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Welcome to the Parish of Farnham
Curate Writes | January 2012 |
The first of January and the new calendar is opened and placed into position; pristine and waiting for events to unfold. As we remove the old one, transferring important dates and anniversaries, we can also take time to gather up the images that have coloured our year. What pictures would we choose now to mark it and to illuminate it?
World issues are likely to colour many of our pages; sadly, many will be pictures we would rather not have to include because of the pain and turmoil that they carry. Yet in the depths of atrocity we witness the most compassionate humanity; one victim rescued and rehabilitated brings hope to many. These are stories to be held.
The Arab spring has released an uncertain energy and demand for change and we wonder and we hesitate over its outcomes. The financial situation is colouring all our lives because of the uncertainty it is engendering and the divisiveness it could cause. They are pictures that remain wrapped in a question mark.
One image that settles in my mind is of Aung San Suu Kyi exchanging a welcome hug with Hilary Clinton on her visit to Burma. Its simplicity speaks louder than may words; circumstances do change, the immovable can be moved.
David Attenborough brought us many images that could fill many calendars! His series of programmes were stunning to watch and eagerly anticipated. They had a double edge; we shared in the beauty and in the realities of life in the Polar Regions, we were also made very aware of global warming, its effects and our responsibilities to care for ‘Our Wonderful World’. (He used the words of the song to end the series.)
Personal memories, celebrations, concerns and sadnesses resurface as we turn back the pages. Can our calendar then become our prayer book as we gather the images of friends and family and bring them before God. It is often what seemed at the time to be an insignificant moment that becomes a true and lasting and valued memory…moments of the heart.
We turn now to the new year and wonder how its pictures will form.
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