Dear Friends in Christ,

No matter what our politics might be, the media we consume leaves all of us anxious and worried about what might happen next in our country and the world.  Jesus and the disciples also lived with worry and anxiety:

[Jesus and his disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee.]  A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? “And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mark 4:35-41

When we ask, as the psalmist does:

From whence cometh our help?

The answer is:

Our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

Here are some words from the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, to help us keeps things in perspective and remind us that

When the wind and the waves are rocking the boat, I am reminded that what I need to do is to focus on Christ, who calms the waters and stills the wind. we seek to be what the Church has for so long been: a stable presence in an unstable world.

As we at Zion and St Anne’s continue to celebrate the Eucharist and share our lives with each other and our partner churches, here are some more words from the Rt. Rev Mullally to encourage us:

[Our ministry needs to be one] of hospitality and of breaking bread; that together we can learn to be good guests and good hosts; that we might create places where people can grow towards one another in trust, where difference is held with grace; where we offer deeply of ourselves and value the gift of one another; where we are accountable for one another’s flourishing and where healing is possible.

And I pray that our practice of hospitality may be offered as a model to a polarised world, speaking into the deepening divides in our society with the possibility of hope and of healing. Our calling is to live out that hope in a fractured and anxious world. And so, we must bridge the gap, for those who have no experience of church, to encounter by offering spaces of belonging, dignity, and conversation, where the love of God is encountered and the world is changed.

Faithfully yours,

Rebecca