Clergy Corner - August 2007

August 2007 - Summer Days

August has a sort of in-between feel to it. St Alban’s Patronal Festival, The Fete, the school term and, in my case this year, Craig and Bethany’s wedding (thank you, everyone, for all your prayers and good wishes, cards and presents to them, and your help to me!), are all past.

And we’ve started looking forward to St Mary’s Patronal Festival, Harvest, Back to Church Sunday and Enquirers’ Group (for most of which see articles further on), all of which happen in September.

But for now, August is quieter - you’ll see that from the diary on the next pages.

A breathing space, a time for catching up with paperwork, visiting, and the other things which didn’t get done earlier.

A time for reading (there are often lists of summer holiday books in newspapers and magazines), for thinking, for praying, for planning, for relaxing.

August is a month which always seems to go more quickly than I expect - to begin with it stretches out, and then suddenly is past.

August is a good time to remind those of us whose lives are over-filled to make space for God, for friends, for ourselves.

It’s also a good time to remember those who feel their lives are under-filled - the housebound, the lonely, those who can’t do what they once could - and to encourage them in their ministry of prayer, and in their gift of time for others - to be with them, to listen to them, to think about them.

It’s also a good time to return to Scripture, and to remember those verses which are about being, rather than doing - in returning and rest shall be your strength; study to be quiet; be still and know that I am God; Jesus went away to a lonely place to pray.

So, for those on holiday, and those at home, for those whose lives are busy and those who lives are quiet, I hope you have a blessed and peaceful August, and will look forward to September with a renewed sense of your call to serve God as one of his ministers in this place.