"The Silence of God Touches Our lives."

Speaking at our District Network Celebration last week, Mrs. Christine Stuckey told of her attendance at the Cenotaph in London with her husband Tom during his Presidential Year and what an experience it was to be part of the emotion and pain of that 2 minutes silence! She then added a phrase that has stuck in my mind - "The silence of God touches our lives!"



This was the experience of all those who attended a four-Circuit Quiet Day recently at the Benedictine monastery of Douai Abbey. This beautiful Abbey is so steeped in Prayer and Worship that even those who find it difficult to be silent before God are involuntarily caught up in the all-pervading atmosphere of peace and serenity - whether in the magnificent Church, the conference room or outside in the well-kept,inspirational and peaceful grounds. Silence is also requested even in the Book Room (accessed through the Church), with its extremely helpful display of books and leaflets. One leaflet I found particularly helpful was called 'How to Deal with Difficult People'. One of the monks smiled as he gently said, 'Ah, yes! The monastic life, community life, marriage........'

Our leader for this Quiet Day was the Revd Veronica Faulks who has returned to our Circuit as a Supernumerary Minister and whose theme was 'In the wilderness', based on I Kings 19. The Day was divided into three sessions - 'Into the wilderness', 'Sustained in the Wilderness' and 'An Unexpected Meeting'.

First we were told that this day was to be spent in the presence of God - just ourselves and God, as we communed with Him. We were reminded that our faith journey includes the wilderness. Elijah went there on purpose. He went there to hide, to match his mood. There were no roads, no paths, no signposts - but there were wild beasts, loneliness and thirst. We must realise that the wilderness experience is central to God's people. [Then we dispersed throughout the Abbey and its grounds for our first period of meditation.]

Veronica continued, 'Why the wilderness? Because, despite the terror, aridity and depression, the wilderness is always where God is found. We don't escape the wilderness in order to find God. He is waiting there. Abraham and Hagar had a son, but Abraham and his wife Sarah threw Hagar and her son out into the wilderness. Yet it was not to Abraham the Patriarch nor Sarah who was to carry the child of God's promise, but to Hagar and her son that God gave his promise.

"After his conversion, Paul went to Arabia for three years - to get to know Christ. Jesus followed the high of his baptism with the low of the desert. However barren the wilderness we're in, God is waiting and we are sustained. An angel ministered to Elijah. The angels we meet are one another, even when not recognised! After the angel had fed him, Elijah's fear and depression turned into a pilgrimage. people have discovered this for ages. What people always discover is that the journey is as important as the destination. [Here we were asked to make a list of the angels who had ministered to us, before dispersing again for private contemplation.]

"Pilgrims are always in search of holy places. You can do this at home in your armchair - an outer journey that turns inward - a journey in search of God. As if drawn by a magnet, Elijah found himself going to the holy mountain. Mountains are holy places where God is found, but the high point of this story wasn't the holy mountain, it was the drought! When God said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?', Elijah was hurt and cried, 'Look what I have done for you and they're trying to kill me.' He was angry, he needed to say how angry he was and he wasn't afraid to say it. So we shouldn't be afraid to be angry with God. Why don't you say angry things to God? Pauline Webb once said, 'Until you can be angry with God you cannot claim your salvation is complete.' God is always passing by. He never sticks around. Jesus does the same after the resurrection! You have to keep your eyes and ears open to catch the moment. [We broke here for lunch.]

On our return, there was a challenge! "Be ready! Ready to hear the still small voice, the soft whisper of a voice in the sheer volume of silence. We expect God to speak in spectacular ways and we lose sight of God in the silence. For Elijah, It was in the wind, storm, rain and cloud that God came to Elijah's people, but Elijah himself had the wisdom to wait for the unexpected. What would the unexpected be for you? The negative things could sometimes be how God speaks. A Sri Lankan Methodist Minister wrote about the time when he was a boy and his Hindu friend took him to a Temple, where he was overwhelmed by the sensory effect it had on him. Later, his Hindu friend said, 'Can I come with you to a church?' His heart sank. What would his friend find in a church after what he regularly experienced in the Temple? Yet it turned out to be an amazing experience! His friend exclaimed in amazement, 'You did everything together!'

"It was not just the food, drink and rest that revitalised Elijah. It was being noticed! It was the unexpected meeting with God. First the cake, water and rest, and then 'Take care of yourself, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.' That message should be written on the fly-leaf of every Bible and given to every Methodist member, Local Preacher, Minister, etc. In the story of the Exodus, in those 40 days in the wilderness, there was only enough manna for one day at a time. If they gathered more, it went rotten. We have to trust that we have enough for each day, one day at a time. So many haven't enough for today. You are to trust that the spiritual food you are given is for today. You can't store up spirituality or faith for the future. It's for NOW - the next step of the journey. Elijah had just enough to get to the mountain of God."

Our Quiet Day ended in an intimate sharing of what we had learned and experienced in our day in the silence of God.

YOUR WILL BE DONE

The Southampton District Celebration Day for 20 years of Network took place at Wesley Church in Reading on Thursday, 4th October when a large number of women came from all over the District for the commissioning of Mrs. Ceri Ellis (wife of the Superintendent Minister of the Reading and Silchester Circuit) as the District Women’s Network President. Many of the women came from Ceri’s previous church in Bournemouth. After a welcome by the Rev’d David Ellis, Deacon Glenda Sidding (the President for 2006-2007) led the worship and, following reports from the District Project Secretary, the District Treasurer and the District Enabler, she added her reflections on the past year.

Then Glenda commissioned Ceri Ellis as the District President for 2007-2008 and this was followed by ‘Forward Together’ – the moving service written specially for the 20th Anniversary of Women’s Network. For our picnic lunch, many of us enjoyed sitting in the church garden created and tended by the Women’s Centre at Wesley, which was awarded a third prize in the 'Reading in Bloom' Competition.

At 2pm we re-gathered in the church to hear Mrs. Christine Stuckey speak on ‘Your will be done’, based on Ephesians1; 1-14. She began by saying, “It is difficult to discern what is God’s will. Where does our world fit into God’s world? My husband’s first Circuit appointment was in Scotland, so far away from family and friends or anyone that I knew. It was knowing that God wanted us to be there that helped me to cope. My mother was killed in an accident when I was 19. God’s will? How could it be? Much later, I still had no explanation, although I realised that God doesn’t inflict pain like that on us - but God is there with us. I spent 14 years as a District Nurse worrking in terminal and chronic care, where many people suffered from ‘multiple systems atrophy’ – a living death! God’s will? Never! All things work together for good to those who love God’, it is often said, but the translation is faulty and it should read ‘IN all things God works together for good….’."

Using her experiences during her husband Tom's Presidential Year, Christine then gave us examples of the way the Church across the world is changing, with tremendous growth in places like Cuba, where once there had been despair. She continued, "God is moving throughout the world. New things are happening in the church here with ‘Fresh Expressions’, with the right people in the right places at the right time. There is ‘Nexus’ below Manchester Central Hall providing a refuge for night clubbers; The Mint in Exeter open between 11pm and 2am for clubbers; and the café bar in Guisborough allowing people from the offices and shops to have lunch with a team there to talk to them, which has been so successful that they have now hired a disused pub up the road. [She could have mentioned Tubestation, the church in Cornwall which will be officially opened by the President, Dr. Martyn Atkins, on October 21st and which has replaced its pulpit with a skateboard ramp, attracting a congregation of surfers - though that had not even been started in Tom's Presidential Year!]

She continued “Network has come of age and is becoming independent from the Methodist Church. It is a time of change and we have to be open to what God is doing." Christine will in fact be our last District Network President because next year Network will be an independent charity with a new name - yet to be discussed. She concluded with a personal list of times when she had found herself having to say 'Your will be done' and challenged her hearers with her closing words "So the message is ‘That you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being’."