As we look forward to June you may, like me, be looking forward to better weather. Our winter and spring have been a bit unpredictable this year. This could be as the result of climate change, I prefer that to the phrase global warming, as the weather can be hotter or colder than usual. But it does feel different to the weather I remember as a child. We may well be responsible for this change and should bear that in mind with our use of energy for unnecessary causes.
June is also a time of change for the church. At the start of June we celebrate the Coming of the Holy Spirit and the change that brought to the early church. We call this celebration Pentecost but it used to be known as
Whitsun, or White Sunday as people would make a special effort to dress up in white. It was also a time for
holidays for many of the mills and factories. Following on from Pentecost, we enter into the season of Trinity, when we celebrate that great mystery of God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and yet we still hold true to the first of the Ten Commandments that there is only one God.
St. Patrick is said to have explained the mystery of the Trinity as the three leaves of the shamrock representing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet all three are one plant. Others have said it is like a person who is a
father to their children, a husband to their wife and son to their parents; father, husband, son, three people but in one person. As Christians we see God as the creator of the world, Jesus as the saviour of the world and the Holy Spirit as God’s working in the world today.
To me, complete understanding of this mystery is not important if even possible, for I believe it is beyond us. But the words often heard at a wedding from St. Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth sum it up very well for me
Now these three remain, faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. I invite you to come and join in our worship to the God of Love, shown in Jesus and alive and well in the world today.
We will be holding a special Patronal service at 10am on 18th June at The Most Holy Trinity church, Hinton-in-the-Hedges which is dedicated to the Trinity, I hope to see you there.
God Bless. SIMON