By the Revd Matthew Earwicker, Rector of The Oldbury Benefice

The Joy of Outdoors

There's something special about the outdoors, isn't there? Something about its space that changes our mood. Some of us enjoy living in cities, don't mind working at a desk or in a shop, enjoy restaurants and museums, but even the most contented of urbanites look forward to those days when the weather permits strolling in parks or eating outside. And while we love those sunny days, there's a healing power to even a walk in the wind and rain.

When we were unable to gather inside because of the risks of the spread pf the coronavirus, we adjusted our lives to being more outside. Pubs and restaurants expanded their outdoor seating areas, and added shelters for poorer weather. Many of us took the opportunity to stay outside and chat from our front doors when we clapped the NHS on Thursday nights, perhaps with glass in hand. And of course the  vast majority of Jubilee events were planned for outside, with the inside usually a second-best, bad weather option.

Of course, some of this is a residual nervousness around others, especially in larger groups, but I think there is something else going on as well: there is something incredibly refreshing about feeling small.

I believe it is helpful for our souls to know that we are not the centre of the universe. As we grow up we slowly add more and more responsibilities: having to hold down a job, balance the household budget, make sure the children are where they need to be at the right time, keeping our partners happy, making time for this or that activity we know is important. And those matter - we do have responsibilities to ourself and others, every single act or word can make a difference - but it is goodto be able to put them in perspective from time to time, isn't it?

There is a part of the Bible called the book of Psalms - a collection of poems written by different people over many centuries. One of my favourites, Psalm number 8, says the following:
O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth...
When I look at your heavans, the work of your fingers,
The moon and the stars that you haveestablished;
what are the human beings that you are mindful of them?

For the poet, God is so uch bigger than any of the troubles that we face, both as individuals and as a planet, and yet at the same timeGod does truly care abiut us and the rest of creation. As the summer sun lifts your spirit, and makes it easier to spend more time outside, enjoy the sese of space and freedom it gives you, allow your soul freedom to breathe, but maybe also take time to enjoy for a moment the thought that there is someone out therewho is keeping things going even when we have to put them down for a moment.

Matt
mattearwicker@gmail.com

Bishop Stephen's Monthly Message

In his first monthly message, Bishop Stephen reminds us what's really important, and reflects on putting aside differences in the name of love.

This message comes to you in July 2022. I first learnt that I was on the long-list for Bishop of Salisbury in July 2021. It has been a long year for me; a long year for all of us as so much has changed as we have emerged out of the pandemic and into an economic crisis, with leadership and integrity in question and sadly, war in Europe.

I wonder, why are we surprised? Out of the most difficult of circumstances come problems, conflicts, shortages and challenges. We learn more about ourselves. We learn more about reality and about the human condition.

And yet, we also learn that we have the power to provide vaccinations, we have the power to fund recovery, we have the power to change our communities, we even have the power to blunt aggression. Its’s all about choices.

What a powerful thing to have choice. So many people in our world do not have that. We have choice in the Diocese of Salisbury.

As your Bishop, I am not prepared to preside over petty differences in the name of choice. We have a privilege, and we need to use it for the common good. It is a shared responsibility. It is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to. As someone always said to me (and they were from this diocese), with privilege, comes responsibility.

We cannot deny in this country that we are privileged. The scandal is when people fall through that net. Too many of our brothers and sisters in our society are struggling. And yet, just look at the poverty and still the glorious witness of our brothers and sisters in the Sudans. We have much to live up to.

Our sometimes-petty differences give me concern. Whose work are they? When I received the call to be your Bishop, my first thought (after blind panic) was ‘What is really important?’

What is really important is our faith. Faith that God in Christ has our back. The only problem that gets in the way of his love, is when we turn our back on Him in the name of our own failures.

God is love, and those who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them. 1 John 4.16

Bishop Stephen

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