Please note we have changes to the services that were advertised for the next 2 Sundays, they are as follows:
Sunday 23 August
10am Parish Communion – St John’s, Itchen Abbas with Ven Richard Brand
Sunday 30 August
10am Parish Communion – St John’s, Itchen Abbas
Seeing the Invisible
“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.”
Jonathan Swift
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we could walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10
About fifteen years ago I preached through the whole book of Nehemiah. On the surface it is a story about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but in truth it is about something much deeper: God rebuilding a people.
I lived in that story for nearly six months, and its characters have remained with me ever since. Through Nehemiah, God began a work that renewed a church community over many years. The stones of Jerusalem mattered, but the people carrying the stones mattered more.
What recently brought the book back to mind were the opening chapters filled with lists of names. We are often tempted to skim past them in search of the “real” story. Yet perhaps the names are the real story.
Nehemiah does not simply tell us that the wall was rebuilt. He tells us who repaired each section: priests, merchants, goldsmiths, daughters, servants, villagers, and weary labourers. God considered every one of them worthy of remembrance.
In a sense, each of us could be described in the same way:
‘David, son of Randle….,’
How that sentence is completed—by our faithfulness, our mistakes, our loves, our sacrifices, and the people whose lives we touched—becomes our story.
One of the great joys of these first weeks in the Valley has been beginning to hear your stories. Over cups of tea, on walks, at church gatherings, and around dinner tables, I have found myself asking the same question:
“How did you end up here?”
No two answers are the same. Yet what has struck me is the remarkable interconnectedness of this community. One family’s story overlaps with another’s; friendships stretch back decades; acts of kindness ripple quietly across parish boundaries and generations.
Nehemiah’s list includes names such as:
● Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests,
● the Tekoites (though their nobles refused to join the work),
● the temple servants,
● Shallum and his daughters,
● the goldsmiths and merchants who repaired the final section of the wall,
● Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah.
If Nehemiah were writing about a Hampshire valley rather than ancient Jerusalem, the list might sound wonderfully ordinary:
● the new Rector trying to help lead the work,
● the administrator who quietly keeps everything functioning,
● the couple who moved villages because they sensed God calling them here,
● those who have remained faithful in Easton through many seasons,
● the steward who enables finance and resources ministry behind the scenes,
● the widower whose wisdom has been shaped by grief and by the sea,
● the parent raising children and grandchildren in Itchen Abbas,
● the faithful servant who encourages the worship and life of the church week by week.
And of course, if we were to write the full list, it would run not to a dozen names but to hundreds. Every prayer offered, every chair stacked, every meal cooked, every flower arranged, every child welcomed, every lonely neighbour visited—these are all stones in the wall God is building among us.
As I prepared to come to Hampshire, I reread Winn Collier’s Love Big, Be Well: Letters to a Small-Town Church. In one of the fictional letters he includes a blessing attributed to Sister Ruth Fox, a Benedictine nun from North Dakota. It seems a fitting prayer as we begin this new chapter together:
‘May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done’
with every blessing
David
David’s Contact Details
If you would like to contact David, his email address is david@itchenvalleychurches.org
His landline telephone number is 01962 582226 and he will obviously be living at Itchen Valley Rectory with Rachel and the boys.
David’s working days are Monday – Wednesday and services on a Sunday
David will be on holiday from Monday 17th August to Saturday 5th September
Congratulations to Tabitha and Robert as they were married at St Mary’s, Avington. We pray for blessings for a long and happy marriage.
Christopher Booth
We are sorry to announce the sad passing of former Easton resident Christopher Booth, funeral details will follow.
Cool Church
If you are looking for shelter from the heat this summer, our churches are all open between 9am and 5pm and are all cool for sitting and relaxing.
St John’s, Itchen Abbas also has space for you to bring your children to relax and we will leave the kitchen open for cold drinks and so you can access the bathroom.
If you need any further information don’t hesitate to ask.
for global peace
for those who are ill or suffering at the moment or for those recently bereaved
for the family and friends of Christopher Booth as they mourn his passing
for David, Rachel and the boys as they take a holiday
for families during the school holidays
The readings for Parish Communion can be read here.
Please check our website in case of
any unexpected changes:
http://www.itchenvalleychurches.org
