MAY '09   
   
Am I throwing away my memories?
                                                 
For the past few months I have been doggedly tackling the vast amount filling up my home, I call it 'downsizing', but really it is more a question of trying to sort out all I have accumulated over many years. I am an inveterate hoarder, but I have had to be quite ruthless, as it was all beginning to overwhelm me. Clothes - far too many and far too many I haven't worn for years, so to the Charity shops; Books - I have collected so many I could set up my own Library, ditto to the Charity shops;  Wrapping paper, boxes, etc that might come in handy - they didn't, so to the Tip. And so on. One of my problems with this task of throwing things away is that everything I pick out for disposal seems to have some sort of memory for me, it was bought somewhere special or given to me by someone special and I find it difficult to dispense with it because it seems as though I am throwing the memory, or even the person away.

Of course that is not true, but I do cherish memories and that which reminds me of people I have cared about and who cared about me. I am sure that some will think me very sentimental, but that is the way I am - and I am not ashamed of it. Recently someone asked me about one of my Stoles which I wear at Holy Communion, and, as with all my Stoles it had a story attached to it. Where it came from, who gave it to me, I don't seem to have any [and I have a few!] which was simply bought by me because I needed one and for no other reason. They all have their own special memory for me.

As do we all have such memories, and we become attached to things and to ways of doing things, and if we are not very careful they can assume an importance in our lives which is out of all proportion to their actual relevance in our lives. Sometimes we do need to remember that when Jesus said, "I  came that you may have life, and have it abundantly." [John 10,10]   that life means an active and growing life, one in which we do not stand still and relish what we 'have' but rather move ever forward in service to God.

So it is with our ways of being 'Church', the way we do things, the traditions we have and our long cherished memories - both of inanimate objects and of people. Whilst we all know that a Church is not a building, in the Benefice we have many shining examples of Christian lives set before us in the buildings themselves. Last month at St Mary's, we dedicated a gate to the memory of Ken Allen who worked so tirelessly for the Parish and whose particular care was the School. Every year at St John's, the Hood Service is a poignant memory of gallantry and self- sacrifice. St Nicholas' is an entire living memory of faithfulness and devotion. These are the memories which have helped to make us a Community, and ones which we will carry into our new Group Benefice.

At the end of this month, it comes into being. I know the words 'challenging' and 'exciting' strike fear and deep depression into some hearts, but I truly believe that we are about to set out on a glorious new part of our journey as a Christian community and Christian presence in this place. One which will bring us challenges and excitement as we join with our brothers and sisters in Sway and Brockenhurst on our mission of bringing God's love to His people. Our Good Friday Journey showed us how wonderfully we can be together serving God and witnessing to Him, let that fellowship be our lodestone. That and the knowledge that the Lord Jesus walks beside us every step of the way, leading us ever on to fuller life in Him.

Lynda Mead