As I'm sat in my chair looking out onto Bradley Park with rain running down the windows, and only a few short weeks to Christmas, I wonder what happened to those hot sunny days of summer, well they seem a dim distant memory. What other memories do I have of the past year, Mmmm well I won't forget being summoned to the church office one Friday evening along with my fellow church warden, Jonathan and incoming warden Peter to be told by lan that he was leaving us and moving to Wolverhampton which he did in June, to be followed closely by Simon in July as he and the family went to minister in Silsden.
Then in August I was on holiday and exchanging a WhatsApp message with Ruth one Saturday afternoon when she messaged me saying the church is on fire, I thought what a strange thing to say, but then realised she was perfectly serious.
I could go on but won't.
The thing is, Jesus is with us through the good and the bad, in Matthew 28 : 20 he says, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age". I know that he has been with us throughout the interregnum, we have a fantastic team of people to whom we are very grateful who have kept the ship well afloat, and hopefully by the time you are reading this we will have appointed a new vicar to start in the new year.Then we had that fire, the hall roof destroyed, and the hall rendered unusable. But we know that our Lord has been and continues to be with us as we wait for building work to begin. But the thing is the fire was literally inches from spreading to our worship area, the fact that people saw smoke and called the fire brigade I believe saved our church. God is so good, and he certainly had his hand on Bradley that day.
I have spoken about the bad but there has been lots of good, fantastic worship, with home grown and great visiting preachers, such as our own Archdeacon Bill who has been a great support to us.
And finally, I want to mention the concert given by Huddersfield Community Gospel choir, they visited in September and wow what a blessing they were giving us that lift we needed after a few difficult weeks following the fire.
So, as we hurtle towards Christmas, have a Very Happy and Blessed Christmas from all the team here at St. Thomas'.
Margaret