This week I have been reading the Waitrose FOOD magazine (free with a My Waitrose card) which I collected when visiting my mum in Oxford. Favourite Recipe: Turkish flatbreads
Whilst writing this I am listening to: The sound of cars and children playing somewhere nearby.
Fun Fact of the week: June 1st is the 493rd anniversary of Anne Boleyn becoming Queen Consort of England AND it is Juliette and my 30th Wedding anniversary!
Phew…What a Scorcher! On Monday we had an old friend visiting from Canada. It was so hot we were struggling to know how to best spend his one day in Gloucester. We decided on a very slow walk to the docks where we sat in the shade by the canal and enjoyed a pint at the brewery. Much later on we went for an evening stroll up on Painswick beacon to catch the cooler part of the day as the sun went down. We didn’t get as much done as we had hoped but it was more about having time together rather than achieving lots. Peter (our friend) had been the main organiser of food at our DIY wedding reception. We are forever grateful. Celebrating together and sharing food with one another are such wonderful ways of connecting and rooting ourselves into the richer fabric of our community and maintaining shared histories. On Wednesday I went down to the Park to wish many Muslim friends “Eid Mubarak”. Later today I am invited to Charter Court for lamb curry with some elders from the community. Being vegetarian I won’t have lamb unfortunately but there will be time to talk, to share stories, to reflect on similarities and differences, and to build relationships.
Wedding celebrations and anniversaries, hosting old friends, and joining with others to mark festivals are all ways in which we enable the flourishing and honouring of relationships in our lives. Relationships are at the heart of our human existence because they are fundamental to God’s existence, explored within Christianity by the Trinity. The Trinity reveals to us, in all its unknowable mystery, something of the dynamic, eternal relationship of outpouring love which is God. Three in one and one in three.
This Sunday we meet to celebrate the Trinity and our growing awareness of the ever-flowing love within God and between God, humanity, and the rest of creation. The Trinity is a wonderful gift to be enjoyed and yet not an easy thing to understand. Much like all our relationships! They are things of beauty and wonder, complex and rich, but not always easy. You don’t need to have been married for 30 years to come to this conclusion but I think it has helped!
As always, if you would like me to pray for, or have a conversation about anything then do get in touch. I am available to listen and share in whatever might be arising for you at this time.
"Nothing can separate us from the love of God revealed to us in Christ Jesus" Rom 8:38-39
With peace and blessings,
Rev Steve
07503164309
My day of rest this week is Monday.