Message fae the Manse

Dear friend,
First of all, I hope you remembered to put your clocks forward at the weekend! And whilst this meant we lost an hour’s sleep, the fact that our mornings and evenings are lighter more than makes up for it.

Spring has always been associated with new life, new birth and new growth with many of our flowers suddenly bursting into colour and fields full of lambs discovering life for the first time.

And for the church it is also a time of new birth, new opportunities and new freedoms. As you read this, we will be in Holy Week travelling with Jesus in his final days, through his suffering, loneliness and isolation. And whilst we look forward to the celebration of his resurrection, we must never forget the days that precede this joyful occasion.

Because I am sure that many of us can relate to these feelings given the past year we have had, and whilst it has been difficult, challenging and at times almost impossible to see a way forward, we have made it this far and as we ease out of lockdown new possibilities and opportunities await us.

One of which is that as a church we are re-opening for physical worship once again on Easter Sunday, although we do so under strict guidelines as before.

But re-open we do, and in doing so, we are once again given the opportunity to explore and move forward in how we worship God. Because just as in many other areas of life that will never go back to being exactly the same as they were pre-pandemic, the church and how we worship God is the same. But what a perfect time for us to explore new beginnings and opportunities.

So, I wish you very Happy Easter and look forward to welcoming you back face to face to NMPC for physical worship. And remember our online and telephone services will continue for those of you not able to return at this point.

Your friend in Christ
Rev Stuart Crawford