Message from our minister, Clare

Annwyl ffrindiau/Dear friends

There’s a flower bed alongside the path up to our front door which we have to pass day in day out as does every single visitor to our house. Over the years I have spent a fair bit of time trying to get it right. It only has sun until mid-morning, it used to have a pyracantha hedge in there which deprived it of moisture and the soil is poor quality. Not only time but also money has gone into trying to match the right plants to the space, improve the quality of the soil and trying to keep it as a point of interest across as much of the year as possible. The result? A miserable fail. Even in early summer when it should be at its best.

The tall foxgloves have decided to move to the very front of the bed, not much is flourishing behind them and this year as if to underline quite how much of a fail it is, some flowers have decided to leave the bed behind altogether and creep across the gravel next to it where they are thriving on the poor ground. I have two choices, I pull them up and double down on improving the bed and maintaining the border between bed and gravel, or I quit while I’m ahead admit defeat and enjoy what we’ve got.

Having just celebrated Pentecost and the power of the Holy Spirit to inspire us, guide us, take us places we hadn’t expected, it feels as if the bed is a reminder each time I walk past, that, to use the words of the prayer attributed to Oscar Romero ‘We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.’

As we move into summer, and the high days of the church calendar are behind us until Advent, perhaps we can lean into the freedom of this. Gardening and a life of faith both require humility, we are not the master builder and there’s beauty in that. I am looking forward to being with you at St David’s across this summer and seeing where the Spirit might be leading.

Do share any thoughts you may have about the church’s direction and identity with your elder so we can gather wide views and insights for our vision day in July (see below) – when we will be listening as well as talking!

Have a wonderful start to the summer.

Pob bendith/Blessings

Clare

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