On a walk recently we got a glimpse of Wirksworth from a place that we don’t often go.  We were surprised to see the church building from a different angle from the one we are used to seeing every week from Coldwell Street.

It’s good to take a fresh look at familiar things, particularly from a distance where you can consider a new perspective or context.

Lots of us have been spending more time in the garden under lockdown and this has often had a positive impact as we can brighten up the streets for neighbours and passers by. Lillian is very pleased of the tubs outside her front door – and was just a bit disappointed that the sun wasn’t shining when she took the picture.

How do you welcome people in a time of pandemic? Our reading for Sunday Explorers was from Matthew 10:40-42:

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

We thought about all the different ways that we might be able to welcome people, even when we can’t shake hands, hug or let them into our houses. Then we made ‘welcome’ signs to hang in our houses as a reminder. Here is the one that Florence made.

On 21 June  at Sunday Explorers we looked at pictures of baked beans, smarties and grains of salt, trying to guess how many there were in the picture – not an easy job! Then we discussed what it meant that God knows every hair on our heads (more for some than for others!).

Ella asked us to draw pictures where there was a lot of one particular thing, so that the rest of us could guess how many there were. Here is Sylvie’s picture of a tree with lots of leaves and a cloud with a lot of drops of rain. How many can you count?

Jan has been very pleased with how her roses have done this year and here are some photos.

Jan can’t remember the name of the red rose, so please contact us if you recognise it!

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At our weekly Zoom meeting we shared the following prayer from Karen Campbell, the United Reformed Church’s Secretary for Global and Intercultural Ministries, and the Moderators of the URC General Assembly, the Revd Nigel Uden and Derek Estill. It is part of a longer article that can be read on the United Reformed Church’s website.

Eternal God,
deeply troubled by what is happening following George Floyd’s death,
and by too much other inhumanity that doesn’t reach the headlines,
we cry to you as the one
whose love was the victor at Easter and
who pours it into our hearts at Pentecost.

As we observe the pain of a fractured world,
use your love to drive us from sadness to compassion;
as we watch the pain of the bereaved,
use your love to move us from pity to companionship;
as we are faced with the pain of marginalised people,
use your love to point us from complacency to your commonwealth.

In our praying,
let us not just talk to you,
but yield to your love;
in our anger,
let us not just rail against injustice,
but manifest your love;
in our actions,
let us not just flail about aimlessly,
but build the civilisation of love.

Until none of us are disregarded for who we are
nor any diminished by what we fail to be,
we keep on praying in the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen.

(banner photo by Prateek Gautam on Unsplash)

On Sunday the Explorers Zoom meeting explored the Trinity. Not an easy topic for any of us to understand, but Ella led it by asking us to draw clover leaves made of three hearts, to represent Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We had a lot of fun experimenting with different colours and designs.

Here is Sylvie’s picture.

Sunday Explorers didn’t happen last week (16 May) because of the worldwide problems affecting Zoom. It made us realise how quickly we’d got used to this service being available. Luckily we didn’t have any problems on 23 May when Ella encouraged us to think about how we sometimes need to look more closely, when it’s not obvious where God is. A bit like looking in a “Where’s Wally?” book.

Ella encouraged us all to draw our own picture that has some hidden elements to be searched out. Here are two of them. What can you see?

At tonight’s fellowship meeting Maureen shared a prayer based on a Scrabble board, listing what we are  thankful for. We realised that a standard Scrabble set doesn’t necessarily have all of the letters needed for the things that we are grateful for, so some creativity with letters and blank squares was needed. See if you can work out all of the words.

Please read the Report from the Christian Aid Committee with some wonderful news about this year’s Christian Aid Week in Wirksworth. Please click on the following link.
CA Flier June 2020 Final (4)