St Andrew's Church

A season of new hope

It has been quite some time since I last wrote for Cornard News and the intervening time has not been easy. Many reading this will know why it hasn’t been easy and many of you will not have the foggiest notion, but I want to share part of my story in this season of HOPE.

Over the course of the last year or so, I have been unable to work due to illness. Specifically I have been battling with anxiety and depression, which left me unable to even venture out of the house at times, terrified to go to the shops in case I saw someone who knew me and asked “how are you”; and the thought of standing in front of the regular congregation at St Andrews seemed like a dim and distant thing which could never be achieved again.  There were plenty of times during this period when my grip on perspective and on any sense ever returning to health were tenuous at best.

Fortunately though, through the support of my family and especially my ever patient wife, Tracy, to whom I owe so much; through the care of our local GP’s, a counsellor who has listened and not judged, and the love and prayers of the community of St Andrews, the wider church and the community – I am returning to health. I am by no means there yet, but I have rediscovered something which I had lost and that is HOPE.

HOPE lifts our eyes to something more than the difficulties that appear to be right in front of us. HOPE challenges us and encourages us to take that one weary step which seems so hard to take, that once taken leads to another and another. HOPE teaches us that no matter our circumstance and the depths to which we feel we’ve sunk, that tomorrow is a new day with a new horizon.

I don’t pretend for one moment that HOPE is easy, it can be very hard – but if we dare to grasp hold of it, it has the power to transform.

God knows that HOPE is hard. It took Him stripping himself of everything and stepping into our world as a vulnerable baby: Born in a time of poor sanitation, food and medical care, to poor parents who became refugees and had to flee the country; growing up in a small corner of the vast Roman empire and being persecuted, tortured and killed in his life just because he healed, forgave and spoke of the love of God with the promise of new life. It cost God everything, even death, to bring HOPE to us. That’s what we find in Jesus. Whether in the manger or on the cross – we find God who endured all of it and then said “no, that is not how the story ends, there is more”; and he offers that life to us today as we place our trust in him, as we seek and find him in one another and in the care of community and family.

As you look at Christmas cards this year, as you sing carols or set up your nativity scene at home, look again at this powerful symbol of HOPE contained with the tiny person of Jesus. Maybe you have lost HOPE, maybe you don’t know how to go on – well I dare you to try again, talk to someone, share your fears or dreads and ask others to speak HOPE to you if you find it hard to do so yourself. It is hard, but we are not alone because the one who embodies HOPE, Jesus, promises to walk alongside us even through the very darkest of nights.

Christmas services at St Andrews: Sun 4th Dec          –              10am All Age Christingle service Sun 11th Dec       –              4pm Christmas Messy Church Sun 18th Dec       –              4pm & 6.30pm Carols by Candlelight Sat 24th Dec         –              4pm Family Crib Service 11pm Midnight Communion Sun 25th Dec       –              10am Joint  Christmas Celebration Service with New Life Church and Cornard Christian Fellowship followed by informal  communion Sun 1st Jan           –              10am New Year’s Day Communion

Peace and Blessings to you, this Christmas tide and may you know the promise of HOPE born anew in the coming year.

Chris Ramsey