Welcome to the
North Wiltshire Methodist Circuit
As I write this, I am very aware that it will be the last
piece I write for the North Wiltshire Methodist Circuit website, as I will be
retiring and moving away in the summer. Partly
due to this, the theme of endings and beginnings is foremost in my mind at the
moment.
We are of course in the season of spring, when the natural
world increasingly shows signs of new life.
Each year in February and March, we have a lovely display of daffodils
on the verge outside our manse. They are
now over, but following this the blossom is out on many of the trees, others
are at various stages of new leaves budding into life, there is an increased
volume of birdsong noticeable on my morning walk across the park to get our
newspaper, and gardens are beginning to bloom, as we mark the end of the annual
cycle of decline and death in the autumn and winter, and new life in spring and
summer.
At Stratton Methodist Church we recently held a weekend of
celebrations to mark two hundred years of Methodist worship and witness in what
was then the village of Stratton St Margaret, and is now part of Swindon. With a variety of activities, from a family
Beetle Drive to craft activities for all ages, afternoon teas to organ recitals
and a concert, a display chronicling the history of Methodists in Stratton and
a celebration worship service when we were joined by friends from the local
Anglican parish, all concluding with a celebration bring and share lunch, we
remembered the early beginnings of Methodism in Stratton with a small group of
people worshipping above a wheelwright’s shop, to the various buildings which
were built and used around the area, up to the church we use today. Much of the weekend was spent in looking
back, remembering and reminiscing, but as with all anniversaries it was also a
time for looking to the future, with hope and confidence as the Methodists in
Stratton look with anticipation to what God has in store. A common birthday greeting is ‘Many Happy
Returns’, expressing the hope that a person will have many more birthdays to
celebrate, as we hope that Methodism in Stratton will also have many more
significant anniversaries to mark.
This is also a season of endings and new beginnings in the
Church year, as just a few weeks ago we
followed Jesus through the last week of his physical life on earth, from Palm
Sunday when he was welcomed into Jerusalem and acclaimed as a king by the
crowds, to his enraging the Roman secular and Jewish religious authorities by
his provocative words and actions, not least in throwing the stall holders and
money changers out of the temple, through to the last meal he shared with his
friends and his subsequent arrest, trial and execution by crucifixion. For his opponents and friends, as they laid
his lifeless body to rest in a tomb hewn out of the rock, it seemed that this
was the end. But as Sidney Carter wrote
in his hymn ‘Lord of the dance’, ‘They buried my body and they thought I’d
gone, but I am the dance, and I still dance on’. A couple of days later, some of his followers
went to the tomb and found it empty, and over the next days and weeks they
became convinced that Jesus had been raised to new life, and this conviction
transformed them from a frightened group hiding in locked rooms for fear of
their lives, into a movement which has transformed the world. What appears to be an ending often turns out
in reality to be a new beginning.
As I wrote earlier, I am coming to the end of my time in the
North Wiltshire Circuit, and as always there will be an element of sadness at
saying goodbye to places and people I have grown to value and love, but also an
element of anticipation and excitement as I look forward to seeing what God has
in store and where God is calling and leading me in the time to come. I close with a short hymn written by Joseph
Hart, which sums up some of how I am feeling at this time:
This, this is the God we adore;
our faithful, unchangeable friend;
whose love is as great as his power,
and neither knows measure nor end.
'Tis Jesus the first and the last
whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;
we'll praise him for all that is past,
and trust him for all that's to come.
Deacon Stephen Roe
Welcome to the
North Wiltshire Methodist Circuit
As I write this, I am very aware that it will be the last piece I write for the North Wiltshire Methodist Circuit website, as I will be retiring and moving away in the summer. Partly due to this, the theme of endings and beginnings is foremost in my mind at the moment.
We are of course in the season of spring, when the natural world increasingly shows signs of new life. Each year in February and March, we have a lovely display of daffodils on the verge outside our manse. They are now over, but following this the blossom is out on many of the trees, others are at various stages of new leaves budding into life, there is an increased volume of birdsong noticeable on my morning walk across the park to get our newspaper, and gardens are beginning to bloom, as we mark the end of the annual cycle of decline and death in the autumn and winter, and new life in spring and summer.
At Stratton Methodist Church we recently held a weekend of celebrations to mark two hundred years of Methodist worship and witness in what was then the village of Stratton St Margaret, and is now part of Swindon. With a variety of activities, from a family Beetle Drive to craft activities for all ages, afternoon teas to organ recitals and a concert, a display chronicling the history of Methodists in Stratton and a celebration worship service when we were joined by friends from the local Anglican parish, all concluding with a celebration bring and share lunch, we remembered the early beginnings of Methodism in Stratton with a small group of people worshipping above a wheelwright’s shop, to the various buildings which were built and used around the area, up to the church we use today. Much of the weekend was spent in looking back, remembering and reminiscing, but as with all anniversaries it was also a time for looking to the future, with hope and confidence as the Methodists in Stratton look with anticipation to what God has in store. A common birthday greeting is ‘Many Happy Returns’, expressing the hope that a person will have many more birthdays to celebrate, as we hope that Methodism in Stratton will also have many more significant anniversaries to mark.
This is also a season of endings and new beginnings in the Church year, as just a few weeks ago we followed Jesus through the last week of his physical life on earth, from Palm Sunday when he was welcomed into Jerusalem and acclaimed as a king by the crowds, to his enraging the Roman secular and Jewish religious authorities by his provocative words and actions, not least in throwing the stall holders and money changers out of the temple, through to the last meal he shared with his friends and his subsequent arrest, trial and execution by crucifixion. For his opponents and friends, as they laid his lifeless body to rest in a tomb hewn out of the rock, it seemed that this was the end. But as Sidney Carter wrote in his hymn ‘Lord of the dance’, ‘They buried my body and they thought I’d gone, but I am the dance, and I still dance on’. A couple of days later, some of his followers went to the tomb and found it empty, and over the next days and weeks they became convinced that Jesus had been raised to new life, and this conviction transformed them from a frightened group hiding in locked rooms for fear of their lives, into a movement which has transformed the world. What appears to be an ending often turns out in reality to be a new beginning.
As I wrote earlier, I am coming to the end of my time in the North Wiltshire Circuit, and as always there will be an element of sadness at saying goodbye to places and people I have grown to value and love, but also an element of anticipation and excitement as I look forward to seeing what God has in store and where God is calling and leading me in the time to come. I close with a short hymn written by Joseph Hart, which sums up some of how I am feeling at this time:
This, this is the God we adore;
our faithful, unchangeable friend;
whose love is as great as his power,
and neither knows measure nor end.
'Tis Jesus the first and the last
whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;
we'll praise him for all that is past,
and trust him for all that's to come.
Deacon Stephen Roe