From the vicar (5 August)

Dear St Giles’ and St Margaret’s church families,

On that note, I’m aware that I’ve not yet had the chance to see many of you face-to-face, and I’m looking forward to visiting the 10:30 services at St Giles’ (this Sunday) and St Margaret’s (the 17^th), and even though lots of people will be off on their holidays, hopefully I will see lots of you there.

One thing that I have been thrilled to see is the extent of the progress in both churches on their respective building / development projects. It’s hard to visualise the impact of changes, however much time you’ve pored over the plans, and the impact is substantial. One of the most important things for both churches is for us to be open to our communities, and how we think about our physical space is such an important part of that (as is, of course, how we welcome visitors and newcomers to our churches).

I’m looking forward to the discussions which will be starting soon at St Margaret’s about how this wonderful rejuvenated space can be used to make God’s love known in this place – and hopefully we’ll be at a similar point at St Giles’ before too long.

Change is exciting, but it can also be scary. The unfamiliar might feel like the unsafe. We human beings can only cope with so much transformation at once. But I’d like to leave you with a poem from the late Irish poet John O’Donohue, which I have found helpful at the start of a new time or season – maybe it will speak to you as well:

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

John O’Donohue
‘For a new beginning’ from Benedictus