Churchyard Grass Cutting: You might know that the south and west parts of the churchyard are cut by volunteers. The church provides the mowers and strimmer (if needed), and the petrol. What we need are some more volunteers to help. One person sits on the ride-on mower and trundles it up and down the open areas; another, perhaps slightly more active person, mows and strims the graves area to the west of church. The north side of the churchyard is cut by contractors. You don't need to go to church to be able to do it - just a bit of enthusiasm for keeping our churchyard beautiful. If you can help, even simply once a year, please contact David Peace now on 420675.

I remember being baffled by my mother when I was younger - she'd tell me not to go into the bathroom because it had just been cleaned. This struck me as more than a little odd; after all, sooner or later we were all going to have to use the bathroom again. Though it might be true that it needed cleaning once every so often, we simply couldn't then just leave it in case some visitors popped round.
I think we can draw a comparison there with the way we behave in life as a whole. At nearly every church service, we confess our sins - things we have done wrong against God, against others, and against the world we live in. If we are determined to try to do better, then we will be forgiven. Yet, just like the dust which always makes its way back into our houses no matter how hard we clean, so we will do things wrong again; and just like a room will need cleaning again and again, so our sins will need forgiving again and again. Not necessarily the same sins, just as it is not always the same dust. Sometimes, too, we will have to polish that bit harder to get rid of the dirt, as we have to work harder at changing some of our behaviour. Sometimes the dust will be very obvious, sometimes not, sometimes it will be hiding in corners, sometimes only taller people can see it - and so on. In the same way, our sins will come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

The good news, of course, is that (unlike my mother) God will never tire of tidying up after us and saying 'you are forgiven'. Happy cleaning!               

  STEPHEN         

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