MARCH 2026 NEWSLETTER

David Writes...

Dear friends,

I seem to be surrounded by resolutions. My colleagues in China are just returning to work after their Lunar New Year celebrations; they cleared their desks and in-trays before the holiday and now return to a blank slate to make what they can of the coming year.My colleagues in the Emirates are occupied with hungry, thirsty days and family parties in the evening as, for them, it is Ramadan. The devout amongst them are thinking of others less fortunate than themselves.

For us, we are deep in Lent. Are you one of those people who gives something up for Lent? It is rather less fashionable now than in earlier times, but it is still a time to reassess priorities. Many, many, years ago, I preached my first “public” sermon. It was to the inmates of Walton Prison (where I was on a six month “pastoral placement”). I was walking in to help lead the service and the Priest tapped me on the shoulder and told me I was to preach. The reading, as this year, was “temptation in the wilderness” and I felt most uncomfortable… Which leads me to my Lenten observance. I try to give up worrying. Or, if you want a more positive slant, I try to remember that I am a child of God and an inheritor of the heavenly kingdom.

So, as we take this time to look back at the past and forward to the future, let us hold on to that. God loves and understands each of us – so we wait together for Holy Week and Easter Day.

Every blessing,
David