2024 Summer

I don’t know about you, but I seem to spend a lot of my time feeling like a frazzled Martha who is nevertheless longing to release her inner Mary. And let’s face it the last four years or so have been brutal to us all. Covid has impacted church life in so many ways, particularly where congregations are elderly and frail. Many of us have been through other difficulties too – vacancies, discouragements, bereavements, not to mention our own encounters with the dreaded virus. We all need to take a good, long look at how kind we are being to ourselves and where we might do better. The ‘Theme’ articles in this issue encourage us to do exactly that.

Mind, body and spirit are intimately connected, held in balance, as Tony Jefferis reminds us. But spiritual depression is real, and Richard Laugharne gives us advice on how to avoid it. Meanwhile, Martine Oborne advises us to take the idea of rest really seriously.

The other Theme articles take a slightly different approach. Carolyn Gomersal looks at the ministry of Parish Nurses and explains how this can be experienced as a gift to an entire church community. Clare Whitney reveals how the three strands of her ministry fit together and support each other. Julia Mourant encourages us to explore the place of spiritual direction in self-care and Mick Sital-Singh explains how our personality type can have a profound effect on the way we pray.

Other articles in this issue look at engaging with scripture (John Parker on the story of Gideon from Judges, and John Griffiths on Philip and the Ethiopian from Acts 8). Nicholas Orme then invites us to consider cathedrals – not just as beautiful buildings but as treasure houses of our church history and heritage. Hannah Eves from A Rocha reflects on COP28, while Paul Cobb takes another look at doctrine around Creation and Pam Daunton uses storytelling to spread the gospel to schoolchildren.

Our regular book feature for this issue introduces us to Richard Carter and his moving Letters from Nazareth.I hope you will find this, and the other items, enriching in many ways.

Next time, we will be focusing on links between the Old and New Testaments. If you are interested in contributing something on this topic, do please contact me (editor@transformingministry.co.uk) as soon as you can. Following that we will be exploring the theme of vocation (deadline, end of July) and then, for the first issue of 2025 – with a copy deadline of the first week in October – how we might make Christ known in a secular world.

Of course, you don’t have to confine your offerings to our Theme topics. Half the articles in every issue are on other subjects. So do please keep your ideas and contributions coming in. It is always a delight to hear from you.

May I wish you a summer full of blessings, with plenty of time to relax and take care of yourself.

Richenda