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Wold Women of Influence
Six new stories added to Market Rasen's award winning heritage tour and website, focusing on “Wolds Women of Influence”
Six new stories added to Market Rasen's award winning heritage tour and website, focusing on “Wolds Women of Influence”
'The Nature of Healing'
It is very easy in the world we inhabit, a world of demands and expectations to be delivered or honoured immediately, to become complacent about the wonderful health system we have in this country. Our NHS which we so proudly supported during the pandemic, is once again being pilloried for waiting list and failures. We are so fickle sometimes! Yet what we have is the envy of many countries around the world, where healthcare is non-existent or highly expensive and only available to the wealthy few. Yes it costs a lot, and is probably very inefficient as are most large organisations, yet what it delivers, health care for everyone, delivered free at the point of use, is still the mark of a forward thinking, compassionate and generous society. Let us take some pride in that.
In our Gospel reading for this Sunday we see Jesus meeting people at the healing pool. People went to take the waters with the understanding they contained some healing properties. If only they could get into the waters they would find some relief, but that wasn’t always possible. Compassion and generosity were not always shown in that society, and people were not helped even into the pool. It was to a man in such a need, that Jesus seemed to offer some hope, but Jesus doesn’t need to help him into the water, just by his request for help, he has demonstrated his faith that Jesus will help, and it is this faith that makes him well.
We often use the words ‘Body, Mind & Spirit’ when we offer prayers for those who are ill. Prayer and faith in Jesus is a good start in a journey to recovery from many conditions, some of which seem more appropriate than others. Yet there are those who would say yes, by all means pray, that’s OK, but let proper medicine cure the illness. That is a sentiment I can, however agree with.
I agree, because, I see our wonderful NHS created through our compassion and generosity as a facet of God’s kingdom at work in the here and now, and the medical developments we see around us, as revelations given to us from God, through our prayers and trust in him.
Give thanks and pray hard for those who care and help others.
Our Prayer for the Week
Risen Christ,Amen
Chris
The Walesby Group, set into the north western edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, consists of 10 parishes, 10 worshipping communities and 11 church buildings. With a population of around 2100 we are a benefice of very small communities, living in the vast open spaces of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. As worshipping communities we aim to grow ourselves in our faith and discipleship, support and engage with our local communities and bring new people to Christ.
We are blessed with beautiful buildings and faithful commitment from our congregations. As the group continues to integrate together, we are being enabled to offer a variety of worship and outreach styles. Lay ministry and leadership is key to all we offer, and encouraged as we endeavour to open the Kingdom and its values to all.
The Christian faith is focused on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We also believe his death achieved something very special: the opportunity to reconnect with the God that we might believe in but might sometimes feel remote from.
We believe that Jesus was not just a human being but, in some way that we cannot fully understand, God as well. We believe in God the Father, the creator of the entire universe, and the Holy Spirit, who is the way we can experience Jesus today. Not three gods but one, who together are described as the ‘Trinity’ – a description not so much of philosophy but of the relationship at the heart of God.
In the most famous Christian prayer we pray ‘Our Father…’ This creator God wants a relationship with us, for us to be his children and to give us, as Jesus says, ‘life in all its fulness’ (John 10.10).
