A message from the Rev’d Amanda Collinson

Posted by Admin on 29 April 2016, 8:00 am

Amanda Collinson

Priest-in-Charge

St John the Baptist Church

Northwood.

Tel: 01983 294913

Hello there!

Images are powerful things…..I have often said the sense I would hate to lose would be my sight – it gives you so much more of an insight to the world than hearing, smell, touch or taste. As the old saying goes photos, pictures, paintings can say a thousand words, without saying anything at all. Furthermore the same image can affect a number of people in very different ways: they can make you cry, be horrified, shocked or bring you great joy! And now due to the increase of social media and the fact that so many things we own can take photos (phone, tablet etc) we are surrounded by photos of everyday life, and not just those special moments we capture on our camera.
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There are of course benefits of this – my best friend in Australia daily sees my boys through photos streamed on the internet and we chat each week on Skype and I will be honest with you I take it for granted now, which is crazy as in my lifetime I have survived, yes survived ladies and gentlemen, without a mobile, dealt with putting only one image on a floppy disc and coped with the only communication with my folks, whilst on deployment in the Middle East, being a 10 minutes’ weekly phone call. But the disadvantages are that we have now been saturated by images and perhaps their shock and awe effect does not have the same impact on us anymore, and yet regrettably there seems to be more and more sadness and desperation than ever before around the world.
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I was chatting to a couple last week and we all agreed that having children has had a profound effect on us all – we all now struggle to watch things on the television where a child is hurt or in great distress. It invokes great emotion in us, and can do so in such a short space of time, and sometimes so much that we have to turn away or turn off the TV. And I am sure it is the same for many of you out there. But whilst we would rather not see the horrendous situation people worse off than us are in, we NEED to see it because hopefully that will kick us into action.
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We will support Christian Aid again this year in our church and will try and raise as much money as possible, through donations and other events (see inside Northwood News for details) because we want to and we should as a loving Christian community. Jesus did not turn away from those in need, the outcast, the diseased, the hungry and neither should we, his present day followers and that’s why we happily have Christian Aid week at church. But I know that caring and helping is not just a trait for churchgoers, I am delighted to say, it is a trait that is found in pretty much everyone.
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So many people help our local Foodbank with their generous gifts of food but also of their time. I know we all care – that has been shown to me so many times since I came here and I just want to ask that you show your care to your neighbours again, though this time they are just not down the road….they are in a foreign land, with little food, perhaps no home, stricken by an illness that is curable over here and with little hope.
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May is traditionally a lovely month with the sun shining more brightly and all of us tending to start spending more time outside – in the garden, walking along the beach, at the park. Let’s make our community shine even more with love by giving a few coins or notes, whatever you can afford, to making someone’s life better.
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Wishing you a blessed month,

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Rev’d Amanda.

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PS Apologies for the confusion last month – the front article was written by Di Netherway not Amanda Collinson….Amanda has only been ordained for 8 years not 20!

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