LETTER FROM REVD LOUISE
Sadly, this my last Magazine letter before moving onto pastures news.
I would like very simply, to thank you all for your friendship, kindness and encouragement over the past 16 years. Thank you, too, for the welcome you have offered to my children and my parents: we’ve always felt very loved.
I can’t really summarise the past 16 years: we’ve done so much. We’ve worked hard together and shared some very happy times. I will be keeping you in my prayers and I would be grateful for your prayers too, as we all enter new times in our lives. Please also pray for Den our Warden, Sandra our Lay Reader, the PCC, and all who will carry new responsibilities in the coming months.
Change is unsettling and can make us grumpy… I’m sure you will strive to be constructive, positive and co-operative as the days unfold.
A number of local clergy have already agreed to help cover our Communion services and we are well-staffed with others who can lead Family Services and Morning Prayer.
You will be fine!
It will be hard work but I am completely confident that, collectively, you have the gifts, skills and enthusiasm to serve God and his church here in Shoebury.
I shall leave my last words to St Paul who, nearly 2000 years ago, expressed his love and affection for the church in Phillipi, with these words:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
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7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, all of you share in God’s grace with me.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1.2-11)
With love,
Louise.x