Moston Methodist Church

Minister – Rev Sharon Read

POSTED ON: 30 April 2020

Letter from our minister 30/04/2020

Thursday 30th April 2020

Dear Friends,  

Thank you for all those of you who have been in touch. I continue to hold all of you in prayers and I have loved reading what you are doing. Apologies that I have not had chance to reply to many. At the beginning of the week – I was asked by a close friend how long we had been in lockdown. For us its now just over 7 weeks and that came as a shock….have you been counting the days and weeks. 7 weeks of staying home. 7 weeks of not attending church buildings. 7 weeks of not shopping as I normally would (now saving money and thinking more carefully about meals and snacks and how to get the children involved); 7 weeks of not visiting coffee shops to work, ponder and pray; 7 weeks of not doing lots of things. 7 weeks of not seeing family and friends.  BUT 7 weeks of praying more fervently. 7 weeks of being home and rediscovering what that is. 7 weeks of discovering a daily rhythm of assessing what works and what doesn’t. 7 weeks of discovering activities that help me with my mental health. 7 weeks of home schooling. 7 weeks of home cooked meals and home baking.  7 weeks of ………..what does that look like for you?

 We have all journeyed with people through self-isolation; shielding; furloughing; redundancy; unemployment; illness and loss. This week has been hard for us as a family and I am struggling to find the words to share with you. I came across a prayer in Celtic Daily Prayer book from the Northumbria Community. I have been singing morning prayer at 9am and if you follow me on facebook then I have posted the link there. Here it is for those of you who may want to look. The orders for morning, midday and evening prayer are available too: https://www.northumbriacommunity.org/offices/morning-prayer/ 

 I use their music CD as singing is such a huge part of my spiritual journey. Feel free to use this prayer however you wish. I am finding the phrase ‘ we hold before God’ most helpful at the moment and certainly feel held in God’s hands during these difficult days.

We hold before God:
Those for whom life if difficult;
Those who have difficult decisions to make, and
Who honestly do not know what is the right thing to do.

We hold before God:
Those who have difficult tasks to do and to face,
And who fear they may fail in them;
Those who have difficult temptations to face, and
Who know only too well that they may fall to them, if they try to meet them alone.

We hold before God:
Those who know that they can be their own worst enemies.

 

We hold before God:
Those who have difficult people to work with;
Those who have to suffer unjust treatment, unfair criticism, unappreciated work.

We hold before God:
Those who are sad because someone they loved has died;
And any who are disappointed in something for which they hoped very much.

William Barclay

 

Let us continue to hold each other before God in prayer. Stay safe and stay home.  

With love and prayers

Sharon

More News