Rector's letter for May Fowey News
Dear Friends
At the end of March NASA astronaut Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore returned to earth. Along with fellow astronaut Suni Williams, he had been stranded on the International Space Station for 286 days when their Boing Starliner capsule developed problems. They were originally scheduled to be there for only eight days.
Strikingly, on his return, Butch spoke about the importance of his Christian faith sustaining him throughout the mission and how it was key to enduring the experience, enabling him to be content in God’s plans and purposes throughout.
Butch also spoke about the importance of his connections with his church community and how he had been able to maintain the links through online services and phone calls, which he said were both "invigorating" and “vital”, ”part of what I need, as a believer in Jesus Christ, to continue that focus … day in and day out … I need that fellowship, even though it's fellowship from afar.”
The reality of Christian connection in the local church has always, at its best, been something distinctive, attractive and compelling. From the first century onwards, Christians from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds loved and cared for one another, ate together, shared one another’s homes and lives, and welcomed strangers, authenticating the transforming power of Jesus in people’s lives.
Our culture today is (dangerously, it might be said) open to mystery. People know that life has to consist of more than they can see, buy or earn. Many are looking for meaning and for encounters with God, but sadly often in the wrong places and drawing the wrong conclusions. Whereas followers of Jesus have the story - and an ancient tradition, a historic practice - that brings together community, meaning and transcendence even in the ordinary, down to earth and every day messiness of the connection that exists between believers. For Butch Wilmore that experience was literally out of this world.
You may not have been to church in a while, or even ever, but it’s worth checking out. The message that creates that community offers a real and tangible hope in our dark and distressed world. Indeed, speaking of his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, Wilmore said, “It’s not just important. It is everything. It is beyond important. It is vital to existence.” “Eternal hope trumps absolutely everything.”
If you’d like to discover something of that for yourself, we’re running a three week series called Hope Explored, Wednesday evenings 7th, 14th, 21st May, 7.30pm in the Safe Harbour Lounge Bar. Check out the trailer at youtu.be/d8AbJ2N8NAY Come and join us.
with every blessing
Philip