Dear Friends,

As a child one of my most favourite places to visit was Bristol Zoo. I loved seeing the different animals from all over the world gathered in one place and marvelling at the diversity of creation. More recently, I have had the opportunity to visit Chester Zoo with my two nieces and now I get to see the curiosity and joy that they have when they encounter the great variety of creatures that God has made.

In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis it is written:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”  (Genesis 1: 1-2)

The Book of Genesis then goes onto explain that it is God’s creative Spirit that gives order and life, in all its diversity, to the Earth and it is that same Spirit that breathes life into human beings. Human beings, much like the rest of God’s creation, are made to be diverse and yet all are given the same Spirit and are each made in the image of God.

This month we have celebrated the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit breathed new life into the disciples and the early Church. The Spirit equipped and enabled those disciples to carry out the mission which Jesus had given them: To make disciples of every nation (Matthew 28:29) by spreading the Gospel message.  It is this same mission that God calls us to today, as his Spirit encourages and challenges us to build relationships with new people, in new places, so that they would come to know the love of God in Christ shown in his life, death, and resurrection.

What seems very clear from this call and commission is that Jesus wants his Church to be a place of diversity and inclusion, open to everyone, because of the love that he has for every human being that has been made in the image of God. The question is whether we are open to the life-giving Spirit that God offers us and the vision that he imparts?

On the reverse side of this letter is a painting from the Methodist Art Collection that was created by the artist James Brokenshire. James says of this abstract painting that he

“…was keen to get a very loosely represented image of a bird in space into my painting. But I wanted a sense of a bird hovering, not on a trajectory. At the same time, I hoped to refer in some way to angels: even if very obliquely by colour alone or by suggestion. Darkness had to be the counterpoint to this…The title Pentecost was not suggested by me, but was the highest interpretation I could hope for from any viewer.”

This idea of the Spirit hovering like a bird over the darkness is to me a visual representation of the link between the story of Genesis and Pentecost. The dove hovers over the dark places and brings life and light to them in Genesis and also into the persecuted first century Church. So let us pray that in this season God might bring life and light to his Church here in Northampton and throughout the world. That we might enjoy the diversity of creation and see a diverse and inclusive Church into which God’s Spirit breathes life.

Yours faithfully,

Revd David Speirs