The forecast was perfect, our picnics were made, our beach bags were packed and we were ready for our first major choir trip! The coach arrived promptly at 8am on Sunday 29th June and robes/music/first aid kit were duly loaded. We made impressive time, arriving at a beautifully sunny Filey ay 10am. Once robes/music were safely into St. Oswald’s, we headed for the beach. It was truly lovely to watch the children playing together and extended families chatting in the sun. Lots of picnics were shared and extra fish & chips and ice-creams were bought. We were all de-sanded and ready to sing for our rehearsal at 2.30pm - a quick break and the service began at 4pm. The 12th century church of St. Oswald stands above the Coble Landing looking over the sea and The Brigg. Within, there is a sense of peace and prayer where centuries of Christians have worshipped. The church community welcomed us with drinks and smiles - both gratefully received. I am so proud of the choir - 34 individuals coming together to worship God and share our love of music. Thank you to Andrew Kingscote & Sarah Warnes for their fantastic organ playing and Isabella Wilson for her trumpet solo. My dream was to sing a service of Remembrance and Peace in this time of instability, racism & hatred. We began with a setting of the familiar words “They shall grow not old’ followed by ‘Eternal Father Strong to save’. The service then moved into a quiet time of reflection - “Make me a channel of Your peace’. I was particularly struck by the words of the resident Church Warden. During the prayers for peace & justice, we sang a Palestinian Song for Peace using words in English and Arabic. Unknown to me, the church warden was from Syria and was moved to hear the prayer for peace in his own language. After a joyful anthem of praise “Rejoice the Lord is King’ we finished on a quieter ‘The day thou gavest’ and a hymn setting of ‘Sunset’ - the bugle call to end the day. Thank you to everyone who made our day so special Ruth Yarborough
The people of St John’s and St Luke’s want to be a people who live their lives in step with Jesus, and we believe He has given us a great way to do this through His words in Matthew 11:29-30, where he invites us to, ‘Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.’ (Message Version)Like others before us, we have called this way a ‘Rhythm of Life’ and we now have about 50 people actively involved in seeking to live by this shared rhythm. How we are trying to do this is outlined in the documents that can be accessed via this tab or on our linked website https://www.stjohnsandstlukes.org.uk/ , under the Rhythm of Life tab that should be live soon. However, in a nutshell, we are seeking to identify some steps or commitments we can each take to grow in our faith, and are then seeking to put these commitments into practice with the help of another person who we have called a ‘fellow traveller’, with whom we meet every couple of months or so.The beauty of the Rhythm of Life is that while it is a shared journey, it is also an individual journey, as no two people’s commitments will be the same.If you would like to find out more, or get involved yourself, please contact the church office via email church@stjohnsandstlukes.org.uk or Simon, the team rector simon.dowson@leeds.anglican.org.uk
