Vicar’s July letter

Dear friends,

Last week it was my Mum and Dad’s 60th Wedding Anniversary. In January this year they started planning a family get-together to celebrate. The plan was for us all to have a weekend together at a nice hotel near where they lived. We are not a huge family, but, including my brother and I, our wives, our children and their spouses, and their children, there are 17 of us covering 4 generations. So it was a fairly big commitment getting us all together in the same place for a full weekend. Dates were set, a hotel booked and we all looked forward to getting together for a great weekend. Over time the plans were expanded to include celebrations of two family birthdays that were to have happened shortly before the weekend. Even more to look forward to. Very exciting.

All these plans came to fruition place last weekend (as I write this letter). It was great to meet up with everyone and it was a special time together, although things were very different to what we had expected as my Mum was in hospital over the weekend. The hotel was near to the hospital and we got to visit her. She had their card from the Queen by her bed and was pleased to see family members and was glad that everything was going ahead. My Dad appreciated having everyone around and enjoyed seeing everyone although he was obviously upset that Mum was not around to celebrate with us.

It’s good to celebrate isn’t it? It’s good for families to get together isn’t it? Weddings, anniversaries, births, baptisms and birthdays are special times in many families as are Christmas and Easter and other occasions. Many funerals are planned with the intention to ‘celebrate the life’ of the departed, (although such celebrations are always a mix of celebration and grief at the loss of a loved one).

Although sadly it doesn’t always seem like it (which is a great shame), every Sunday service is a celebration. We meet together as Christians to celebrate Jesus’ rising from the dead on that first Easter Sunday. Also, we are meeting together as a family, God’s family, bound together by our common belief and our love for, and commitment to, one another.

I don’t know whether you feel you have much to celebrate at the moment. I don’t know whether you have family nearby that you are able to meet up with. But I do know that you would be welcome to join us at any of our services to meet with us as God’s family and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and all that God has done for us.

God bless