Dear Friends,

Summer is nearly over, and many of us are thinking about getting ready for the new connexional year.

This summer you may have been away on holiday or had a staycation, enjoying sometime at home or visiting local places. As we approach the new term for school children, parents will have been getting ready for a new start. A story from a parent makes me smile, the parents prepared their son for the first day at school and after the child came back from their first day he said,’ I have done school’. The parents realised they had prepared the child to go to school on their first day, but not explained that they would need to go to school every day in term time until they were at least 16.

In June, we looked at the book of Revelation, that is given to us the Church and when we read it and act on it, we receive a blessing. This reminded me that in Hebrews 10 23-25 it says, ‘Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech in New York City. He said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase and 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, ‘For we live by faith, not by sight’.

Northampton Methodist Church is one year old in September and everyone in the worshipping communities has taken the first step, let us continue up the staircase, as we move forward together.

As we start a new connexional year we can reflect on the year that has past and look forward to the future and see what God has for us in the year ahead. Just like the variety of shoes in the picture, we are all different people, but all have a purpose. It is my hope and prayer that together we will prepare and plan for a ‘new places for new people’ space in Northampton. This autumn offers us so much potential as a Church together, as we are not alone, let us pray a prayer called the Covenant prayer.

A covenant with God

 I am no longer my own but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing,
put me to suffering; let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, exalted for you, or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing: I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.’ The Methodist Covenant Prayer

Blessings from Revd Ian Forsyth