Dear Friends,This weekend we come to the end of the Church year with the feast of Christ the King. This feast is a reminder that the journey that we walk with Jesus each year, from anticipating his birth at Advent, celebrating the incarnation at Christmas, watching his ministry unfold and find its fulfillment in his death and resurrection, and then recognising the presence of his Spirit in our lives as inner guidance in living according to his teaching, that journey ends in the triumph of God's love revealed in Christ over all things. This is a sovereignty that is not domination of oppression but service and freedom - it takes the yearly journey with Jesus year by year for us to grow into a full understanding of how God's power reigns in love.This is a good time to reflect back on where you have glimpsed that love in our life through the last year, to give thanks for those times and to ask for God's grace to enter Advent with anticipation of seeing that love at work ever more clearly in the year to come.I will be taking the middle of the coming week (21st-26th) as some Annual Leave in preparation for our journey to Christmas through Advent. I'll attach the list of special services in December with this letter.God blessSamantha
Dear friends,This Remembrance Sunday much of my sermon has been inspired by one of the prayers from the children's Act of Remembrance on Friday. It takes the symbol of the poppy and links particular areas for prayer with the petals and the colour and the poppy's centre. Whilst the simple red poppy remains the main visual way of remembering those who have lost life in conflict through these days in November - it has inspired crafted versions, gilded versions, wrist bands and more ways to display a poppy in homes, on cars, in the street. We see purple poppies worn to mark the loss of animals' lives in the service of our defence, and the white poppy cries out for a peace that will end the destruction of war forever.The first poppies recalled the red poppies of Flanders and were the simple act of Remembrance of the whole generation of young men lost in one war - so shocking it must be the war to end all wars. The emergence of a symbolic field of wildflowers, as the years have passed and war continues to be a presence in the world, reminds us that the simple act of remembering has widened to draw in those lost in other conflicts and those who mourn for them, those who have returned from wars fought in our name with mind or body injured in the fight, those who continue to put their lives at risk in so many ways to protect and care for us, those who seek to find or preserve peace.This year we "remember" while once more there is war being waged on our own continent and in the towns and cities where services are being held at cenotaphs, there are Ukrainian refugees living far from home and fearing for their loved ones.To honour those who gave and give their todays for our tomorrow, let us pray for the hearts of all who take up violence to further their cause to be turned to peace, for all who lead the nations to be guided by a search for co-operation and the common good and for the peace that passes all understanding to keep our own hearts in the knowledge of the love of God and inspire us to share that love by all that we are and all that we do.God blessSamantha
Dear Friends,Unusually, this year we have a Sunday between All Saints and Remembrance Sunday. Because of this I have included with this mailing the prayers used for the Commemoration of All Souls (marked usually on 2nd November). This commemoration gives us a time to remember those we love who have died, entrusting them to God's eternal love. It is, of course, not long since the nation marked the death of our much loved Queen Elizabeth and for many people this brought very close their more personal bereavements. Today's readings offer us deep assurance that it is God's will to carry us through death into the eternal life Jesus reveals in his death and resurrection. I pray that in all our remembering we can find God's presence comforting us in grief and reassuring us with the hope of life in his closer presence for both those we love, and for ourselves.Next week there will be services with an Act of Remembrance across the Mission Community:November 11th 10.45 Act of Remembrance for West Exmoor Federation at Woody Bay stationSunday 13th November9am Holy Communion at Martinhoe10.45 Act of Remembrance at the Town Hall in Lynton followed by a service at St Mary'sAct of Remembrance at ParracombeService of Remembrance at Oare Church to which the congregation of Brendon are invitedAlso this week - on Tuesday I will be installed as Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral. This is by the Bishop's appointment and the role of a prebendary is to create closer links between parishes and the Cathedral. Later in the year I will be invited to preach at Evensong - perhaps it will be a good excuse for a Mission Community trip to Exeter!God blessSamantha
Dear Friends,This week we are transferring the feast of All Saints from the 1st November to a Sunday to enable its full celebration. It is a 5th Sunday of the month so all are invited to join in with the 11am Holy Communion at Lynton.The celebration of All Saints carries into a season of the church year that we call Kingdom Season - it is a time for focusing on the promise of God for our future. This includes the promise that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we can trust that God's love carries us through our own death, to share in God's closer presence, and that we can entrust those we love, who have died, into that same eternal love. Importantly this season also takes us beyond our own individual future to remember that God's promise is to gather all things into the eternity of love: all creation into renewal and rest.As we celebrate All Saints we are reminded that though we worship in small communities, we are surrounded by a great host of those whose perpetual worship is in the closer presence of God - from every period of past history, from every nation, from so many varied experiences of expressing their life of faith - all now united in love for the God who holds us all in being, in earth as it is in heaven. The promises of God are as individual as each of us, and as immense as to be beyond our imagining.There is a tradition, which we will be keeping in church on Sunday, of finding a saint to inspire and guide the coming year. Many saints' stories are very familiar to us, others less so, but this tradition encourages us to find out more about those with whom we share faith though perhaps from very different experiences.For those who are not able to come to church I have included the list with this mailing. You may just like to choose a name that interests you. In church I will encourage all who want to to take a "lucky dip" and pull a name from a basket. If you can't come but would like me to pull one for you do drop me an email and I will let you know which saint has found you!As we celebrate All Saints, All Hallows as it was traditionally called, let's pray that as we find our inspiration in those in whose lives God's light has shone bright, so our lives will encourage others to find their joy in all that is good, loving and holy.God blessSamantha
