Knowlton Circle Benefice
The Ministry Team
Reverend Angus Mayhew, Rector
Reverend Jan Brown
revjrbrown@kcb.org.uk
Let your spirituality meet God the Holy Spirit
I love it when people say I’m spiritual and not religious. I think there is a then a chance for our loving God to be heard when the noise of religion quietens for a moment. Jesus was particularly critical of the religious of his day especially the Pharisees.
The sense of the spiritual and of our own connections to a more colourful and possible universe beyond our binary world is exciting and I encourage you to spend time contemplating this.
As our landscape moves from Spring to Summer we are encouraged to consider the new life Christ gives us at Easter in his risen ministry. Jesus walked about among his disciples and friends in Jerusalem and Galilee during forty days after Easter Sunday until his Ascension to heaven. Lives were changed forever from those who saw him and churches and fellowships were created in ‘The Way’, the movement we now call Christianity. This was as radical and life changing as you can imagine to see this tortured and crucified man healing and feeding people. He literally gave new life as he walked among us.
Then he ascended into heaven and ten days later God the Holy Spirit came to us at the festival known as Pentecost [from the fiftieth day].
Please don’t worry about Trinitarian theology! Come and talk over a coffee if you need. For me, God the Holy Spirit is another characteristic of the same God. For example, you may be a great cook, a reasonable golfer and an enthusiastic Scottish dancer, and so it is best that you use your gifts for cooking when preparing a Sunday lunch rather than your reeling or putting expertise…
In the same way, God the loving creator came to us as Jesus Christ; who as one of us, loved taught and healed us. And when we killed him, he came back. Alive! And gave us our heaven.
So at Pentecost we celebrate God the Holy Spirit coming to us. And this is the characteristic of God who is everywhere and in all space and time. The Holy Spirit knows us and meets us in our spirituality.
For me, I see the Holy Spirit as Jesus just wandering along with us, in the same way I see God the Father also as Jesus, the loving creator.
Come and explore your spirituality with us this season. We have art church and pilgrim walks and meditation and Taize singing and prayer. And we will be having a celebration of our landscape and communities in Rogation prayer walks.
Take time for yourself this season of new life and fulfilment, to explore your spirituality. And when you do this, I bet you see God the Holy Spirit has been with you all along.
God bless, Angus