By Rev. Dr Katherine Rainger, Senior Chaplain

Email is a blessing and a curse. There is truth in the meme “this meeting could have been an email.” At the same time an empty inbox can be an elusive dream.

At the risk of creating more email clutter, I’d like to share a daily email that I’ve signed up to that is giving me a chance to pause and pray with creatives and poets connected with the Iona community. Iona is a small Scottish island with a rich history of creative worship, community and social action.

Here is the link to the Iona community’s “thought for the day” sign-up. Each short daily reflection offers a moment to pause and be blessed by the creativity of a fellow traveller.

An example of a daily reflection is Something Different by Brian Woodcock, from “A Heart for Creation”. This piece provides a vivid image of what it means to make a home:

There was something different about her, this young German with her punk outfit and flowing hair who wandered into the church where I was minister one morning, clutching her boyfriend’s hand. Him we had seen before. He was a local lad – sullen, withdrawn, known to the police, getting by. But she was different.

They hadn’t much money. Or much of anything really. They had been housed by the Council. A tiny flat up two flights of stairs, with a balcony facing the fire station. It wasn’t her punk outfit in the Sunday congregation that made her different. Nor her smile in that fragile partnership. It was the balcony. Her balcony. All the upstairs flats had balconies. They were either empty or used for storage and washing.

But not here. Here, nasturtiums trailed over the railings, tomatoes were starting to blush and canes were in place for the runner beans. Soon there would be lettuces. She was pricking out the seedlings when I called. Despite the concrete landscape, despite the two flights of stairs, here there was contact with the earth and its cycles. And gentle, patient nurture. And faith in the future.

Within our fractured world I wonder where you see signs that point to “faith in the future?” Perhaps an inner-city garden, caring for a child, a loved one, friends, community advocates, and diplomats filled with dismay who continue to speak on behalf for those who have lost everything.

A prayer for the week ahead.

God of grace and hope, fill us with your Spirit
that we might live more fully into that which you have called us to.
Give leaders in the ACT grace and wisdom as they serve our community.
We pray for our world and for an outpouring of peace and justice, healing and hope.
In Jesus’ name,

Amen