Minister's letter 19 October

Dear friends

On my daily walks with Toby, I have noticed many spiders' webs that have been spun in the bushes and fence posts on the route. When the dew is still on them, they can look particularly beautiful and delicate. I also noticed just how many cobwebs there are in my conservatory in those out of sight and reach places. Still looking beautiful, even indoors. And they are obstinate constructions, despite their apparent fragility. Often a wisp remains even after the most vigorous of cleaning – gently oscillating in the air. Spider's silk is incredibly strong. Its tensile strength (that is the measure of the pressure that it can withstand before breaking) is relative to that of steel. It gets its strength from its structure, made up from thousands of nano strands – remarkable when we consider that a strand of spider's silk is thinner than a strand of human hair! This design has been the inspiration for many innovations – rope for instance, especially the huge hessian coils of rope often found on early sailing ships. It also has incredible elasticity, in some cases able to stretch up to four times its original size, and even retains some stretch in cold conditions. It truly is an amazing feature, and so often we just don't notice it or when we do we dust it away (or try to). Even so, slowly, quietly the web is recreated in the vacant space.

This last week, on the world scene there has been bought a fragile, a very fragile, peace. It is a breathing space. But we know that there is still so much to overcome globally and locally before peace can be said to be embedded. Especially while it is all to easy to fall into 'them and us' situations whatever the context. It feels that we are pushing towards the limit of our collective tensile strength. And yet, there are moments of peace, tendrils that connect despite struggles, quietly recreating. And we are a part of this – finding ways to spin peace in our everyday.

Some verses to ponder this week. "...and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8.
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." John 14:27

Every blessing
Rev Karen