WELCOME TO MELTON TEAM PARISH WEBSITE

Welcome to the Melton Mowbray Team Parish!

There’s so much useful and interesting information about our Team Parish on this, our new website – do take time to explore it.

And, if possible, we look forward to meeting you in person soon.

Every Blessing,
Mary (Barr)
Team Rector

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, do contact Julia, the Website Administrator by email julia@meltonparish.org.uk.

Team Rector Writes

“Life-times” 

Dear Friends,

Whether it is on 1st or 22nd September, the season of autumn begins this month. As schools start their new academic year, and harvest festivals mark the passing of another stage in the agricultural cycle, September highlights how our life contains a series of endings and beginnings. It can also remind us of the passing of time, especially for those with birthdays this month: how quickly time flies!

Writing thousands of years ago, the anonymous author of the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes reminded his listeners of the different times and seasons of life:   

“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance…” (Ecclesiastes 3. 1 – 4)

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity”. Some people are especially aware of this reality, due to the nature of their work. Teachers, for example, and others working in an educational environment are conscious of time – both in the rhythm of each school day or term and in the unfolding development of young lives over time. Farmers and gardeners too, are aware of how the changing seasons affects their labour on the land. And of course, in our life together as churches, the liturgical calendar moves us through the annual celebration of the principal festivals and holy days that remind us of the earthly lifetime of Jesus.  In a variety of ways then, all of us find that our lives are marked by different times and seasons. And we also know something of life’s rich and contrasting mixture of experiences to which the writer of Ecclesiastes refers: “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance”.

But is that it?  In the end, does life only amount to “a time to be born and a time to die”? Not according to the Bible, for as Ecclesiastes puts it, God has “set eternity in the human heart.” God has a purpose for us beyond the horizon of this life. Christians believe it is through Jesus Christ – His birth, death and resurrection – that we are assured death is not the end. Jesus has broken down the barrier of sin and death, once and for all. Through Him we come to share in His life and experience the fulfillment of God’s loving purposes; divine fulfillment which lies beyond the times and seasons of our present life. In the meanwhile, as disciples of Jesus, you and I are encouraged to not to waste the precious time that God has entrusted to us, but rather to “pray in the Spirit at all times… giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Ephesians 6:18 5:20)

Yours in Christ’s service,

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