Saturday 15 August 2020

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I look forward to seeing many of you at church tomorrow. We have managed to fit everyone into church again but the church will be completely full! The service will of course also be available online Thank you to all those who help to ensure the services in church run smoothly and to Hector and Martin for putting the material online.

You can book seats for next Sunday, 23rd August, either online or by ringing the office. Please try to book your seat by midnight on Wednesday. It will be a special occasion next Sunday as, during our Eucharist, Rachel will be baptised. Please keep Rachel in your prayers.

When we pray either in church or on our own at home we conclude our prayers with the word Amen. We say it again and again, but perhaps we don't often think about what it means. It means 'so be it' or 'it is so' and is a way of expressing agreement with what is said. Put simply, when we say 'Amen', we are saying yes to God; we are expressing our wholehearted agreement with all we have prayed. When we think about it like that we might have to admit that we don't always quite mean the 'Amen' we say.

Today, 15th August, is the day we we remember the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Anglican Church. I realise there will be a range of different attitudes towards Mary and her significance in our Christian lives. But I'm sure one thing we can all agree is that Mary said yes to God in a wholehearted way when she responded to the angel Gabriel, saying 'let it be to me according to your word.' So be it; yes; Amen.

In less dramatic ways, in the midst of our own ordinary lives, God wants us also to say yes to him. Of course, we can only do this because God first says yes to us in creating, loving and redeeming the world. May we in return learn to say Amen more wholeheartedly; responding more fully and deeply to all he gives to us.

You may find this poem by Malcolm Guite helpful:

Amen

When will I ever learn to say Amen,
really assent at last to anything?
For now my hesitations always bring
some reservation in their trail, and then
each reservation brings new hesitations;
all my intended amens just collapse
in an evasive mumble; well, perhaps,
let me consider all the implications...

But you can read my heart, I hear you say:
For once be present to me, I am here,
breathe in the perfect love that casts out fear,
open your heart and let your yea be yea.
Oh, bring me to that brink, that moment when
I see your full-eyed love and say, Amen.

With my love in Christ,
Helen