Pastoral Letter for the Month

In the June Digest of Reform magazine, before a plea for volunteers, I read:

“The URC is a paradoxical Church at a crossroads with an interesting and exciting journey of change ahead.”

 Yes, well I could stop there! We are looking forward to welcoming Simon Cross as our Minister in August as he goes with us on that journey. After five years, it’s good to say there is No Vacancy. It’s a moment to appreciate everyone who has sustained the Team during the vacancy, whether by contributing to worship, to the fellowship or maintaining the buildings or community links. This is the resilience mentioned at our recent Team service. Together we look ahead for growth in faith and hopefully numbers.

 You may know that I like to sing – sometimes to the consternation of those next to me when I sing a different tune – i.e. the alto part. So unsurprisingly I have had to mend my copies of Rejoice and Sing. I looked at my hymn books collected over the years. These range from Songs of Praise for Boys and Girls, through Youth Praise to Sing Praise and Complete Mission Praise as well as the Northern Psalter, Church Hymnary and Hymns Ancient and Modern. Our churches use a number of hymn books, but do you remember, “Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing”, often sung at this time of year. We tend to sing familiar hymns so it’s interesting that the Church of Scotland have issued God Welcomes All, featuring hymns written in the last twenty years or so, with more than a third by women. John Bell, Kristyn and Keith Getty and Stuart Townend feature prominently. You will have sung “In Christ Alone” written by Getty and Townend in 2001. I’d miss singing old favourites like “Guide me, oh thou great Jehovah”, but others like “Let us build a house where love can dwell,” are just as powerful. We need to embrace the new and the sense of looking forward found in many hymns.

             “So if you want to be with me all your days,

             Keep up the moving and travelling on,

             You’re the people of God.”

Enjoy July and August wherever you are travelling or whatever you are doing and as for me, “since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing!”

Eleanor Marsden

St.Ninian’s & St.Andrew’s, Hull