APRIL 2026 NEWSLETTER

David Writes...

Dear friends,

Some of you may know that my academic research is concerned with the way in which communities form and define themselves. It is not just academic. Sometimes, very rarely, it happens by chance. Mostly though, we join a community because we are invited. We stay because we like the people, or the ideas they stand for. But we still feel a little on the outside, until we start to get involved. That happens in different ways at different times of our lives, and changes when circumstances change. For me, for example, over the past few years I have been moving towards retirement. Working out just what it means to be a “retired” vicar has been difficult.

With my 70th birthday approaching, this Lent and Easter have been important. Lent, because I was “grounded”, quite literally by the disastrous situation in the Middle East. I was safe in Formby, but I have friends who are still far from safe in Tehran, Lebanon and the various Gulf States. It gave me time to think, pray, and try to decide how best to use my time in whatever future is left to me.

Now, of course, we face Easter, with its promise of new beginnings, and real hope. Secure in the knowledge that we are children of God and inheritors of the heavenly kingdom.

So, what’s to do this Easter? Firstly, share the Good News with the people we know and love (think of Mary at the open tomb). Secondly, gather with friends so we can support each other when the world looks askance at us (think of the upper room). Thirdly, be prepared to welcome our living Saviour into our lives. Because Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and Life itself. 

Every blessing,
David