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Dear Friends
I had quite a
different letter prepared in my mind for this month but that was
before Japan’s earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent fears of
meltdown at their nuclear reactor plants. Like you I watched in
horror as buildings swayed and tumbled and people dodged debris
falling on the streets. Then, just when you thought it could get no
worse, the tsunami flooded inland, sluicing across fields, through
towns and erasing entire villages. The concerns that I might have
expressed, not least about the delay in starting the Parish Centre,
were so petty by contrast, almost as petty as the advertisements
that kept interrupting the coverage from Japan.
In the more recent
past we might have called the earthquake an ‘act of God’. When you
define God as ‘creator of heaven and earth’ who else can you blame?
Even in the more secular society we live in there was still the need
to hold someone, or something, accountable. So, lacking a divinity,
commentators personified ‘Mother Nature’ as if nature had
intentionally targeted Japan for a display of her awesome power. In
truth we are confronted by mystery and so much that is inexplicable.
However, one thing
that is perfectly clear is the interconnectedness of the world. The
earth itself is interconnected by the tectonic plates that make up
the planet, that push against each other until something snaps and
we have an earthquake. Humankind’s activity in the world cannot be
confined to one place, we are interconnected. |
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And thankfully we
are interconnected in our concern so that £12,000 collected in a
barrel outside a cathedral in Belfast is already on its way to Japan
to help in relieving the crisis.
The apostle Paul
in writing to the Colossians makes the amazing claim for Christ
that, ‘by him all things were created’ and, ‘in him all
things hold together,’ that is in Christ everything is
interconnected. The good news is that it is held together in love;
Good Friday is evidence of the depth of that love and Easter the
hope we have that love will triumph. Our prayers go out to all
touched by the present tragedy and to those whose lives are affected
by the civil unrest in Libya and beyond.
Easter
Please take note of
our services for Holy Week and Easter. Services begin with
Stainer’s Crucifixion on Palm Sunday and end with Confirmation at St
Comgall’s on Easter evening. I’m delighted to welcome Bishop Harold
as our speaker during Holy Week; he is taking as his theme, ‘The
Wonder of Christ’. Can I ask you to make a special effort to be
with us and, more than that, to consider inviting a friend or
neighbour? It would be an enormous encouragement to see the church
well filled and I can promise that the Bishop will be, as always,
engaging and thought provoking.
With best wishes,
Ronnie |
