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Circuit Newsletter April 2026

Andy writes:

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First, A Very Happy Easter to you all.  Christ IS Risen: Alleluia!!

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As I write we are still journeying through the Wilderness of Lent and anticipating the joy and celebration of entering the Promised Land of Easter.

Currently we see signs of Spring and its abundance of new life preparing to explode into bloom, once the warmer weather arrives more permanently!!

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During Lent we have worked through the study series entitled: Pause. Breathe. Make Space for God. It has been an excellent time of sharing and learning together but also a celebration of the transforming ministry of Holy Spirit of God in bringing New Life. In the resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is empowered to take the ordinary of our lives and transform them into something very special. Our challenge is to allow our faith to be daily renewed by the Power and Grace of the Holy Spirit.

 

During Lent many of us have taken time to Pause. Breathe. Make Space for God, to hear what God is saying to us and to discover the things we need to lay aside and/ or the new things he calls us to fulfil.

 

There is a song which says: 

Everything changes but God changes not;
His power never changes that lies in His heart.  
(Johann Wolfgang Goethe)

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The sentiment that God is constant, faithful and that His nature, personality and character will never change are reassuring for us all. However, on other hand we are called to be continually changed by the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is that Spirit of God that nudges, challenges and empowers us to become more like Christ in all we do, say and are. (It also challenges our churches, our traditions and our beliefs for 2026: Some things really DO need to change)!

As Easter and the arrival of spring changes the natural world around us, so it is a call for us to, die with Christ and be raised into a new and changed life.

By the time some of you read this I will be settling into the starting blocks, ready for the clock to strike mid-night on Easter Sunday which will mark the start of my sabbatical. 

(With apologies to those who are, by now, totally fed up with hearing about my sabbatical) … I will be away from ministry from 6th April and return on Tuesday 21st July. (Just in time for Rev. Mmasape’s Farewell Service on 26th July at 4.00pm). I will be unavailable during this time but if you have any queries, please speak to one of my wonderful colleagues or Jackie in the office.

The gift of a sabbatical which the church gives to its ministers every seven years, is both a real privilege and essential part of ministry. It is an opportunity for me to take some serious time to Pause. Breathe. Make Space for God over a longer period. 

My time away will include a retreat, some reading, a pilgrimage around the significant Christian sites in Ireland, time for family and friends and various other restful activities. It will also be an opportunity to reignite some of my other interests which have been squeezed out over recent years including, photography, walking, birdwatching and time to explore London. (Away from the ‘touristy’ areas).

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Hopefully Easter (and for me, my sabbatical) will change, renew and re-energise all of us, and we will return feeling refreshed, alive to Christ and greatly blessed by the transforming New Life that God offers to us all.

May the Peace and Joy of Christ’s resurrection be with you all.

Andy