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The East Coast Bays Methodist Parish is a welcoming community of caring people of all ages, of many nationalities and with wide interests.  We worship weekly and there are home and study groups as well as many other activites centred at both All Hallows and at Trinity.

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Easter Sunday Reflection - Alf Taylor : < click here to view PDF file

Encouragement for the Journey

04 Jan 09

Let me begin by wishing each of you a very Happy New Year.

At the beginning of each New Year we are faced with feelings of hope, excitement and perhaps trepidation. It is a chance for new beginnings, a time for positive change in our lives motivated by the excesses of the Christmas season or even just the date.  This is the time of year that we make resolutions to get fit, lose weight, stop smoking and cut out that evening glass of wine.

As much as we are full of good intentions we may end up putting ourselves under more pressure simply by virtue of making these resolutions.

This year especially we are told is “going to be a difficult one”. With the worldwide credit crisis many people face job insecurity, redundancy and uncertainty. Numerous families are struggling with health issues, money worries and relationship breakdowns. Life is not always as we planned.

A few years ago I started a new year on yet another diet. It was called the” KISS” diet (not for obvious reasons though).  The plan is to Keep it Simple & Succeed. Not rocket science or special microbiotic food just good old fashioned fruit, vegetables and a little meat. It was probably the diet my grandparents ate when meat was expensive and when Papa grew his own beans, peas and strawberries.

I think perhaps we overcomplicate our lives nowadays and especially as we cut back after all the overindulgence of the Season we could keep in mind a simpler life of days gone by.

I often use another acronym with my children. WWJD?   What Would Jesus Do?

This year I am excited and I hope that my resolution to be kinder, to be more compassionate, to be more patient, more tolerant and considerate to those I love and those I find difficult to love embodies both KISS and WJWD.

May God be with you and yours in this exciting New Year. - Lesley

28 Dec 08

Dear Post Christmas Traveller,

It’s over for another year, it being the Christmas rush of present buying, food preparation, the 101 things we want done before the day arrives.  All this can be so wearisome and exhausting – for many it is, while for others it is the most exhilarating experience of the year.

I ask is the spirit of Christmas over, or is there some part of Christmas that is always present, that is not dependent upon consumerism, cultural and social expectations and the trappings of the Celtic – Christian Christmas tradition?

The familiar ‘no room in the inn’ is well known in the Jesus birth stories, it is also a powerful metaphor of how we may respond to life, we often have no room for the other.  This year the spirit of Christmas I want to re-claim is a spirit of making room for the other, simply being compassionate.

The word compassion means, to suffer with, to see another human being through our open eyes, ears and heart, to feel with, making room for the other in our life.

I have been helped in my life by the metaphor of life as a journey. When I allowed this metaphor to speak to me, life became different.  I gradually began to appreciate how each person was also on a journey. This enables me to understand how we each travel along the journey of life, at our own pace, in different ways and each has something to contribute to each other.  I no longer wish to be in competition with others, but seek ways for cooperation, wonder and synergy moments.

This quote from Viktor Frankl never ceases to amaze me, truly compassion in action:  We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. 

To be compassionate is a conscious decision I can make in life, when I do, I discover Christ, the IS-NESS of God present in all, Emmanuel – God with us. This is the spirit of Christmas I want claim for my journey. What do you want to claim as the spirit of Christmas for your journey?

Meanwhile Peace - Alf

21 Dec 08

Greetings Advent Traveller,

I came across this quote from Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark. The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.   This quote propels me into the expectation of participating in mystery. For Advent and the familiar story of the birth of Jesus are shrouded in mystery.

If we focus on believing every aspect of the traditional Christmas story is fact, we miss something very powerful, namely, that during Advent we are being invited through metaphor and symbolism to prepare ourselves to participate in our own inner journey of becoming, namely, being ready to birth the Christ within, to once more engage fully with life.

Often we hear the words that human kind is on a grand search for meaning and significance, to somehow understand why we are here at this moment in history. There is another way, and this week I once again read Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth.  He suggested that as humans we are not searching for meaning, rather we are seeking to experience meaning, to feel being alive.

I find that helpful, for it dovetails in with Advent, reminding us that we might have knowledge of the Jesus birth stories, but the power of the stories is the experience we have that gives us the rapture of being alive, namely what happens in our physical world resonates within our innermost being. We desire congruency and authenticity on the journey of life.

In hearing these familiar Christmas stories, allow yourself a moment to reflect: What affect are they having upon your inner world? What new experience of Christ might be happening for you? What is seeking to be born anew in your life?

Meanwhile may you have moments of experiencing the Peace of the Prince of Peace in this another Christmas season.  -  Alf

14 Dec 08

Greetings Advent Traveller

Travelling towards Christmas will evoke for us different memories of Christmas’s past. Some of our memories we would rather forget while others we treasure.

The very sound of a particular piece of Christmas music, or the smell and taste of certain foods and drinks, or perhaps visiting a certain place, suddenly our memories are evoked, and like Dr Who we are transported to another time and place.

Sometimes after a painful experience we often hear words like ‘It’s time to move on’, ‘put it behind you’, alas our human psyche is not made to dismiss experiences so flippantly.

Our memories hold with them a rich reservoir of treasures, and part of our commitment to ourselves in life is learning to live with our memories in ways that don’t cause us further pain and woundedness.

During this season when the atmosphere in our society changes to one of festive cheer, I remind you that not everyone is able to live healthily with their memories.

For the lonely tend to experience greater loneliness, the broken have their wounds opened, the weary end up more tired and everyone is poorer in more ways than one.
Being in Advent, is a time of waiting, the moment is pregnant with possibilities. We are expectant that we will catch a glimpse of Christ. 

I conclude with an invitation to read the LIFEWISE Annual Report for it contains 101 WAYS TO LIVE WISELY.  When we practice some of these actions we will create new memories and stories, and along the way we may experience the divine presence of love and peace and who knows we may meet Christ in ordinary people and in surprising places.

Meanwhile Peace - Alf

07 Dec 08

Greetings Advent Traveller,

This week we continue to journey through Advent with the focus on Peace. Yes, we know Jesus the Prince of Peace invites us to be peacemakers, instruments of healing in our world. But, there seems more war than peace. For an ageing Baby Boomer, mention the word Peace and the John Lennon Song Give Peace a Chance’ comes to mind, along with the peace marches of the 60’s.

Yes, we need peace in our world, yet those big world issues, seem just too big and there is a temptation to think perhaps peace is not a reality.

I recall a cold winter’s night in Liverpool; I was on traffic duty at a road junction, an Army convoy was passing through en-route to the docks and deployment in Northern Ireland. The troubles had begun again. My colleague and I talked about how long the Army might be there; little did we know they would be there for over 30 years.

Who would have thought that eventually peace and prosperity would come to that troubled province and power would be shared.

I like the Greenpeace slogan; Think Globally; Act Locally.

Yes, we can pray, and hope for peace in the major trouble spots in our world and we can act locally. There is no more local than within our own inner being. This is where peace begins and flows out to others. Black Elk offers these words

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realise their relationship, Their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realise that at the centre of the universe dwells the Great irit, and that this centre is reath’ eve,’here, it is within each of us. Black Elk (1863-1950)

I leave the last word with poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) in Leaves of Grass:

Peace is always beautiful.

Meanwhile Peace within and in your conversations and relationships this week. - Alf

Previous Encouragement for the Journey articles are available.  Please email: minister@ecbmethodist.org.nz