16th May, 2020.
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My dear friends,
 
I am pleased to say that I have recently been allowed back into my parish churches. I am afraid it is only me at present, but it is good to be back in these holy places, where I can say Mattins and Evensong and celebrate Holy Communion. I pray for each and all of you at this time, asking God to bless and support you in your vital work.
 
I have entered a competition to name a new railway train organised by LNER. I suggested called the locomotive St John as a tribute to the wonderful work being carried out by so many members of St John Ambulance during the present Coronavirus pandemic. Wouldn’t it be fun if my suggestion won! I think a special trip to King’s Cross railway station to see the engine would be in order. Here’s hoping!
 
                                                With kindest regards,
 
                                                                        The Rev. Dr  ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
EASTER 6 – 17 th MAY 2020.
Someone asked me recently what were my earliest memories? The answer was easy. My earliest memories are of the birth of my younger brother, Alexander. I was aged two and a bit. I remember my Grandparents coming to look after me. I remember my father coming home one day, and everyone being very pleased, for some reason I couldn’t understand, and my Grandfather shaking my father’s hand and my Grandmother giving him a kiss. And that, of course, leads to the strongest memory of all: how desperately, as a two year old, I missed my mother and couldn’t understand why she wasn’t there.

            Now, I’m sure these reminiscences strike all sorts of chords with you. Perhaps, if we can understand the desolation of a two year old separated from his mother and her love, we can begin to appreciate the confusion and fear of the disciples as Jesus told them he would soon be separated from them.

The scene is set in the upper room. According to St John, Jesus Christ has just washed his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. Now, he tries to prepare them for the future. He knows he is about to be betrayed by Judas, and that he will die the next day. He also has faith that God the Father will raise him from the dead in the Resurrection, and indeed he starts to look beyond that. But the disciples are terribly upset. They have got to know Jesus and have realised – however imperfectly – that he is the expected Messiah; indeed, more than that, that he is the Son of God come to earth. True, Jesus has told them that he must go up to Jerusalem and die. But now they are in Jerusalem. The hour is at hand. The prospect seems truly one of horror. And so Jesus says something very wonderful:
 
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth … I will not leave you as orphans.
 
The disciples must indeed have feared that they would be left as orphans. But Christ promised them the Holy Spirit. Now, God the Holy Spirit is nothing new: He has existed from the beginning. But Christ promised that, as Christian believers, we might each experience the Holy Spirit in a new and intimate way. In his earthly life, Christ could only be in one place at a time. But through the Holy Spirit, he can be with us everywhere. Through the Spirit, we can be as close to him in our own lives as were the disciples in Palestine two thousand years ago.

            And so, next Thursday, 21st May, we shall celebrate the feast of the Ascension, the end of the cycle which began with the Annunciation, the last great festival of Jesus Christ. And then we watch and wait, until the great feast of Pentecost, which this year falls on Sunday, 31st May.

            In recent years the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have invited us all to take part in a great wave of prayer between Ascension Day and Pentecost. Christians from many other denominations have also taken part. There have been big events in cathedrals and large churches. But perhaps more importantly, ordinary Christians have been asked to pray quietly at home during these special ten days. Things are a little different this year because of Coronavirus, but perhaps we can still all pray extra hard at home between 21-31 May in the run-up to Pentecost.

            So, what is it we are praying for? Well, for a start, we are praying for ourselves. We ask God that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we may better glorify Him in our lives. This obviously means the daily practice of our religion: perseverance in prayer, church-going, Bible-reading, confession of sins, Holy Communion, and so on. But it also involves the way in which we lead all the other aspects of our lives: our human relationships and family life, work, travel, use of money, care of our bodies, concern for other people, and so on. We ask God the Holy Spirit to help us in all these areas, that in all we do we may glorify God.

            Secondly, we are praying that the Holy Spirit will help us to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. We ask God to take and use us – our words, our love, our actions – to reach out to other people in a very needy and sometimes quite sad world. The Coronavirus pandemic has led us all to think and re-evaluate our lives. Many of the things we previously thought were important have turned out not to be so important after all. Other things now appear more significant or of more lasting value. Let us pray that we may each be enabled to serve God a little better. We ask Him to plant new ideas in our heads, new ways of helping people to experience His love. We ask the Holy Spirit to work quietly but persistently in the hearts of those who do not know Jesus, or who deny him.

            It is given to few people to do really big things in life. We cannot all be like St Thomas Becket, or Florence Nightingale, or Mother Teresa of Calcutta. But we can all do little things, indeed lots of little things, with Christian faith and love. We seek the aid and guidance of God the Holy Spirit, and we ask Him to take all little things that we have done in the service of God and our neighbour, and to work them up into something really magnificent, to the praise and glory of the God of love.
Three prayers for our use between Ascension Day and Pentecost
21-31 May 2020.
Almighty God, your ascended Son has sent us into the world to preach the good news of your kingdom: inspire us with your Spirit, fill our hearts with the fire of your love, that all who hear your word may be drawn to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

​Amen.
 
King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto your  kingdom in heaven. We beseech you, leave us not comfortless, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. 

Amen.
 
Come, O Spirit of God, and make within us your dwelling place and home. May our darkness be dispelled by your light, and our troubles calmed by your peace; may all evil be redeemed by your love, all pain transformed through the suffering of Christ, and all dying glorified by his risen life. 

​Amen.