Leeds Vineyard

Dogs and grief

To Leeds Vineyard
 
Dog - ian smith shebaDogs and grief
Our good friends Ian and Sally Smith have just lost their Sheba. Ian is an excellent blogger and here he has some moving reflections on grieving for a pet.
 




wake me upWake me up

I have been listening to Wake Me Up - a song to which you have probably tapped your foot recently – apparently it was this year’s summer anthem. I was struck by the way the singer (Aloe Blacc) put the lyrics together in a couple of hours for the Swedish DJ who wrote the music (Avicii) – almost as an afterthought. And yet they are really quite profound and, I think, tell a tale of despair. Which was also strange because it is such a happy song!

 
“life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes
Well that's fine by me
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself
And I didn't know I was lost”
 
I want to shout to the singers, “Life is more fun with your eyes wide open!”
 
Shame
And some of that is to do with shame and the space it creates around us. That’s what I spoke about on Sunday and you can find the text here. Next week I finish this sequence on Romans by looking at chapter 1:17, “The gospel reveals righteousness” – a strange but liberating truth.
 
In the following weeks we take a break from Romans with some visiting speakers  - Maggie Gee from Harrogate Vineyard, Jonathan Clark from St George’s and Andy Smith from Belfast City  Vineyard.
 
Home-Front1Values 
One of our values is “Come as you are” and one of the exciting things about being a “front door” is that we get to say, “come as you are” to all sorts of new people who would not have crossed our threshold previously.

And to make it even easier for you to invite and welcome people we have produced a postcard for you to distribute liberally. It’s called “Home” and there will be supplies for you to take away with you on Sunday. 
 

Part of our welcome is taking people on the Discovering Vineyard course starting next week. Please let people who haven’t done it know – they need to sign up if they would like to come.

 
Giving
The move to HMC will lower our running costs in the long term but has given rise to some extra bills. Thank you if you give regularly to the Vineyard- but if you haven’t reviewed it recently, may I encourage you to do so? Here is some more information about how to give.
 
Peace
 
David

David Flowers, 28/10/2013