A QUESTION OF FAITH

With Rev John Whittaker Vicar, St Mary’s Hinckley

OUR October half term holiday is over and life returns back to normal, whatever that means. The Whittaker family break away included some time in Windsor where our host, Julie, suggested we visit Windsor Castle.

Please keep this secret, but my heart sank a little. I find stately homes and the like a bit boring and generally avoid them like the plague.

Perhaps working daily within an eight century old, Grade 2* listed church makes me a bit blasé about these things.

To my surprise, pleasant that is, I was stunned. It was all incredible.

The castle is awesome, the Queen is marvellous, Prince Philip is splendid, the Royal Family are wonderful and the restoration of the castle following the terrible fire of 1992 is nothing short of miraculous, and that’s from a religious professional!

What I loved about the post fire restoration is the skilful retention of some features and designs as they were and the incorporation of new aspects reflecting current crafts peoples’ visions and abilities.

The bringing together of old and new, historic and present with a vision for the future has resulted in a fine restoration which will be rightly lauded for many centuries to come.

One of the many things I love about Christian faith is our ability to draw deeply on the wisdom, insights and experiences of men and women spanning centuries into the past as well as being alert and open to the continuing story of God’s love opening out into the world and into our lives.

The accounts and narratives within scripture and the life of God’s church over the centuries allow for a beautiful remembering, celebrating and responding to the story of God in our world.

Our lived experience of prayer, worship, work, play, loving, caring, serving and living draws us deeper into the mystery that in loving God and all our neighbours we find meaning, purpose and fulfilment in our lives.

So may I invite us all to stop, be still, really still and in the stillness sense the living presence of God.

God is with us and we can rejoice and give thanks for all that means for us, for our brothers and sisters and for our world.

In the stillness let’s say a prayer to God, the one who knows us and invites us to know God; and when we pray, let us discover peace, purpose, grace, love and hope. Today and always. Amen.

God Bless