wonder as Jesus is both our host and our life-giving food. Jesus calls himself ‘the living bread’ (John 6:51). It is important to us that Holy Communion is the central act of worship as a community.

Whether we live alone or in a family, or as we do in community here at Scargill, let us dare to create space to eat with others; to share lives; to celebrate laughter and joy; fragility and tears; and share good simple food which will create community and transform lives.

I have just returned from an inspiring couple of days at Greenbelt where Scargill were privileged to lead an act of worship. What inspired me about Greenbelt was the passion and commitment from many young people to God, and to see His Kingdom worked out on earth. Justice, peace and reconciliation are themes that run through much of Greenbelt. I was reflecting, after hearing an inspiring talk from someone a lot younger than myself, ‘where has my passion gone?’ Being passionate and angry about injustice in our society is not the prerogative of young people.  I think it is fair to say for most of us that as we get older, when life can become more comfortable, we can loss that cutting edge. Complacency can settle in. Perhaps when we get older we lose the fire within our belly that calls us to be radical and, instead of being passionate about what we do, we strive for a balanced life. Beware of balance!

Mike Yaconelli [once a Greenbelt great] wrote, ‘Balance is a dangerous, illusionary characteristic and a seductive temptress. Disguised as normal and sensible, it is silently destructive crashing the unbalance of giftedness, taming the extremes of passion, snuffing out the raging fire of a genuine relationship with Jesus. Jesus and his disciples were constantly criticised for being unbalanced.’

We are never too old to be passionate about the things that are close to God’s heart. As an well known saying goes: ”the Holy Spirit comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable”. Lord get disturbing…

I found this prayer the other day which invites God to challenge us:

May the God who dances in creation,

who embraces us with human love,

and shakes our lives like thunder,

bless us and drive us out in the power of the Holy Spirit,

to fill the world with his justice,

this day, and always.

Amen

This inspirational speech, which I feel must have been inspired by God, began to change American society. But how did it all start?

It started with an act of defiance from Mrs Rosa Parks, a 42 year old Montgomery seamstress, who refuses to relinquish her bus seat to a white man – and then is arrested. I doubt if Mrs Parks though her act would gain the momentum that would lead to the march on Washington and the amazing speech that we celebrate today.

She says, “At the time I was arrested, I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in.”

Rosa with her quiet eloquence, her commitment to her faith, was a role model of courage. God often uses “small” acts of courage to bring about change. I doubt if many of us will become like Dr King: charismatic and powerful in speech and a leader of many people. But we can all be like Rosa Parks where we can make a stand for courage against what is wrong around us. It could be something in our community; it could be at work or at home; and even in our church! It will often make us unpopular and there may be uncomfortable consequences to being courageous.

Someone said, “don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is”,  and as Edmund Burke said, “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing”

Courage will never be easy, its risky. But as the speech proclaims,”No,no, we are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Wet and Wild at Scargill Summerfest

These last 2 weeks we have been enjoying Summerfest at Scargill. Summerfest is an all age arts festival where we have guest artists, all age teaching, a myriad of activities and a chat show every evening. It’s full on!

These last 2 weeks I  have doing quite a lot of speaking and succumbed to ‘foot in mouth’ when trying to quote Jackie Pullinger. It is funny that when we are tired  when brain and mouth sort of come disconnected.  I found myself saying she had lived for many years in the Walled Garden, and yes, we do have a beautiful Walled Garden at Scargill but sadly this is not where we will find Jackie Pullinger. For those of you who don’t know, Jackie spent many years working in the Walled City area of Hong Kong, bringing ‘cups of life giving water’ to prostitutes and drug addicts.

The verse from Matthew 10 that speaks about giving a cup of cold water to one of these little ones….has been resonating in our hearts and minds. There is nothing so refreshing as a cool glass of water. It is worth spending some time thinking about those who have been living water to us, those who have shown us kindness and compassion, who offered us ‘a cup of water’. It is good to give thanks for those who have brought us to life by their generosity and their belief in us, and, of course, not all these people will be Christians. I was remembering my primary school teacher who encouraged me and helped me believe in myself when education was such a struggle. Who are those who have offered cups of water to us, that have made a difference to our lives?

But, the challenge then is how can we be living water for others?

We are privileged to have this living water within us and we are called to give it away, not to hold it for ourselves. I’d like to encourage you to think about who you could give a ‘cup of living water’ to this week. It could be a word of kindness, it may be a ‘phone call to a friend we have not spoken to for some time in order to show them how we love them, it may be a listening ear. It will be an act of love that will bring life. Jesus brought life to the woman at the well (John 4) and we too have this opportunity to give Jesus to others, as the source of living water. Isn’t this just a wonderful gift that we can offer?

A friend posted this wonderful prayer on Facebook.

Holy Trinity, Well of love, Refresh us with your presence. May we drink of your life-giving water, Filling us with you, Overflowing to all those around us.

Baldrick, who was valued less than a garden slug (he would like to eat them – hmmm yummy), was often undermined. I can’t help think that most of us have  Baldrick-type tendencies and feel as though we are pretty worthless. The Bible tells us something different as it speaks of God who honours us, who loves us, and says that we are precious in His eyes (Isaiah 43). Jesus views us very differently to how we feel about ourselves, and what we think others say about us. Jesus is not like Edmund Blackadder.

There is a wonderful song we have been singing quite often in Chapel in the last few weeks:

‘I will change your name,

You shall no longer be called

Wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid.

I will change your name.

Your new name shall be,

Confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one;

Faithfulness, friend of God,

One who seeks My face.’ [D.J. Butler]

God has a marvellous plan, which is far from cunning, that in Christ we are new people. In fact, we are elevated to being heirs with Christ, with all the privileges as well as the responsibilities that go with that. For me, it is a lifetime journey to fully understand that I no longer have a ‘Baldrick status’ but a ‘Beloved status’. Yet it is in this truth that I am to live and move have my being.

As Brennan Manning wrote: ‘Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.’

I am glad to say that church communities are waking up to the truth that good coffee is not just peripheral to their life together, a sort of tagged on extra, but says something important about valuing people.

I wonder if it is too bold to say that good coffee is as important as an inspiring and thought-provoking sermon. The smell of percolating coffee is inviting and the aroma is as enjoyable as the drinking.

As I said, decent coffee at the beginning or end of the service, is saying an important truth about how we value people. When you go to places and you are offered a weak, instant coffee in a plastic cup, which is almost impossible to hold, with rich tea biscuits (and then with a little bowl asking for a donation) – what are we saying?

When we moved to Scargill to begin this adventure one of the first things I decided is that we were going to have decent coffee. This was not just for my own benefit, but was hopefully saying something important to our guests: they matter. Being generous with the quality of our refreshments reflects God’s generosity to us. God is not stingy! He wishes the best for his people and of course good refreshments also show our heart of hospitality.

Jesus shows us what our gracious God is like. In fact, Jesus could only do what he saw his Father doing (John 5 v17) and we see a God who gives abundantly in turning water into wine (900 bottles of the stuff, and the best). We see how Jesus treats people with respect. Jesus treats as first class citizens those who are particularly broken or forgotten by society, and we as his followers, who share his generosity and love of people, are called to do the same. And so, even the coffee matters!

This, of course, can be Fair Trade or Rain Forest Alliance certified which will make the experience of coffee drinking even better.

Over the last week, or so, life has been very hectic: We turned Scargill into Narnia which was such good fun, then I was at Lee Abbey speaking on ‘Laughter and Lament’ with David Rowe, followed swiftly by my son’s wedding which was an amazing occasion.

There is a huge amount to be thankful for.

Psalm 111 says: ‘ I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.’ Meister Eckhart once said,’if the only prayer you say in your entire life is “thank you” that would suffice.’ Gratitude is a crucial spiritual discipline to foster in our lives for it is the great antidote to cynicism which has the capacity to suck the life out of us. Gratitude, I think, is the gateway to playfulness and childlikeness. 

Mark Yaconelli in his book ‘wonder, fear and longing’ writes, ‘It is good to give God thanks not only because God has given us so much,  but perhaps more importantly because of what gratitude does to us. It is hard to be anxious when you are grateful. It is difficult to keep you guard up, to be cold and defended when you are overcome with thankfulness. Prayers of gratitude open the gates of the heart so God’s love can enter in.’

A good friend of mine, who I worked with on the Lee Abbey Youth Camps, taught me the importance of gratitude even when life can seem so tough and difficult. He encouraged us to think of at least 5 things we could be thankful for, like the taste and smell of good food, the love of friends, the pleasure of sunsets, the beauty of flowers, the freshness of toothpaste, the nourishment of sleep, and the sugar rush obtained from jelly babies. Wouldn’t it be good if we could just open our eyes to give thanks daily for all of God’s grace and love that we see around us.

Giving gratitude isn’t something that comes easy to us. It is a discipline.

Joan Chittester says, ‘As he was dying, Abba Benjamin taught his disciples his last lesson,”do this,” he said,”and you will be saved: rejoice always; pray constantly; and in all circumstances give thanks.”‘

This coming week, I’m going to try my very best to be grateful. Would you like to join me?

We were focusing particularly on the Last Battle which is the last of the books and covers important topics like: deception; identity; judgement; courage; the end of the Old and the beginning of the New Narnia; and homecoming and it is this that I want to talk about briefly.

Jewel, the Unicorn, when he arrives into the New Narnia exclaims, “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…..Come further up, come further in!”

For many people home has been a difficult experience, something that people don’t want to remember. If, though, we were going to look at coming home as an experience that brings life what would it look like? These were some of the comments that people said during one of our sessions this week:

‘belonging, safe place, acceptance, love and laughter, finding my true self, sometimes challenging, good food, and space to be who I am ‘

It would seem to me that there is a longing and a yearning to experience coming home, and the church community should be a place where people can experience this generous homecoming.

Sister Stan writes in Gardening of the Soul writes, ‘Home is the place where we discover who we are, where we are coming from and where we are going to. It is where we learnt to love and be loved. It is where our needs of the body, mind and spirit are first recognised and met. It is where we learn to be whole, stable and yet always open to change and surprise.’

The parable of the prodigal son, or perhaps it should be called the parable of the prodigal father, highlights the generous attitude that we are invited to show when people come home, ‘but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and was filled with compassion…’  (Luke 15 v20)

Some of our guests, who come back to Scargill, describe it as a home from home.  I like that…

His reason for wanting to do this is his longing for people to know the wonder and joy of the saving love of Jesus. This was his agenda. Paul’s words are very challenging to us as he is asking us to put aside our own judgements, and sometimes the desire to show the error of others  – It would be so nice if others could have the same understanding as us!

Accepting others and journeying with them, to be their friend and their servant is at the centre of Paul’s heart. I love the way the Message version puts it: “I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, non-religious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated and the demoralized – whoever…I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life.”

Paul is not saying that by accepting people we are agreeing with them, but his longing is that through his life, in word and action, they would experience the love of Christ. This ability to accept people as they are comes from a growing understanding of our own identity in Christ, that we are his beloved, and that our lives are about showing others that they are God’s children and deeply loved. Our security is rooted in our relationship with Jesus.

We want this attitude to be at the heart of our life here at Scargill.  We want to accept people who come through our doors even though they may not fit into our tidy theological understanding and this can obviously be disturbing.

Yet, however uncomfortable it may sometimes feel, our hope is that we show the warmth and accepting love of Jesus.  I am sure many of us have been into churches where there have been such strong theological statements about God and life, that have felt so rigid and unyielding that it leaves very little space for dialogue or movement – It can be suffocating.

Scargill is about offering a safe place where the transformative love of God can do its mysterious work. As Ann Lamott says, ” God loves you exactly as you are and far too much to leave you as you are”.

Loving and accepting people for what they are can give us permission to adopt a different narrative if that is what is required.

First up – Quantity. One of the great joys of being part of the Scargill community is the amazing variety of people that you meet. Each week we welcome various groups and individuals and each person brings something unique and something that is life giving. Then of course there is the community we are bundled together with, all from such a variety of backgrounds and experiences of God. It’s a rich, sometimes challenging, but always growing and stretching experience.

Secondly – Quality. Joining community is an opportunity to witness and be part of the unrivalled excellence of the Holy Spirit working in the real world with real people. One of the delightful aspects which keeps us on our toes is seeing how God’s loving spirit moves and works, sometimes in the most unexpected ways. The Holy Spirit is most definitely ingenious. Being on community here at Scargill inspires an openness to what our gracious God is doing and having the courage to join in.

Finally – Questions. Many people come, as guests as well as community, with an array of questions. There is space and opportunity to ask and discuss and perhaps even solve some of the burning questions that are important to your personal walk with Jesus. As one visiting clergy said ‘This is a safe place to say dangerous things.’

And of course as one community member just enthusiastically said to me, ‘I hope you got quirky in there!’ Hmm, will have to think about that!

So quantity, quality and questions and even quirkiness… all good reasons to consider joining community. QI don’t you think?

In the Scargill Community we learn about the liberating and humbling nature of forgiveness. There’s nothing more humbling than being forgiven when my weaknessess and failings are brought into the light of this grace. Community would become a very narrow place if there was no forgiveness. Our rule of life speaks of keeping our relationships open, honest and loving; a tough call, yet liberating.

Professor Jonathan Sacks, once the Chief Rabbi, says we need forgiveness as it ‘helps us sustain relationships, build marriages that last, stay close to our children and faithful to our friends. We say things that hurt and do things that harm. So do others to us. The mere fact that we can apologise and be forgiven is one of the blessed gifts of humanity, and it isn’t simple at all. It is underwritten by a certain view of the universe, the belief that God forgives’.

This last week we have been confronted with atrocities in the US, unresolved and (understandable) resentments over Mrs Thatcher’s life and death, and the ongoing relational struggles that go on in our churches and communities. A lot to process, a lot to struggle with – with God, ourselves and others as we dare to climb the ladder of forgiveness, even if we’ve only reached the first rung.

Forgiveness is not an optional extra, it is a process that brings healing to communities and ultimately to ourselves. If we want a future, then an attitude of forgiveness will be working its way into our hearts.

Loving Jesus give us your mercy and grace!

Thomas’ response, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe,’ is the response of a person who is both frustrated and feeling rejected. “What’s the matter with me?” could be a fair description of how Thomas was feeling. “Have I not been just as loyal, if not more so, than my fellow disciples? So why I did I miss out?” He had missed out on the this life-changing encounter, and the shiny eyes and smiles of his fellow disciples would do very little to comfort the distraught Thomas.

He had to wait a whole week before Jesus came amongst them again, and this time Thomas was there. He was offered the most remarkable, life giving, transformative encounter: the invitation to put his hands in the wounds of the risen Lord. The wounds of love that had changed the world, that had showed us the depths of God’s love: Thomas was invited to put his fingers in them. Now that is a bit of a ‘Wow’!

Yes, Thomas was a bit of a doubter, as John’s account portrays. But Thomas’ encounter with Jesus gives hope to all of us who feel that we’ve missed out, that we’re in some way rejected, that God has passed us by, that we were “out of the room”. For the risen Jesus truly wants to have a ‘one-to-one’ with us.

Perhaps Bruce Cockburn’s words in his wonderful song “Somebody touched me”, can be our prayer this week – great song, great lyrics. Thomas was surprised that he had a one-to-one with Jesus: may we also be surprised by the risen Christ this week.

Somebody touched me
Making everything new
Somebody touched me
I didn’t know what to do
Burned through my life
Like a bolt from the blue
Somebody touched me
I know it was you

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeuVJ_A0CoE

And on another note, I am sure that I’ll be out of the room if and when my team Spurs score a winning goal…

The resurrection though gives us a another view –  a full tomb is a bit of a disaster! Empty is liberating and life giving, Jesus is risen, the tomb is empty, death has lost its sting, sin and satan are defeated. God has had the last laugh.

When thinking of the resurrection I think of Psalm 18:19; “He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me”. Jesus is risen, the tomb is empty, life is to be lived in that spacious place, and we to are to leave our “tombs”, to leave them empty, and move into the spacious place that our generous God has won for us in the resurrected Jesus. It does take courage and a fair amount of trust. Our tombs whatever they may be, come with all sorts of names, unforgiveness and bitterness, fear, feeling useless just to mention a few.. We live in these tombs they become our home, they are familiar, and disturbingly comfortable. Scargill is about “lives shared, lives transformed” and hopefully with Jesus right at the centre he will loving lead us out of our caves that we have uncomfortably conformed to live in.

The challenge is to leave our tombs, and move into that spacious place, and breath in that resurrection air.

A blessed Easter to you all.

We have just finished our Palm Sunday service here in the Chapel at Scargill. Many a sermon has been given on this significant day in Jesus’ life. What struck me afresh is the adulation that welcomed Jesus from the crowd as he entered Jerusalem, and then in a few days time the same crowd will be shouting insults and wanting him dead. The crowd move from blessing to cursing with unnerving ease. Henri Nouwen says that to bless is to simply says good things about another. How crucial this is as we live in a world that gives out curses so liberally. If we bless one another our understanding of who we are in God grows and deepens. Curses destroy, blessings give life.

How important it is to bless, never more so than in Community which is full of relational challenges! There is nothing like living and working together to realise the need to bless when at times there is a deep desire to curse. Our community promises speak about building community for which we will need to be ‘consistently, transparently, constructively, unsentimentally loving’. People making their promises say, “We can learn and improve in our efforts to strengthen the bonds of love in this community. Sometimes we will get very cross with people and find it difficult to love them. Sometimes they will feel the same about us. We will not say anything about others that we would not say to them directly if love and wisdom required it. With God’s help, and with encouragement and guidance from the brothers and sisters who share this pathway, we promise to try our very best to follow the example of Jesus.”

As we begin to understand that we are called ‘beloved’, what a joy it is to enable others to find that truth for themselves. Henri Nouwen goes on to say that there are many ways that we can bless people:

“Therefore we have to be reminded of our belovedness and remind others of theirs. Whether the blessing is given in words or with gestures, in a solemn or an informal way, our lives need to be blessed lives.”

So may Jesus Christ richly bless you as you journey with him this Holy Week.

Sadly the towering trees which used to line the long driveway up to Scargill House have had to be cut down. At this melancholy time Scargill’s Director Phil Stone reflects on community, culture shock and how sometimes seeds need to die if they are going to live…

This last week has been sad and significant for Scargill. Our treasured avenue of horse chestnuts, which has been part of the landscape for the last 50 years and more, have become diseased and dangerous and have had come to down. Interesting and surprisingly what has been left is a new vista where the surrounding hills look even more inviting and attractive.

We are gradually becoming aware that the rhythm of life involves some small and some significant deaths so that God can bring new life and new beginnings. The rhythm of cross and resurrection are central to our lives. Scargill itself was resurrected, but not before it had to go through a death in 2008. The whole estate was up for sale and the long ministry of Scargill had finished. The place was dead. God though had not wiped the slate with either the place or the ministry.

When Di and I came to Scargill to grow and develop the ministry at the beginning of 2010, we were excited about the new adventure, but after a while I was wondering what we had done. From being a vicar in a large inner city parish, an area dean with responsibilities, I had come to Scargill where there was just a handful of us and 10,000 sheep. However lovely those sheep are, they are not great conversationalists, and regarded me as a sort of mint sauce threat (probably rightly so). After a couple of months of this I was feeling diminished, and well out of my depth. I went to see a wise friend who listened and shared a verse from John 12: “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”

Something had to die in me, for something new to come alive – never easy, often painful, but necessary. We can never jump to resurrection until we go through our own cross. Three years on Scargill is alive and thriving. The place is beginning to bear much fruit, but what is most significant is that I have deepened my understanding that I am loved by God, that I am called “his beloved”. Sometimes God has to strip away old securities so he can help us find again our true identity.

This week we begin Passiontide, with the invitation to journey with Jesus through Palm Sunday next Sunday, onto the Cross, and then onto the joy of Easter Sunday. As we journey with Jesus may we also know that he journeys with us as we face our crosses We need to ask him for courage.

This week new trees will be planted down our avenue at Scargill.

Our resurrection life continues.

The community at Scargill is always warmly welcoming new members and wishing a fond farewell to others as each person’s contract is staggered so that as we grow and change we can maintain consistency. If you are interested in spending some time as part of our community or know someone who might be interested then click here (especially if you/they have professional catering experience!). Feel free to use the contact information in the link to get in touch and start a conversation going to work out if Scargill is the right place for you to explore more about life, community and God.

Last week I was down at Coventry Cathedral attending a conference entitled Faith in Conflict. It was full of quite important influential people, I had to behave like a grown up! One of the things that we discovered (which isn’t rocket science) is that conflict is normal. You could almost hear a collective sigh of relief and I know that from my experience here at Scargill we have had to work through quite a bit of conflict over the last few years. Just because we are followers of Jesus doesn’t mean we are going to get on all the time.

What is really important is how we deal with conflict. Often we are either confrontational and shout with a ‘come on if you think you’re hard enough’ attitude or the other equally unhelpful attitude is to go into silence and avoid confrontation at all costs. But what we are encouraged to do and the way forward – is to speak and to listen. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow says, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”

Of course living in community this is essential if we are going to grow and become a place of reconciliation. The quality of our relationships is an authentic witness of God’s love. This is the heart of the Gospel. In fact one of the speakers at conference said that reconciliation is not the warm up act to hearing the Gospel – it is the Gospel.

Whenever we are reach out (and I’m not talking about with a fist!) to somebody we are in conflict with we are doing the Gospel. St Paul reminds us in 2nd Corinthians 5 that Jesus has reconciled us with God, our relationship with Him has been put right. We are called to be ambassadors of reconciliation.

It’s not an optional extra.

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