Friends, by the time you read this, I pray that the hostilities in the Middle East will have ceased and that a degree of calm will have been re-established. I remain deeply suspicious of the motivation behind the war and have struggled to find any (good) reason that justifies it, just as I have struggled to understand the invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza. I pray that there will be no post-conflict backlash against innocent civilians nor against armed forces that have been caught up in it. Watching so-called statesmen boasting of their “mighty achievements” is difficult, when the brunt of the conflict is borne by civilians. There is much that has been written on “just war” none of these three wars seem, to me, to be just and all three reveal a disturbing contempt for the dignity of human life, on the part of those who are prosecuting the wars. I felt I should share my thoughts with you and encourage you to continue to pray for peace and justice in our world.

On a much happier note, we have again arrived at the pinnacle of the Christian year. A time when for some, the brakes are off! All the lovely things we set aside for Lent are back in place, the promise to exercise has at last stopped nagging us, the meat/ fast food is back on the menu, the Easter eggs – if we were blessed with Easter eggs – have been demolished; in short, we are indulging ourselves after some time of abstinence. And why not? If we did give something up during Lent then, in the words of one of the Easter prayers, “we have grown closer to Christ”; we have experienced temptation, we have resisted it and now comes our reward.

The temptation for me right now is to write a long list of the things that folk may have given up, and another list of the things that people may have tried out for Lent. The Lenten CofE focus was “draw near to God”, I’m often suspicious of anything that lists 40 acts that will “help me to draw closer to God”, consequently I didn’t engage, mainly because that looked to me as if it was asking for 1 extra thing every day to pile on to an already busy schedule, or, if I was (as I suggested in a few of my Lent sermons) making room in that busy schedule, to reflect on God’s relationship with me, then those 40 acts, would probably distract me from that goal!

It is worth thinking about how Lent was for us. Did we take it seriously and engage with the idea of 40 days of something? Did we learn anything new, about ourselves, about God, about both or something else? Was it worth it? Did we observe it? If we didn’t observe it (Lent), why didn’t we? I write this in the third week of Lent and find that my idea of searching every day, to find where God might be speaking to me, is working quite well; I have felt God’s presence, that presence is usually in nature (as I thought it would be) but there have been moments of sparkling clarity as well:- when I stop to think, or when I have set aside time for quiet reflection, or even (in one case) when I’ve been interrupted! God is definitely there/here.

And that got me thinking, why should I stop after 40 days? If, by a deliberate discipline, I can find God every day in the everyday stuff, why would I want to stop? So I’m not going to.

I hope that you have been blessed in Lent, and I pray that, just as Christ is risen, so our hearts will rise with Him, and we will find our love of God and neighbour renewed in us, so that we are empowered to continue to share that love with those around us.

Happy Easter!

Revd Chris Taylor