‘Let us rest in God awhile’

By Helen Reed, Presiding Officer for Chinook Winds Region

As many of you know, I am the sole minister of a four-point rural pastoral charge. There is usually a lot of balancing to be done to get Easter on the go. Not every congregation wants the ‘whole meal deal’ of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. So we share some of the moments and it is wonderful to all get together to do that and we loudly celebrate Easter morning joining voices and glad hearts together.

Easter isn’t like anything we’ve experienced before

In our Region, this year is very different for all our churches. Our Easter isn’t looking like anything we’ve experienced before. Our church buildings are closed. There is no excitement, no people coming in and out to decorate, no Seder Meal, no singing.

But when I enter one of my church buildings they are not empty. They are peaceful. They feel as though they are waiting for something. The colours are still purple, still reminding me of the waiting and preparation and remembering the time that we continue to live into. Simply waiting.

Even as the buildings wait, the people do not. We are finding new ways of offering worship services. Now they may be online, some are packages of printed love sent to our people, but folk will still choose which is important for them and will join in with us when they can and as they can.

The timing of Easter moves every year and this year our timing is further impacted by the events of the world around us. This year while we want to celebrate this touchstone story of our faith, our care for God’s people is paramount in our mind. Our rituals are disrupted and disturbed, and we may find ourselves unsure how to be in this new reality. Let’s rest with God a while.

Let us rest with God for a while

In our Easter story, there is a lull between the chaos that turned life upside down, and the newness that turned it upside down again.

In the quietness of the night, God came and created something wonderful. In the quiet before the changes that would take the faithful onto new and amazing paths, God was there.

Let’s be ready for the new roads before us

When our current chaos is done… and it will be done… let’s rest for a while and wait in the quietness of God. Let’s be ready for the new roads before us. Let us recognize that we will not be going back to what or who we were before, but we will be moving into where and who God needs us to be.

The unveiling will come, the light will come, the joy will come. We will love and live together again. God has promised it will always be so.

May all the promise and blessings of Easter be yours, wherever you are.

Helen Reed

Presider, Chinook Winds Regional Council.