My name is Rev Tim Morris and I’m the new Superintendent Minister for the Peak Methodist Circuit. We cover everything Methodist from Youlgrave, through Bakewell, up to Hathersage and then the Hope Valley to Castleton and up to Edale. So basically, anything that is Methodist within that area, I have responsibility for!
It’s a joy to be back in the Peak District. We lived in Ashbourne for 15 years, and I was a student at Cliff College in Calver very, very many years ago!
The new year is well and truly under way. Already new years’ resolutions may have been broken! But one thing is certain, there will be hopes and dreams to follow, uncertainty and concern to be lived through. For each one of us, new experiences and opportunities, as well as challenges.
So I’d like to I share with you those famous words from the poem written by Minnie Louise Haskins. It was quoted by King George VI (1936-1952) during his Christmas Day broadcast in 1939. Britain and France had declared war on Germany just three months earlier on 3rd September, 1939. With all the uncertainty that lay ahead for many nations and peoples across the world, he gave courage and hope to a people once again locked into a brutal and catastrophic war. “A new year is at hand. We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall all be. If it brings us continued struggle we shall remain undaunted."
In the meantime I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I would like to say to you: 'I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied, "Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way."
As we now turn our thoughts to the season of Lent, may those words, echoing down the years, give you courage, hope and support, that by putting your hand into the hand of God you may know his guidance and presence during these days.
