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THOUGHT FOR
THE MONTH
May 2008
In
February I wrote about colour and what part it plays in our personal lives and
also in
the
life of
the
church. Numbers also play a
significant part in Christianity and symbolism –
One
for unity with God and
the
Church; two for duality symbolizing
the
divine and human nature of Christ; three for The Trinity; four for
the
four Evangelists, five for
the
five wounds of Christ; six for
the
Creation; seven for
the
number of perfection; eight for regeneration or resurrection which is why many
baptismal fonts are eight sided; nine for
the
mystery of angels e.g. ‘nine choirs of angels; ten for completion hence The
Ten Commandments; twelve often signifies
the
whole church, hence
the
twelve tribes of Israel or
the
twelve apostles; thirteen represents betrayal as
the
re were 13 at The Last Supper.
I
could go on but it also struck me that
the
number nine has a real significance for us.
Those amongst us who have been blessed with having children will remember
the
nine long months awaiting
the
birth of each baby. We waited,
sometimes patiently, and sometimes impatiently, sometimes feeling well, and
sometimes quite unwell, with joy and apprehension, knowing for certain it would
come to an end and with
the
hope and expectation that all would be well – usually it was.
Mark and Jill left in October leaving us with a sense of sadness,
uncertainty, apprehension and expectation. When
we had finally prepared
the
parish profile, advertised, short listed, and interviewed candidates, we were
delighted, on Feb 22nd, to offer
the
job to The Reverend Deiniol Heywood who, at present, is Assistant Curate at
St John’s
Church
,
Hyde Park
. He accepted and we hoped he would
be joining us fairly quickly only to discover, due to his present commitments,
that it would not be until July 15th. I
was dismayed to realise that, after a ra
the
r intense time, we were still only half way through our interregnum!
It
the
n quickly dawned on me that
the
period between Mark leaving and Deiniol taking up
the
post was going to be exactly nine
months!
After
a nine month ‘gestation’
the
re will be new life for our church and we can confidently look forward to moving
forward with him. Just like new
parents, when
the
ir new born child is welcomed into
the
ir family, we at Holy Trinity will welcome Deiniol, and his wife Velvet, into
the
Holy Trinity family. We will be
looking to him for guidance, leading our worship and pastoral care but, just
like new parents, we will be here to encourage,
support and listen to him as we work toge
the
r for
the
good of our church and community. Maybe
the
number nine does have an extra special meaning for us and that
the
angels really have been watching over us and guiding us through this period.
With my very best wishes to you
all, Judith
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