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Letter

Dear Friends,Revd. Bill Bowman

As I write on a bitterly cold day, I notice that in my garden snowdrops are in bloom and the green shoots of daffodils and crocuses are bursting through the ground. A sure sign that spring is not far away. Signs of new life are all around us. Also, the season of Lent begins this month. The modern word “Lent” comes from the Old English word “lencten” meaning – spring time. It is right that Lent comes with the start of spring because Lent culminates with Easter Sunday (this year 5th April) when we celebrate the ultimate example of new life - the resurrection of Jesus.

The week in which I write has had more than its fair share of death with the senseless shootings in Paris by people who, whatever they claim their motives to be, are just frankly wicked and evil. No cause can justify the gunning down of innocent people in cold blood while simply going about their daily business. There is a multitude of horrendous things going on round our planet at the moment and we can so easily sink into a depressive mind-set that leads us to believe that death and destruction will hold sway in the end. This is not so – human wickedness nailed Jesus to the cross and evil men thought they had triumphed that first Good Friday. But three days later – love rose victorious from the darkness of death. Jesus, not evil, triumphed in the end. This is the rock solid basis of our faith and hope. The ultimate victory of life and love. In this season of Lent as we reflect on the events of Jesus, life, cross and resurrection and the situation in the world in which we live let us take comfort and renew our faith and hope as we remind ourselves of the triumph of God’s love so sublimely expressed by the hymn writer, Timothy Rees:-

 “Sin and death and hell shall never

 O’er us final triumph gain;

 God is love, so Love forever

 O’er the universe must reign.”

 

Shalom,

Bill

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