Dear Friends,

 

The weather may be about to break (in time for the North Somerset Show!) but this really has been the most glorious Spring, with clear blue skies, brilliant green in the unfurling leaves of the trees, and wonderful blossom. After that grim winter, it was worth waiting for. In these weeks following Easter, there has been an abundance of new life all around us, as if all creation has been celebrating the resurrection.

 

The week after Easter Sunday, we held our Annual Parish Meeting in the Cross Tree Centre (another focus of new life in our parish), and our guest speaker was Chris Jenkins from Wells,

who came to tell us about 'Giving for Life', the campaign recently launched by our Diocese to challenge all of us to think about our attitudes to giving. This is not just a matter of money, although of course that is part of it. It's about feeling that we belong, and have a sense of responsibility, towards our local church. Therefore we will want to do what we can – whoever we are – to support and sustain the work the church is doing. At our meeting we talked about our parish and the local community, and how best we can serve those living here.

 

We live in a society in which people seem to have become ever more concerned about their own interests, rather than those of the community at large. All voluntary organisation – not just the church – are finding it hard to persuade people to make a commitment and get involved. We all seem to have become very private in our priorities – home and family always come first, and sometimes there's no time or energy or money for anything else.

 

Have we lost sight of what used to be known as 'the common good'? That which is best for all of us, not just for me and my family? That which may challenge us to make personal sacrifices so that the interests of the wider community may be better served? Those who serve voluntarily in public service deserve our thanks – people such as our local councillors, who give up many hours when they could be gardening or with their families or pursuing their own interests, in order to serve the local community.

 

As I write this,. The outcome of the General Election is not known – anything could happen!

My hope is that the erosion of the traditional 'two-horse race', with the possibility of shared leadership between the three main parties, may result in some fresh thinking which may pursue the ideal of 'the common good', rather than the dogma of one political party.

 

Whatever happens, there will be a new beginning, and whoever takes over will face many challenges. Is it too much to hope that a new spirit of change and hopefulness will encourage more people to feel that changes are possible, and that they will be prepared to get stuck in to make a difference? An end to complacency and a willingness to give something back would have such a transforming effect.

 

So what does all this have to do with the burgeoning of nature all around us?  This, I think: that we are blessed by an incredibly generous Creator, who gives lavishly for us all to enjoy – and that some of this generosity should be reflected in our lives, our attitudes, our giving, the way we spend out time and money.

 

A simple hymn we used to sing when I was in Primary School expresses this spirit of generosity:

I learned it in the meadow path,

I learned it on the mountain stairs -

the best things any mortal hath

are those which every mortal shares.

 

The air we breathe, the sky, the breeze,

the light without us and within,

life with its unlocked treasuries,

God's riches are for all to win.

The grass is softer to my tread

because it rests unnumbered feet;

sweeter to me the wild rose red,

because she makes the whole world sweet.

 

And up the radiant peopled way

that opens into life unknown,

it will be my delight to say

'Heaven is not heaven for me alone.'

 

Wealth won by others' poverty -

not such be mine! Let me be blest

only in what they share with me,

and what I share with all the rest.

 

 

I wish you all the joys of spring and early summer!

 

With love,

Rosey