Pastoral Letter
Dear Friends,
Over the six years that Pauline and I have served our five villages we have been very struck by the strong sense of community spirit that we have encountered within them. It was the desire to rediscover that strong sense of community spirit which prompted us to seek to return to rural ministry.
Community spirit is even more essential than ever in today's world, where we can often find ourselves in an environment where we are isolated from true face to face human contact, despite being in regular communication with scores of individuals on an electronic basis. Our world is becoming increasingly dehumanised, and yet human beings are essentially social creatures. That is why community activities are so important for us.
God created us to share together in community in order that we might support and encourage each other on our journey of life. God values and understands community so much because he is a community in himself -the Holy Trinity. The Russian Orthodox Church has an Icon that depicts the Holy Trinity -Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It portrays three heavenly beings gathered around a table sharing a meal together. Sharing a meal has been, and always will be, a perfect example of togetherness and fellowship. The Icon, is laid out in such a way that there appears to be a fourth place set at the table, and the figures are so positioned that the person viewing the Icon is the one being invited to take that fourth place. The clear message of the Icon is that God invites us to join him, in order that we too can share in all the joys and blessings that flow from the sense of community that he himself values and experiences.
There is a story of a king who had a son to whom he gave a yearly allowance, paying him the entire sum on the fixed date. It soon happened that the day on which the allowance was due was the only day of the year when the father ever saw his son. So the king changed his plan and gave his son each day that which was sufficient for the day; and then the son visited his father every morning. In this way the son discovered just how much he needed his father's unbroken love, companionship, wisdom and giving! That story is a lovely illustration of the kind of close loving relationship that God seeks to have with us. In rural communities we can understand more clearly that kind of relationship because we can encounter something like it in our everyday human lives. God is a community of love, and he wants so much for us to be part of his community and to receive from him that which is sufficient for the day. I believe that our village Churches should stand out as places where God's community spirit is most strongly felt and experienced, and you can be assured that Pauline and I will be working hard to help and encourage our five Churches to be just that. May God bless you all.