Rector’s Letter – 24th February

Dear friends,

Last week I came across this little poem on the cover of a Welsh poetry magazine. It made such an impression on me that I decided to attempt a translation.

BUT
In this darkness
something is hiding.
It’s sometimes a shy thing
although it shouldn’t be.
Hope is its name.
And it can’t be killed.

I catch myself saying ‘but’ quite often these days in phone conversations with friends and family and even in my brief exchanges with those I meet on my daily walks. In fact, I have found that questioning the negative attitudes of others has become an important part of my day-to-day ministry. Challenging people’s thinking is not something that comes naturally to me. I had always found it easier to respond with a resigned shrug or a vague smile but the pandemic has changed that. Engulfed by the darkness of so much fear, loss and grief, it is so easy for us to become fatalistic or cynical or judgmental of others. It’s easy to disregard the many blessings we enjoy every day and all we have to be thankful for. It’s easy to blame and criticise others, forgetting to put ourselves for a moment in their shoes. And it’s especially easy to lose sight of the rays of hope which can lighten the darkness and transform it.

As a child I always enjoyed looking for signs of the coming of spring in the hedgerows on my way to school. I learnt where to find the first snowdrops, the primroses, violets and lesser celandine, catkins, frogspawn and birds’ eggs. Now as I read or listen to the news and explore social media, I look with the same eye for signs of hope for the future. Hope is indeed a shy thing, hiding behind the headlines, but we find it in stories of the selfless service of front-line workers, in the amazing co-operation between pharmaceutical companies, in the ingenuity of organisations seeking to support those in need, in the efforts of thousands of volunteers and fundraisers, in countless small acts of kindness and generosity, in a renewed sense of community in streets up and down the land.

A famous preacher once said that hope is like a star. Stars are amazing but we can only see them in the dark. The darker the sky, the brighter they shine. Often people only discover hope when they are facing suffering, when they feel overwhelmed by the darkness of loneliness, grief, depression, anger or anxiety. Sometimes they need our help to see the light of hope and to be reminded that it can dispel any darkness. As a child who was scared of the dark, I loved the idea in Psalm 139 that even the darkness is not dark to God, ‘the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you’.

My prayer is that this Lent, as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus towards the cross and the empty tomb, we may be bringers of God’s light of hope into the lives of all who cross our path.

With love to you all,

Nerys