1st October 2024

Dear Friends,

Firstly a very big Thank You! to the churchwardens, ministry team and all the servant hearted people who’ve worked so hard to keep things in such good order during the vacancy.  I look forward to meeting some of you you at my licensing on 3rd October and others in the coming weeks!

In this pastoral letter I would like to introduce you to what I see as our Benefice strapline to help us frame our mission.  

In Friendship.  In Fellowship.  In Christ.

“Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.”  (1 Sam 23: 16.)

‘Friends’ was a very popular comedy of the 90s and early 2000s.  I grew up with the Friends!  I was just about old enough to watch the first series and turned 22 as the final series aired.  

In 2018 Netflix introduced the programme to a new generation of millennials.  Even though some of the humour had dated, it gained popularity among this age group, because the show speaks into our almost universal desire for friendship.  Most of us have a longing for deep, close, constant, enduring friendship.  

Most people come to faith with the help of their friends, family and acquaintances. A friend persuaded me to go to Christian Union in year 8 of secondary school and my faith journey developed from there.  Friends are important!

I think Hutton and Locking folk are really good at friendships!  So I felt this strapline of In Friendship, In Fellowship, In Christ would honour the identity of our two churches and encourage us to talk about Jesus amongst our friends and family and give us ideas to do this.  Jonathan helped his friend David find strength in God…and this is our task too! (1 Samuel 23:16.) 

In my first joint church sermon on 6 October in Hutton, I want to look in-depth at our relationship with God and His love for us!   Then in our joint service on 13 October in Locking I want to think about mission and how God might be calling us to live His love in our communities.  

Blessings, Larissa