Dear siblings in Christ, 

At the beginning of this new calendar year, a number of the worshipping communities in Northampton Methodist Church (who did not do so in September) will be holding covenant services. These services celebrate God’s gracious offer that “I will be their God and they shall be my people” an expression that we find throughout holy scripture (see Genesis 17:7, Exodus 6:7, Ezekiel 34:24, Ezekiel 36:28, Jeremiah 7:23, Jeremiah 30:22, Jeremiah 31:33). 

The covenant is not a contractual relationship, in which God and human beings agree to provide services for one another, but rather it is a recognition of God’s grace gifted to us and the divine promises that are made by God and are revealed to us in Jesus Christ. The covenant service, as developed in the 18th century, integrates with John Wesley’s fundamental understanding of what it means to be a Christian in relationship with God. The early Methodist covenant prayer used language that was similar in form to the words used in the marriage service, recognising the intimacy and closeness of the relationship. Wesley believed that people not only had to accept that they were in a relationship with God but that relationship involved a commitment to growth, in grace and holiness, to become more like the person of Jesus Christ in self-giving love. 

The original covenant service involved significant preparation leading up to it, including a day long retreat which involved prayer, fasting, reflection, and self-examination before the covenant was celebrated during a service of Holy Communion. Following the service people were encouraged to continue to work out the implications for their lives of the fact that their relationship with God had been renewed in and through Jesus Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit. 

This Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany season we have been engaging with the Holy Habits course (www.holyhabits.org.uk) which focuses on the practices of the early Church found within Acts 2:42-47.  More specifically we have been considering how to make more disciples of Jesus Christ, recognising that this is the great commission that Jesus gives to his disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) that is seen being fulfilled in the Book of Acts. This involves a commitment in response to the grace and love that we have received from God, offered to us in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, that we celebrate in the covenant service. 

As we enter a new calendar year, and as many of us repeat the covenant prayer and/or make our resolutions for the new year, it may be helpful for us to consider how we might grow in our relationship with God and how we might support others in their discipleship journeys as well. How can our words and actions encourage those around us in their relationships with God and what are the opportunities that we have to share the good news of the gospel? In sharing this good news to others, we hope that the blessing that we have received from God might become more widely known in a world that is in need of transformation by God’s grace and love.  

So, in this new calendar year, I pray and hope that you might once again experience God’s blessing on your life, that you might recall the promises made in Jesus Christ, and share the good news with those around you by the help of the Holy Spirit. 

Yours faithfully,