UPDATE FROM CANON BILL

This weekend we have the beginning of the scrutinies in which we welcome  those who have been preparing to be received into the church at Easter. The word Scrutiny evokes something deep and serious as it    invites us to look into our lives with honesty.
We come together as parish community in welcome to our new members and with them we reflect on ways we can be sincere in our relationship with God and with each other. And in our prayer let us express a true spirit of repentance always recognising our need to turn to God confessing our sinfulness for those things we have done or we have failed to do.
This Lenten journey is more like a mirror which we are holding up before our eyes so that we can see our life as it really is in the presence of Almighty God. The scrutinies which we are celebrating for our new members also offer us the opportunity to scrutinise and recognise our own fault and failings
Let us recall the words we heard on Ash Wednesday: “Repent and be faithful to the gospel”. A challenge we must embrace each day.

And now for a poem by William Blake:

 I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end,
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow,

And I watered it in fears
Night and morning with with my tears
And I sunned it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.,

 And it grew both day and night
Till it bore an apple bright
And my foe beheld it shine
And he knew that it was mine,

 And into my garden stole 
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning, glad, I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

God Bless, Canon Bill