Someone told me the other day about a church that had experienced a fire. Members of the church community gathered to start sorting things out and the Vicar noticed someone he didn’t recognise. He welcomed the stranger and said, ‘I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.’ ‘Well,’, said the visitor, ‘your church has never been on fire before!’
One of our hymns invites us to pray, “blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire” and another puts it in more traditional language like this:
“Breathe on me, Breath of God,
(Edwin Hatch)
till I am wholly thine;
until this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.”
Every Sunday we say the Creed and declare that, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.”
It’s a challenging question to ask ourselves what difference it would make, to our lives and to the life of our church, if the Holy Spirit ceased to be active tomorrow. Would everything carry on as before? What would change?
In this Sunday’s ‘Learning for Life’ we will explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit. As well as time for discussion and refreshments there will be input from the Bible, and two members of our community will speak personally about their own experiences.
Please make it a priority to join in and share in this opportunity to learn together. The full programme for the morning is as follows:
10.00 – 10.25 Input from the Old Testament
10.25 – 10.40 Discussion
10.40 – 10.45 Testimony
Refreshments
11.00 – 11.05 Testimony
11.05 – 11.30 Input from the New Testament
11.30 – 11.45 Q&A
11.45 – 12.00 Optional Holy Communion
“Spirit of God, unseen as the wind, gentle as is the dove:
teach us the truth and help us believe, show us the Saviour’s love!”
(Margaret Old)
I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
With best wishes,
Stephen