Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We have come to the end of the fourth week of sabbatical, time flies!
We know that sabbatical is not meant to be a holiday (it is far more than that) but it has been incredibly busy, and we have heard and learned much from God over this first month. Here is a quick outline of some of the highlights.
We started at New Wine. It’s hard to describe worship with 5000 other people, an experience that the Old Testament Jewish nation would have been familiar with. It gives a very different perspective to what we sometimes quite blithely call ‘church.’ People of all ages, at times, sitting, kneeling, prostrate always in a place of God’s presence, worship. I get excited to see people in the quietness of their seat quite obviously being ministered to by the Holy Spirit, while the 5000 others around them are singing, clapping, even dancing before the Lord. The Holy Spirit moves where He wills, in the quiet, in the noise, in the reflective, in the storm, in sound of mighty rushing wind, in flames of fire. Like Nicodemus, we don’t ‘see’ the Holy Spirit, only the effect and result of His presence.
Our own Rt Rev Bishop Ruth was the main speaker each morning. She was quite something. Freed from the necessity of preaching ‘Bishopy’ things (ordinations, licensing, confirmations etc) she spoke powerfully on the theme ‘Come away with me’ – very appropriate for a sabbatical message! She spoke passionately with clarity and insight. +Ruth was also interviewed during the week about her upbringing, personal testimony and being a Bishop. During her interview she was asked about her view of scripture and what it means for her. She spoke for about 8 minutes non-stop barely drawing breath in her excitement about her passion for God’s written word. Her desire to preach from an early age, describing the thrill of learning and seeing new things in the Word, appreciating different sides to God character revealed in each book, finding how the Old and New Testaments are a single narrative of God’s love and relationship with humanity – and then seeing the words of the text come to life in her own experience and the lives of others. Her passion and excitement fanned into flame once again my love of scripture.
She emphasised all this with a phrase she used throughout the week……. ‘and it’s true.’
It is easy to become complacent in our reading of the Bible, we can forget that it is God’s Word, not just a compilation of books published together as a bundle of short stories. Thank you +Ruth for reinvigorating that in me.
New Wine was followed by a quiet week away for me in a delightful cottage at the West Watch retreat centre in Chelwood Gate (nr Forest Row). West Watch is on the edge of the Ashdown Forest and is surrounded by several acres of woodland to walk, explore, and pray through. Here was an opportunity to pray further about our future as I will have to retire from full-time stipendiary ministry in 2026, so what comes next? Over the previous years God had made it clear that we weren’t to return to Berkshire. That was re-affirmed while praying at West Watch. Now, for many that would make it obvious that if we weren’t to return to Berkshire, we would therefore stay where we are.
That is lazy thinking, that is a thinking based not upon hearing God’s voice in a situation, but on my own personal comfort, i.e. I like it here and don’t want the upheaval of change at retirement. God saying, ‘you can’t go back’ is not the same as presuming God means, ‘stay where you are.’
The first step to moving on into the future is to let go of the past.
So, the first step is for us to sell our home in Berkshire and let go of the past. So, I travelled to Berkshire immediately after West Watch and put our home of fourteen years on the market.
We now pray, wait, and see.
A note about West Watch, it is a beautiful place to just stop and be. The self-catering cottages (when used for retreats) are rented by donation. The two cottages sleep 3-6 guests. There is also the Centre which is a newer building for 24 guests which is great for groups, Youth, Mens, Ladies, Alpha, Homegroups etc. Sleeping accomodation is slightly more spartan than the cottages with dormitory or family groups rooms.
Following the quiet of West Watch came the noise and chaos of grandchildren as Isaac and Scarlett came to stay for several days. As ever (for all grand-parents) they were a delight, but exhausting! One thing I noticed through all the walks, playgrounds, playing football and frisbee, throwing stones into the sea and ice-creams was that still much of what they see and experience is for the first time. That is one of the characteristics of childhood. It is this joy of seeing some things for the first time that reminded me of New Wine and +Ruth’s passion for scripture. We too should read and engage with scripture as if we are reading it for the first time, then maybe we would experience the same wonder as children when they encounter new things and situations with wide-eyed wonder. Maybe it is part of what Jesus meant (in Matt 18:3) when He said that we should approach the Kingdom of God like little children?
More of these missives will follow, but in the meantime please do continue to pray for us both as we plunge further into this sabbatical gift of time.
Pray for refreshing, renewal, revelation, as we pray also for you.
Do enjoy the summer weather with all the delights that a Seaford seaside summer offers.
With Love and blessings,
Derreck and Corrinne.