Dear Friends
As I write this letter in July we are enjoying a heat wave with a chance to soak up the sun and to enjoy the long, light evenings. I am also looking forward to some time on the Mediterranean coast as I venture with my family to Split in Croatia for a few days. Summer time brings opportunity for rest and refreshment, and is a time when many people are able to go away on holiday. It also brings a break from many of our church activities, although i am aware that planning is already under way for the new church year when it begins in September. And I am sure that those activities will be all the better if we give those who run them a chance of relaxation and recuperation from their exertions and endeavours.
The Christian life is a call to times of both rest and busy-ness, however, we may choose to describe it - as the contemplative and the active, or as prayer and service. A healthy combination of these two aspects of the christian life will help to make us well-rounded Christians. As a circuit and as congregations we have been taking time over the last few months to look at what it means to be Healthy Churches, and I hope that the process will prove to be a benefit to all of us - and the realisation that church is about being as well as doing, and learning to reflect upon (and so learn from) our experiences.
Let's pray that as we start a new year, we will do so refreshed and renewed and in good heart for all that God holds in store for us over the coming months.
Rev Phil Drake