5 Jan 2025 Godalming Minster Church Street
Listen to the audio recording Simon Taylor’s last talk and read the transcript of Catherine’s parting words and Simon’s last sermon using the links below:
Category: Rector’s reflections
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Moving On: Simon’s announcement 8 Sep 2024
Dear friends, Sept 2024
Our Scripture last Sunday was “for I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
A community of 400 people of prayer and praise
In the services, I announced that after nearly fifteen years of Christian ministry in Godalming area, our family is moving on. We do so with grateful hearts for all of you and after much prayer and reflection. So much has been achieved as a church family by working together in prayer and activity. All of this will continue because it isn’t about one person, but about a community of 400 people of prayer and praise. We’ve become a deeper community that celebrates one another in Christ. We have something quite special here as a Minster.
My sadness is that I am stepping away at a time when so much is beginning to grow. It would have been lovely to remain to be part of this, but God’s call is to live out our faith actively. It means living the truth that as Christians we are temporary dwellers, wherever we are and that we are called to obey him. The Bible calls us sojourners or elect exiles. We live in the faith to travel lightly because of Christ.
Thank you
It has been a privilege to be God’s steward here for so many years. Together, we have shared moments of joy, supported one another in times of hardship, and grown together as a community of believers. Your faithfulness to God, and your willingness to serve one another and our wider community is a message of Christ’s love.
Over the summer, I was offered a new role that now leads our family into a new chapter. While leaving the Minster is not easy and we are stepping out in faith in this, the words of Proverbs 3:5-6 are powerful: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” I know that His plans for all of us are good and true. God’s plans for His people locally are for good things and he will already be raising and preparing the next Rector for their own change of calling.
New role
I leave parish ministry at a final service on 5 January 2025, to which everyone is welcome. My new role will be to work nationally with a Christian organisation (CPAS) in leadership development, clergy support and supporting churches in evangelism. We hope to stay in the Guildford area, and we are exploring what this might look like.
The next person
The appointment of a new Rector is a time of adjustment, but we know the Lord provides. We are a church of spiritually equipped people with two deeply committed churchwardens in David and Will and a fantastic ministry team. Our wonderful Associate Rector, Rev Simon Willetts, is such a rock of faith for a time such as this. Simon led the church through my sabbatical, and I am told that I wasn’t even missed! That says so much about everyone: the staff team, clergy and LLMs, pastoral and congregational leaders and, in fact, every person. A Rector leaving is not about loss but about God’s space for renewed growth. The churchwardens have a meeting scheduled with the Archdeacon, and Simon W and the Churchwardens have started to meet together regularly.
I want to express my deepest thanks to each of you for the trust and love you have shown throughout my time here. As Philippians 1:3-4 says, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.” Our family will carry many memories as we pass the baton to God’s next person who will do great things in the power and love of the Spirit.
After Jan 5th 2025
After Jan 5th the Minster will be in a vacancy, or interregnum. The Archdeacon and Area Dean will guide the Minster through this period. The Area Dean (Rev Chris Bessant) is excellent. He is fully supportive of the Minster as he is on Bishop’ Council and was part of the support for how the Minster was developed.
In due course, the parish will be invited to engage in a vision and vacancy workshop, facilitated by the Diocese. I have given permission for some of the pre-work and consultation to begin in the next couple of months. This should bring the timeline for an appointment forward. The PCC will discuss some of the process when it meets next week. There will be a call to prayer. There will be a Section 11 meeting of the PCC where legal processes begin. A Parish Profile will be compiled which describes the Minster and what the role for the new Rector entails.
We have such a gift in what the Minster is; I am convinced that many clergy will want to be part of it. Interviews are likely to take place around May 2025 (subject to Bishop/Archdeacon/Patron availability). The panel involves the Bishop and/or Archdeacon, Parish Reps, The Patron and the Area Dean.
One body together
Please be praying for the ministry team, churchwardens and staff team. Please offer your practical support, time and energy as the Minster’s work continues to develop. If you hear of a need or see someone needing help, please step forward with your gifts and skills. It is at times like this that we learn to pull together in new ways, overlook differences and recognise the importance of the unity that we have. This is a time for continued growth for God’s Kingdom throughout the Minster.
In Christ,
Simon and Catherine
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Penhill was always there, even if I couldn’t see it in the rain
Earlier this year I went to the Yorkshire Dales for a reunion of four friends from our youth group days. We arrived full of great intentions to walk, hike and climb but we had forgotten to take one thing into account. The UK weather! We arrived to wind, mud and snow instead of warm sunshine. It didn’t take us long to shift our plan. Why? Because we realised that our clambering over the terrain in those conditions wouldn’t look as good to others as in our minds. We might imagine ourselves as gazelles leaping, but the reality would be more earthy!
Walking went out of the window, except for one particularly long walk. We spent the week justifying our new plan as if somehow it had always been a superior one. In our minds, it became the plan we’d always had! Admittedly, it was enjoyable as we took a Theakston’s brewery tour, sampled Aasygaarth tea rooms and visited the Wensleydale cheese factory but it was a poor substitute for where we’d hoped we’d end up.
In life, our best plans can go out of the window. We take a different tack than we intend because we convince ourselves that we’ve made a mistake in the first place; or our great intentions seem to be a waste of time in the face of situations; or we’re worried that others might see our struggles and slip ups.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve found some of our church plans have needed to be double checked. We thought the Busbridge Church tower and roof were sound, but the UK weather and squirrels have taken their toll. Our plans began to be reshaped. The question we asked ourselves was what the building meant to people. Did the tower, and the integrity of the building, matter? What did it mean to have the tower there? Should we let the community know that we were having to grapple with a significant issue with this Grade 2* building that we’re stewards of for future generations?
When we told the community about the tower problems, we had no idea what the reaction might be. A local firm is supporting us with the works. A roofer offered his expertise free of charge. Individuals have given funds. Ben Rogers has completed a bare-foot 39 mile hike from the coast to Busbridge. Ben’s already raised £4,000, and it’s not too late to sponsor him on his gofundme page.
We all face dilemmas. Circumstance change, but that doesn’t mean give up. In the Dales, no matter where we drove, a huge tor called Penhill always in sight. Even in the rain, it was obvious this huge tor was still there. It stood there like a sentinel. Yes, we climbed it. That hill became a comforting symbol of constancy despite the changing plans and uncertainty. It stood there reassuring us that we were indeed in the Dales, in the right place, and together as friends.
We might be concerned that people might see our struggles, but God’s love means we don’t need to hide the struggles behind closed in windows. Situations often seem too vast for us, but our situations are never without hope if they centre on good intentions. Like Penhill, God’s presence is constant, even if changing plans of snow, mist and rain of life obscure our awareness of God. As the Bible puts it:
“You will make known to me the path of life, in your presence is fullness” (Psalm 16)
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Rector’s Reflection: DDay80 “I remember the Old Days, and I cry”
At 11am today, there was an important act of remembrance and service at the Godalming Town War Memorial besides Godalming Minster Church Street. The public gathered alongside representatives of the military, emergency services, those in civic and council service, town representatives and the British Legion gathered to commemorate the terrible sacrifices on D-Day, 6th June 1944.
The mayor of Godalming, Cllr Paul Rivers gave the exhortation and there was a chill in the spine as the bugle sounded and the union flag was slowly lowered. It was a time to stand together across faiths and backgrounds, whether spiritual, religious or otherwise. As we stood as one, 80 years ago at that moment, the World was being changed by individuals who banded together and died where people now sunbathe. As the Minster’s representative for the town, I had the humbling privilege of leading this service.
I shared a recollection from a young man who had staggered ashore 80 years ago. His abiding memory was “what upset me most were all the dead soldiers in the sea, one of which had his pay book hanging out. Funny how you remember some of the little things.”
When we think of the sweep of history or the enormity of events, we can easily forget that every person is created by God. There are no little things, or insignificant people in the losses of sacrifice. Every sacrifice in fighting for peace is a momentous one that sends shivers through time.
My second thought was from the words that opened the D-Day operation. A single person in a radio booth in England gave this message across the BBC “Wound my heart with a monotonous Languor.”
These words were had previously been written by a 22 year old poet, Paul Verlaine, to reflect the sadness of growing old. At 23:15 hours on June 5th they were the coded message to the French Resistance that the invasion was about to being.
What does sacrifice look like? A 22-year-old wrote a poem about not wanting to grow old, and here it was being used to announce that thousands of young people would never grow old. Sacrifice is each of them stepping ashore in a World of turmoil and bloodshed knowing that they were fighting for lasting, just peace against evil.
The poem continues “All breathless And pale, when The hour sounds, I remember The old days And I cry;” Today, we are called to cry.
Crying like this is an ancient Christian sign of lament, and it is perhaps something lost in a modern, fast paced World. Crying for lost youth, families broken by war, nations destroyed for generations, borders that become places of conflict rather than connection; and today, a cry to remember sacrifice and to live as people and communities so that we are worthy of the man whose pay book hung from his pocket as he lay in the tide.
Let us live worthy lives in honour of their sacrifice.
With particular thanks to Councillor Paul Rivers, Mayor of Godalming and consort Cllr Penny Rivers; Paul Follows, Leader of the Council and Armed Forces Champion, Flt Lieutenant Poulter of 154 Squadron; Dave Sargent of Godalming Band; Neil Godden for the Emergency Services; Fiona Jenkins of the British Legion and Andy Jeffrey of Godalming Town Council.
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Rector’s Reflection: DDay80 “I remember the Old Days, and I cry”
At 11am today, there was an important act of remembrance and service at the Godalming Town War Memorial besides Godalming Minster Church Street. The public gathered alongside representatives of the military, emergency services, those in civic and council service, town representatives and the British Legion gathered to commemorate the terrible sacrifices on D-Day, 6th June 1944.
The mayor of Godalming, Cllr Paul Rivers gave the exhortation and there was a chill in the spine as the bugle sounded and the union flag was slowly lowered. It was a time to stand together across faiths and backgrounds, whether spiritual, religious or otherwise. As we stood as one, 80 years ago at that moment, the World was being changed by individuals who banded together and died where people now sunbathe. As the Minster’s representative for the town, I had the humbling privilege of leading this service.
I shared a recollection from a young man who had staggered ashore 80 years ago. His abiding memory was “what upset me most were all the dead soldiers in the sea, one of which had his pay book hanging out. Funny how you remember some of the little things.”
When we think of the sweep of history or the enormity of events, we can easily forget that every person is created by God. There are no little things, or insignificant people in the losses of sacrifice. Every sacrifice in fighting for peace is a momentous one that sends shivers through time.
My second thought was from the words that opened the D-Day operation. A single person in a radio booth in England gave this message across the BBC “Wound my heart with a monotonous Languor.”
These words were had previously been written by a 22 year old poet, Paul Verlaine, to reflect the sadness of growing old. At 23:15 hours on June 5th they were the coded message to the French Resistance that the invasion was about to being.
What does sacrifice look like? A 22-year-old wrote a poem about not wanting to grow old, and here it was being used to announce that thousands of young people would never grow old. Sacrifice is each of them stepping ashore in a World of turmoil and bloodshed knowing that they were fighting for lasting, just peace against evil.
The poem continues “All breathless And pale, when The hour sounds, I remember The old days And I cry;” Today, we are called to cry.
Crying like this is an ancient Christian sign of lament, and it is perhaps something lost in a modern, fast paced World. Crying for lost youth, families broken by war, nations destroyed for generations, borders that become places of conflict rather than connection; and today, a cry to remember sacrifice and to live as people and communities so that we are worthy of the man whose pay book hung from his pocket as he lay in the tide.
Let us live worthy lives in honour of their sacrifice.
With particular thanks to Councillor Paul Rivers, Mayor of Godalming and consort Cllr Penny Rivers; Paul Follows, Leader of the Council and Armed Forces Champion, Flt Lieutenant Poulter of 154 Squadron; Dave Sargent of Godalming Band; Neil Godden for the Emergency Services; Fiona Jenkins of the British Legion and Andy Jeffrey of Godalming Town Council.
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Rector’s Reflection: The shoulders of Giants
Rev Ian Gordon-Cumming (left) with past and present members of the Busbridge and Hambledon clergy team on the 150th Anniversary of Busbridge Church in 2017. Eph 1:15
“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”
As we look forward as a Minster, it is important to remember that we build on deep foundations laid by God. Those foundations include thankfulness for people who have been so inspired by Jesus Christ that they have built the incredible legacy which we are inheritors of.
One such person is Rev Ian Gordon-Cumming. Ian’s name may not be widely known in the Godalming area as he was the vicar of Busbridge between 1978-1987, yet his legacy lives on. Ian died recently and his funeral is at Chichester Cathedral on 29th Feb.
Ian came to Busbridge Church at a time of financial challenge and when there questions about its purpose and future. Ian’s energy and Christ focused love brought something new. He brought a fresh focus to youth work, guitars into Easter services, an innovation called a family service which has grown into our Muddy Church, and a passion for preaching and for God to grow His church.
There is a saying that good work builds on the shoulders of giants. Much that we take for granted today across the Minster has a direct or indirect path back to Ian’s beginnings. He loved all God’s people and he remembered the people of Busbridge Church in particular in his prayers, long into retirement.
Ian had been long retired as I took up my own ministry in the Godalming-Hambledon area in 2010. He was one of the first people to ring me to express hope for the Gospel to continue to be preached locally and to offer to pray for me. His faithful love of Busbridge Church and the people of Godalming lived on.
Ian returned to the area in 2017 for the 150th anniversary celebration of Busbridge Church. Rev Rachel Heathfield (Head), who was in Godalming in the 1980s, wrote at that time “so many people… have gone on from Busbridge to other ministry around the country. It is indeed a “sending” church. I wonder how many people can tell the same story as me of an encounter with Jesus during a service there that has set my lifetime vocation? I was only 13 but it’s as vivid now as it was then. I am forever grateful for Ian Gordon-Cummings for taking me seriously and for hastening me into leadership opportunities”.
As we build on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ who we follow, we do so in thankfulness for the foundations of people and their work for God. Without Ian there may not have been successors to him who built on his pioneering work and his shoulders of faith.
This is an opportunity to give thanks for those who have supported our personal firm foundation of faith in Jesus Christ. It is an invitation to ask God to enable us to become people who others might look back at in decades to come.
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Easter is when the garden that represented death becomes the garden of proof of Life
When I was at primary school we had a glorious cookery lesson which has stayed with me ever since. We made bread. My memory is still full of the smell of the bread as it rose in the oven and our eager faces as we anticipated tasting it.
One of my friends camped out in front of his oven. He sat there for hours, peering through the glass because he was afraid that he’d miss out on the moment when the bread suddenly jumped into life and rose!
This is a great image of our celebration of recent Easter Day whether that was formally or within informal worship, with guitars or a robed choir. It is Resurrection Sunday. What a glorious day! It is our day of celebration when we gather as God’s people to glorify the Risen Saviour. We taste and see the fruits of the Holy Spirit as we gather in worship and thanksgiving – and this year, at Busbridge Church, we gave thanks for a particular couple who have lived the Christian life locally for many decades.
I read the other day that there are fewer Christians in the UK but there are more spiritually hungry people. What does a spiritually enquiring person find in Easter Sunday? That Christian faith is full of meaning, life, hope, purpose and the freedom from fear that is craved by all. Deep down, my experience of many people’s life stories is that they arrive at Christianity last on their spiritual quest because they haven’t realised that the deepest fears of life are met in Jesus Christ.
My school friend was like a reflection of much of life. He was afraid he’d miss out! So many people live in fear of not quite making the mark in their independence, autonomy, rights, experiences, relationships, or just missing out on stuff. The antidote to fear of missing out is one of our themes for the year from Mark 6:50. “Jesus immediately said to them ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid”.
Fear is deeply rooted in what went wrong in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:10). Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate antidote to fear. The garden that represented death has become the garden of proof of life. It is no mistake that in the Garden Jesus’ first words after he’d risen were the ultimate corrective to Genesis 3:10. His words spoke freedom from fear. He said “why are you crying?” and the angels first response to the visitors to the tomb is “Don’t be alarmed”. Later Jesus speaks “Peace” to the disciples when he powerfully appeared within a locked room. I reckon they clung onto that word as they worked out what on earth was going on!
Easter Day is the high point of the Christian year and its smell and experience lingers with us as we head through 2023 as a Minster Church for all of Godalming and area. We gathered as the community of life to taste and see once again that there is only One Lord, One Faith, One Hope.
We no longer need to camp like my friend and his oven to watch and wait in case we miss out. We have arrived at the fullness of Life. Easter Day is Resurrection Sunday in the garden, but the story in the garden continues.
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A positive pattern in troubling times
What do the following all have in common?
Paypal, Deloitte, Adobe, Brewdog, Buffer, Vistaprint, Church of England
All tech companies?
No. Brewdog is a brewery.
All created since 1845 (when Deloitte was founded)? No, the Church of England has been around for a very long time!
So what’s the connection?
Answer: They all invest in their people’s wellbeing through providing sabbaticals. The word sabbatical comes from the Latin for Sabbath – the Lord’s day of rest. So, a sabbatical is a faith-idea about rest and good patterns of living well. The first reference to the word sabbatical in the UK was in the 1590s!
There’s something special about the idea of a time of rest. We’ve lost that art and I don’t see that it is doing people much good. In many people’s eyes who I meet I don’t see rest, but exhaustion.
The Bible says that there should be a rest period every seventh day and every seventh year because this is God’s best pattern for us (Lev 25:1). If someone is in debt then they should be released from it on the seventh year so that it does not burden them too much (Deut 15:1).
A field should be left fallow to recover on the seventh year (Ex 23:10). If a time of rest is good enough for a field and God’s creation order, then it is a good model for us in our daily lives. That’s why churches have historically gathered people every seventh day. I have my old physics teacher in mind when I recall his words all those years ago when he taught us about the limits of stretching something “If you stretch an elastic band beyond its elasticity, it isn’t any good any longer.”
If you feel stretched, can I invite you to consider what your sabbath pattern could look like? Is Sunday just another day? If you’ve fallen out of the pattern of church on Sunday, please consider the benefits of what it releases in your spirit (Deut 15:1-2).
My sabbatical has come to me after being delayed due to covid lockdowns. It isn’t the seventh year but something approaching a quarter of a century! The question is, what does a vicar do on a three month sabbatical? Mine is a diverse undertaking.
I’m going to Barcelona to look at a cave where Ignatius of Loyola pondered the meaning of life. He formed a Rule of Life shaped on Christian faith which might stand many of us in good stead in the midst of an increasing fractured and World and communities:
· More – seek to do things well
· With – to be alongside others
· Cura Personalis – respect for all, even in disagreement
· Heartbeat –of heart, mind and soul together
· Ad Majorem Dei Gloria – God matters
· Ethic – living well
I think these are universal desires for good patterns of living. I’ll be returning with some thoughts on what this might look like to benefit many of us in a busy Surrey community and local church.
Of course, Barcelona also has Camp Nou (aka Spotify stadium) so that will be a different bit of experience for the heart!
I’ll be taking some time to walk part of the South West Coastal Path to follow in the footsteps of Raynor Winn’s book ‘Salt Path’. I’ll be visiting my favourite retreat centre, the Roman Catholic community of Chemin Neuf in Storrington, West Sussex, which I tend to visit twice a year. Between these times there’ll be space for a few past times that have slipped over the past quarter of a century of serving the church and the local community as your vicar.
The church is in great hands with many fabulous volunteers and a brilliant staff team who serve everyone locally with such love and devotion. We’ve got a very able team of vicars here so all the usual vicar things of both joy and sorrow will continue uninterrupted.
If you see me around, do say hi.
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The noise and quiet of Christmas
The noise and quiet of Christmas
Are you ready for the noise of Christmas? The first proper Christmas in three years! Noisy and busy Christmas jumpers at the ready? The bustle is beginning. Last Sunday we were full at both Busbridge and Hambledon churches for the morning family carols. We’ve just hit the 300 mark for the second Christmas Eve candlelit family carols and the first service is already completely booked up –even with us taking the service on tour to the much bigger venue of StP&Ps in the town centre.
What noise does Christmas make for you? I’d like to invite you to a noise that ripples through time – it is the noise of Christmas quiet.
‘quiet hurtled
through the store
barging noise… away’
Some years ago I was in a shop when a mother had lost her child. It wasn’t the scream that stopped everyone. It was the deep hush – the quiet – that descended afterwards as everyone froze and looked around. The quiet hurtled through the store barging noise and activity away.
We’ve all lost something this year. How do we cope? We fill it with activity – with noise. Noise of football or rugby terraces, noise of anger or aggression, noise of more work, more work more work, noise of family, friends and feasting.
Noise is familiar and safe, but it drowns something that the courageous listen for. Noise drowns quiet out and, like in the supermarket, quiet stillness is alien to us and it discomforts us until we realise that the quiet is the best place to be.
‘Courageous people are willing
to reach into Christmas
beyond the noise and
look into the quiet of the soul’
Quiet is when we run out of noise. When I speak to people who have entered quiet, they find that quiet changes them. Why? It allows our souls to speak and for us to seek our souls. It is people of courage who are willing to remain in quiet rather than revert to the noise that is distracting. Courageous people are willing to reach into Christmas, beyond the noise, and look into the quiet of the soul. We fill our lives with noise to avoid the quiet in the soul because our souls are restless for the quiet of God’s peace.
“After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face
and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave”.
2 Kings 19
In recent weeks I’ve experienced two situations of the deepest quiet. It is as if time has stopped. In both situations, those I was with were courageous and allowed the quiet to dwell. They had both suffered incalculable loss, both had distance to contend with and both were entering a profoundly changing experience. Noise ceased. Quiet descended.
The sound of Christmas is to bring the quiet of peace to our souls. It is the quiet whisper of God that says into our lives “what are you doing?” because God has plans for who we are, what we are to do and how we are to be. People of quietened souls reconnected to God by Christ are people who do things differently. We are purveyors of quiet into noise and bringers of peace into aggression.
The quiet of Christmas is the cry of a new-born baby. Have you ever been in a situation where you have heard a new-born baby cry? Somehow, it evokes a response – an awareness. It silences our noise and we become acutely aware for a moment – we check for danger for the infant. This Christmas, Jesus cries out to us not as an infant but as the Mighty God everlasting, the author and perfector of the quiet peace of our souls and our souls quietly soar in response.
‘The quiet of Christmas is the cry of a new-born baby’
Isaiah 9: 5For every trampling boot of battle and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.
Merry noisy and soul-quietened Christmas to you all. Here’s to 2023 as we courageously step out in quiet faith.
Simon Taylor (Rev)
Christmas 2022 -
BHC4Ukraine: Organise. Support. Host. Finance. Pray. Check
“Hope is a spark of glory”
Thomas Brooks Preacher of the House of Commons c1648
If you’ve signed up to host Ukrainian refugees or are likely to do so, please could you complete a simple poll so that we have an idea of possible numbers involved. Please do this in the next 48 hours
HOSTS FOR UKRAINIANS POLL LINK
We are wondering how widespread the hosting-support might be.
The question this raises is how the spark ignited in us by the Holy Spirit has become a flame of Christ-shaped compassionate hope. Sparks of hope change us and bring goodness from even the deepest places of darkness and despair.
A spark of hope
In 2004 a Ukrainian reformer stood for president. His name was Viktor Yushchenko. He suffered a strange case of dioxin poisoning but he courageously refused to back down. He knew that a huge majority of 92% of the population had voted for independence some years previously.
On the 2004 election night two things happened. Despite his exit poll lead, Yushchenko seemed to lose the election. The other situation concerned an unknown lady called Natalya.
Natalya was the deaf-sign-translator who featured at the bottom of the tv screen to communicate to the deaf community that Yuschenko had lost the election, except she didn’t! Natalya instead signed these words, which ignited like a spark:
“Don’t believe what they say. They are lying and I am ashamed to translate these lies. Yushchenko is our President!”.
One woman’s stand sparked hope amongst the deaf community as they texted and emailed friends. A reaction set in. Half a million people gathered in Kyiv and a spark became a flame. [For more on Natalya, see Christianity Today March 2022]
The spark in us
What is the spark that has been ignited in us as we have seen recent images and heard the news? How has the spark become a flame in our lives? How do we sense this spark within us is a calling of the Holy Spirit to live differently, be transformers for good and become more Christ like?
As a church, we aspire to reflect the living flame of Christ because Christ is eternal hope in a darkening world. As the lights have gone out in a part of eastern Europe it surely brings the light of our faith into glowing focus.
We are called to offer hospitality to the traumatised refugee because loving deeply reflects our hope in Christ (1 Peter 4:9). Hospitality is the Greek word philoxenos – love of the stranger. We cannot all take someone into our homes and each person’s circumstance is different. The flame of hope will burn differently for each of us. One may have a gift of a home to share, another may provide food, someone may bring their administrative skills into an organising group, someone else may offer finances (1 Peter 4:10-11).
In recent days the PCC (church trustees) has met, the church leadership has discussed Ukraine and the Channel for Mission group has expanded to encompass a team of willing volunteer organisers. We desire to commit us as a church to six things: organise, host, finance, support, pray, check. None are of the magnitude of Natalya’s words or deeds, but each is a word and deed that communicates that the spark has become a flame of our faithfulness to God. None of us can do all of them.
The flame of response
1 Organise. We need organisers. We’ve learnt from how Afghan and Syrian refugees have been supported. We have formed an organising group to co-ordinate how we might respond as a church, with hosts and with local people. We need several more members. Please email Simon Taylor, Simon Willetts or Shelgah Godwin to join the group. This is a group which will act as a conduit to coordinate work with others locally like the council, churches, Hambledon village team and voluntary groups. It may place refugees or this may be done by the council/government. It will ensure we provide welcome and look at how to support people. It will not be sourcing furnishings or fridge, running or errands. It is an organising group.
2 Host. If you have signed your home up to receive a refugee, or intend to do so, please complete the poll in the next 48 hours. We will keep any information you share confidential. We will only share your name and contact details with the organising group. We simply seeking to gain a general sense of the numbers involved.
3 Finance. Be ready to provide financially, probably via our church family support fund and restricted specifically to Ukrainian support, locally for the refugees/hosts so that they can do things like open a bank account. Please don’t give to this yet. Do give to DEC and other groups directly sending funds elsewhere. Hambledon church and village community are already working together and have an organising team and have raised several thousand pounds which is being held in the church account in a special restricted fund.
4 Support. Be ready to offer practical support to refugees/hosts. You might want to let the organising team know if you have any particular gifts or interests to offer.
5 Pray, and join our regular vigils 7.30pm Hambledon and 8pm Busbridge – Tuesdays.
6 Check our webpage on this whole situation; we will keep it updated.