Leatherhead
Covenanting Churches, An ecumenical celebration of Holy Communion in the context of a shared supper. To mark 6 years of our Covenant and Canon David Eaton's contribution to the life of the Churches in Leatherhead. The Reading was John 15 1-7: Revd Dean Tapley
The intercessions were led by Revd Ian Howarth
After Communion and before The Peace, Revd Canon David Eaton offered this Reflection: May I thank you all for coming and joining together tonight, it means a lot, and especially may I thank Mary, Alison, Mike , Dean and Ian and all those who have worked to make tonight happen. It’s great to be here and to be together. I started to think I had better get a part time job – Sainsbury’s or the Big Issue, perhaps. Keep going at all costs. Then there is the other approach. The flat-out school of thought. The retired say “I never know how I found the time to go out to work”. This is worrying because most of my life has been spent never knowing how to find time to go out to play. A while ago we were having a crisis about pensions, that’s before we were having a crisis about credit. The clergy all received a letter to say that the clergy pension fund was on hard times. They thought we ought to know the reason is that the clergy are all living a lot longer than they used to … which felt like an invitation to make the ultimate sacrifice. That’s another option when you retire. Then there’s housing. We’ve got to live somewhere, but where? And we’ve got to get a house, but which one? Rumours that we looked at most of the available houses in SE England are true. People kept saying “it’s like falling in love, you’ll know”. We kept looking at each other: “Do you know?”; “Do you know?” We also discovered that looking at houses can become addictive. We are thinking of starting the HHA – House Hunters Anonymous. There is something mesmerising about other people’s houses, hence all those property programmes. Shall we call Phil and Kirsty in? We would look complete idiots. “oh look, that’s nice … mind you I wouldn’t have chosen blue … look at the state of that… you can’t believe how some people live.” And what about estate agents? Anyone here an estate agent? Are they really your new best friend, or are they desperate to see you a house? Surely not. Then there is saying goodbye, and leaving behind. This is where it gets a bit tricky. Maybe you are someone who always relishes the future. Me, I’m a nostalgia buff .. the music we used to listen to, and still do .. the places we’ve been ..the photos of the children – when they were children … I’m cracking up without really trying. So saying goodbye to all of you and moving on doesn’t fill me with delight – I don’t know quite what I’ll do with all the memories. I know I’ll be thinking of old so-and-so: and do you remember when; and if only we could …. But that’s what friendship means. If there was no true friendship you wouldn’t miss it when friends are not around so much. What am I saying! Pull yourself together! We’re only going to Brockham, for goodness’sake.
But it’s a real break in the sense of separation and the end of a way of life. Which is our way of saying “It’s been great, and we want to say a big ‘thank you’ for having us a round for a bit, and giving us your support and friendship .. and I’ll return the mower as soon as I can find it.” Which brings me to tonight .. The Last Supper (or one of them). A means of shared friendship. One of the joys of being here has been the Ecumenical Partnership which we have been able to establish, abiding in God’s love. There we were last Sunday morning, three churches sharing in Breakfast Praise ... all working together as families with children. The there is the Leatherhead Youth Project and our joint youth work, and Leatherhead Trinity, the newly formed Church School to move this year into a brand new multi-million pound school building; a school jointly sponsored by our three churches; not to mention Lent Groups, Christian Aid, the Walk of Witness on Good Friday, New Fire, Be@titude, Liquid, Bugs Club and other shared services. Tonight is a celebration of all this. Not just for its own sake but because it is creative when we do what do together and not on our own. Together we can address issues around our response to young families, for example, much more creatively than if we each try and paddle our own canoe, oblivious of anyone else. We all face the same issues and problems. The Holy Spirit is the go-between: the emerging new possibilities, the hope for the future and the practical problem solving in the present. And we’ve only just begun to work in this new and innovative way. I sense that there is a lot more to come and on which you can build. It feels like we are in Phase I and this will lead to further development and change and building in the future. So tonight we (Ginny and I) say thank you for all that we have been able to share and do and be together, and we celebrate all that is and we commit ourselves to going on together to see what yet there is to come.
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