I love receiving the round robin letters from friends which come with their Christmas cards. Some send them faithfully every year and each has their own distinctive style. One friend in particular seems to manage consistently to produce a letter which would be worthy of publication in Private Eye, so full of humour and wit is it. There are of course the ones which simply gush about the children – how many stared ‘A’s’ they attained at GCSE, what talented musicians they are, how wonderfully they performed in the school’s production of Faust and how they had managed to add Mandarin to the list of languages they can now speak fluently – and by the way the family holidayed in Peru, India, New Zealand, San Francisco and Gstaad this year. Some are brief, with just one or two sentences for each family member; others would have no problem fitting the entire works of Shakespeare on to a pin head. Each seeks to provide a snapshot of their life – and some come adorned with family photographs.

These letters are a good way of keeping up, particularly with friends we rarely see from one year to the next. They give a summary of what they perceive as the most important life events of their year. I wonder, however, how much the letters can really tell. They speak of life events – some happy and some sad – but so much of our lives are not made up of big events. It is not just that most of the days of our lives are ordinary and routine; it is also that as well as events, our lives are made up of thoughts and emotions. Even the greatest writers struggle to express what goes on in our inner lives, though the best do manage to resonate with our experience at that level. We realise through such writing that we are not alone, we share emotions common to humanity, though each one of us is unique.

We can probably, therefore, guess from reading the life events our friends have been through in the year what kind of emotions they will have felt – and how they might be feeling at the end of the year. Good friends of ours have died this year. It does not take much imagination to realise that sadness will be the dominant emotion of their spouses and families as they look back over 2007. Other friends have seen family members married and grand-children being born. Such happy life events are cause for rejoicing. Most of us will have experienced a whole multitude of events which have affected us emotionally in different ways to a greater or lesser degree. Life events do affect the way we feel and the way we see life. It is a sign of emotional health that we react in emotionally appropriate ways to life events. The inability to grieve a loved one, or to react positively to happy events, such as the birth of a grandchild, can be signs that something is wrong with our inner lives.

But if life events do affect our emotions so much, where does that leave our faith? Sometimes it has to be said, in tatters. Those who are going through a particularly hard time sometimes testify to having a profound sense of the Lord’s presence throughout. Others have their agony compounded by feeling abandoned by God in their time of greatest need. A friend of ours who lost his wife this year summed up his experience in this way: ‘It is very much living one day at a time. Sometimes God has felt very close, at other times I have struggled to sense His presence’. The fact that he still struggles to sense God’s presence means that he himself has not lost his faith, even in his darkest moments. He at least is able to hold on to the fact that there is a loving God to whom he can reach out. Some, however, lose even that. C. S. Lewis came very close to losing it on the death of his wife. He even wondered if God might be some kind of ‘cosmic sadist’.

To say that life events can sometimes leave our faith in tatters does not, however, tell the whole story, not least because there is more to faith than emotion. To quote the song, faith is, ‘more than a feeling’. There are times of deep emotion, either of happiness or sadness, when we may say we feel faith very strongly too. We become very aware of God’s presence and we feel we can trust him, no matter what. We may even feel that we could never doubt him again. Would that our lives were made up of such moments when God feels very close and everything within us cries out that we can and will trust him come what may. But they are not. Events do affect the way we feel, even about God.

Thankfully, faith is not just about feeling; it is about fact. Faith is based on fact which life’s events can never change. It is founded on God’s faithfulness which is eternal and unchanging. To quote another song, ‘There is no shadow of turning with Thee’. As well as being founded on fact our faith is also based on past events, not least the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Current events in our lives may affect the way we feel, and even the way we experience faith, but they cannot undo what Christ has done for us. Nor can they rob us of the inheritance Christ has won for us because that inheritance is kept in heaven, and no earthly event can change that.

None of us can predict at this stage what life events our 2008 Christmas letter may include. We do not know what emotions will be dominant for us by this time next year. But we do know that God will remain faithful and that nothing – no event in heaven or on earth – will be able to separate us from his love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

‘Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not, as Thou hast been Thou for ever wilt be.’

I do hope 2008 is a very happy one for you and yours.

Erik

Sunday 30th December 10.15 a.m. Family Communion

Sunday 6th January

Monday 7th January PCC meets, 7.15 p.m. in the Reid Room

Tuesday 8th January Men’s fellowship, 7.30 p.m. in the narthex

Tuesday 22nd January Men’s fellowship, 7.30 p.m. in the narthex

Friday 25th January Lydia group meets, 2 p.m. in the Supper Room

Wednesday 30th January Nick Heaton’s licensing in Morley

Monday 4th February PCC meets, 7.15 p.m. in the Reid Room

Tuesday 5th February

Wednesday 6th February Ash Wednesday Lent Course begins

Saturday 9th February Barn Dance, 7 - 10 p.m. in the Church Hall

Friday 29th February Lydia group meets, 2 p.m. in the Supper Room

Monday 3rd March PCC meets, 7.15 p.m. in the Reid Room

From the Registers

 Baptisms

25th November Ella Patricia Pattison

 Weddings

1st December Stuart Guy Hanna and Deborah Ann Palmer

29th November Andrew Crawford aged 87

14th December Stephen Goldsmith aged 37

17th December Beatrice Eveline Eunice Tindale aged 98

30th November Marjorie Atkinson aged 92

Offerings in November Ł11,525

Restricted (for specific purposes) Ł488

It is with great sadness that we will say goodbye to Nick and Carole, Nathan and Joel in January. Nick’s last sermon as curate of St Barnabas will be at the 10-15 Service on Sunday 6^th January. Nick has been an outstanding curate and a great colleague to work with. It has been a joy to have Carole and the family with us too. I felt very privileged recently to lead the Thanksgiving for Joel’s birth. We will miss them all, but the Lord is calling them to new challenges and to a new church family. I am sure they have a very fruitful ministry ahead of them. We say thank you to God for their time with us and wish them His blessing for their future.

(There will be a shared parish lunch in the hall after the service on the 6^th January and Nick’s licensing service in Morley will be on the 30^th of January. See below for details.)

When they saw the star they were overjoyed. On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.

Taize 2 - 11 August 2008

Come to Taizé with the Archbishop of York…

The week will involve :

For young adults aged 17 – 25 at date of travel – 02/08/08. Travelling by coach. Likely cost (subsidised) will be about Ł150-Ł200 (Final cost will depend on numbers)

Taizé is a unique Christian Community near Cluny in central France, founded after the Second World War as a place of reconciliation. It has become a place of particular importance to young people who, every year, come in their thousands from all over Europe, and the rest of the world. During the summer period there can be as many as 5000 people staying in Taizé.

There is no doubt from the comments of young people who have been to Taizé previously, that it is a life-changing experience. Basically everyone enters into the rhythm of community life for the week, gathering with the brothers of the community at prayer times, joining with people from other countries for discussions, bible study, meals, and practical tasks. In case you think this all sounds terribly serious, part of the Taizé experience are the parties in the evenings at Oyak, a massive social area to mix and forge new friendships with people from all over the world.

For information: http://www.taize.fr
Please register your interest as soon as possible
Contact: Revd Ashley Wilson 01609 882401 (text 07906 040991) Email : Ashley@dunelm.org.uk.

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped in any way with the move into 64 Queens Road.

I was stood in the kitchen the other day and God reminded me of a verse in Psalm 68 ‘God sets the lonely in families’ – not that I’m lonely but I would like to thank the church family at St. Barnabas for being just that as we continue to pray that God’s kingdom would come, his will would be done on earth as in heaven - in our lives, our church and our community.

Andrew Argyle reported on the meeting of the nave working group.

The PCC agreed a budget for costs involved in the J John Just 10 mission, including hiring transport to Preston Park.

There was further discussion on the possibility of employing someone to do schools work, an increasingly urgent matter.

The PCC spent some time suggesting possible agenda items for next year, including how to be a welcoming church, opportunities for training, nurture groups, youth and publicity.

News from the Mescos

Click here to read the letter and see their pictures.