Thinking SPACE
November 2025
Dear Friends,
On 11th September 2019 my husband George died. People said he was a lovely man; he was. He was a good husband and a very good dad and grandad. Every year since then we as a family celebrate his life. We go for the day somewhere George and I used to visit. It’s not easy getting all the family together because of work. Last year we did well, eight of us went to the ‘Red Lion’ at Burnsall for lunch and a walk by the river.
This year we only managed four of us. We went to Bolton Abbey and we had lunch at “Tea on the Green”. Then we walked to the Abbey where I lit a candle for George. The river was so high we couldn’t see the stepping stones. We walked back to the Pavillion and had tea and cakes then back up to the car park. My granddaughter, Amber, was with Jane, Richard and I. I was so pleased she could come because a few days later I took her to the railway station where she set off for Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Australia; she could be away for three years.
I miss her already. I wish we knew more about Jesus and his family. We know about his mother and father and that he had brothers and sisters, but from age twelve to thirty-two we know very little. I think we should treasure both our own families and our Church family.
Pam Mitchell
Norristhorpe URC
October 2025
Dear Friends,
I think it is fair to say we are well and truly in the season of Autumn; the leaves are changing; oranges, yellows and reds are the predominant colours and the weather although still bright, there is a definite nip in the air, and the wind is blowing.
Autumn is my favourite season, the colours, the change in the weather – the rain although never welcomed allows the colours to pop just that little bit more. Bringing some relief after the dry summer sun; and the wind making the leaves dance across the pavements. And most of all I get to start wearing my jumpers and scarf once again – that cozy clothing starts to reappear.
Autumn is a season of change and preparation, it is in this season that we most often celebrate harvest, a time of thanksgiving. Gardens and allotments become a hive of activity as we try and beat the weather. Harvesting crops, tidying, deadheading, weeding, readying the ground for hibernation of winter. It is a season when the wildlife is active too. One of the blessings of moving to Mirfield is the number of birds that visit the manse garden. We have a birdfeeder across the garden from our dining room table, and I take great joy in sitting over a meal watching the blue tits, coal tits, robins, wren, black birds and even a woodpecker dart from the evergreen hedge to the feeders and back again. Even the pigeons pecking around beneath the feeders are entertaining. For they too are preparing for the colder months.
While our instinct might be to want to follow suit, to prepare for a mini hibernation of our own, to stay in where it is warm and dry, to protect ourselves from the darker nights. There is still so much beauty in the God’s creation to be thankful for.
A friend of mine has a practice of thankfulness, at the end of each working week she posts on Facebook listing the things that week which have brought her joy and the things that she is thankful for. They can be as small and simple as a welcomed cup of tea in her favourite mug to an adventure with a friend. In recent weeks while faced with the challenging and unsettling news from around the globe, she had doubled down, reminding her friends that “when things feel so bad, that is when it’s important to remember good things too”.
A pattern that we also find in our Psalms, that when faced with challenge and adversity the Psalmist turns to God with a song of praise and thanksgiving.
I wonder if you have a practice of thanksgiving, of pausing at the end of each day, or week to remember and give thanks to God for the things which have brought you joy; and when the world’s shadows seem to be crowding in to declare more loudly:
Give thanks to God, for he is good. God’s love endured forever.
Psalm 136.1
It is something which I am consciously wanting to make a part of this season, and I invite you to join me.
With blessings and thanksgiving
Samantha
Your minister
September 2025
Dear Friends,
As the rain dripped slowly down my neck and the wind sneakily blew yet more water onto the insides of my glasses’ lenses, and as my cycling shoes gradually filled with water, I decided that it was time to stop and wipe my specs and blow my nose. The final leg of an epic October solo bike ride from Harrogate to the south of Suffolk was proving to be less than a pleasure. I pulled off the main road and out of the way of the lorries thundering past and into the driveway of a firm that specialised in ‘wetland ecological enhancement’ and commenced the mopping up operations. How predictable, I thought, as a large car purred to a halt next to me and the window wound down. I had my apology ready (‘Sorry – just cleaning my glasses: I’ll be on my way in a second,’ etc) when the occupant of the car said, ‘Are you OK? Do you need anything? Coffee, maybe?’ A few minutes later I was drinking coffee and eating Jaffa Cakes in a warm (and, crucially, dry) office and giving thanks for the kindness of strangers.
The days of evangelical rallies attracting thousands of attendees are past, aren’t they? No longer can we rely on people seeing a little poster for a church event and flocking in. For the most part, the residents of the areas around our churches ignore us, if they even notice that we are still open. Yes, we need to advertise better, and this should be one of our major concerns in a world where, according to some researchers, the average person is bombarded with up to 10,000 adverts every day. But I wonder if there is something else that needs to be higher up our agenda, and that involves simple person-to-person contact – the kindness of strangers, if you like.
When Jesus talks of the service that God demands of his people (in, for example, Matthew 25: 31-46), there is nothing about rallies and stuffing flyers through letterboxes, but there is a lot about the kindness of strangers. People remember these encounters, don’t they (and, indeed, the writer to the Hebrews even mentions entertaining angels unawares [Hebrews 13: 2]). Simple personal encounter, kindness, unasked-for generosity are among our most powerful tools for evangelism, yet we do not use them for that purpose, but simply because there one of God’s children is in need and we can help.
So this is not to try to make you feel guilty or inadequate, but it is simply a reminder to us all that if our churches are going to grow, then one of the most effective ways of promoting that growth is in the hands of each one of us. Jaffa Cakes are optional.
Rev Dr David Barker
Longcauseway Methodist Minister