Dear Friends,
Each day the United Reformed Church sends out an email under the heading of ‘Daily
Devotions.’ It includes a Bible reading, a short reflection and a short prayer; all written by a
variety of women and men who are mostly URC members but not all. I cannot claim to use it
every day but I want to mention some of what I read recently.
It was written by the Rev Terry Hinks, who some of you may have known when he was
minister at Trinity Lower Earley. He had been given a passage from the prophet Ezekiel, which
at first glance might not seem the easiest, he began in this way:
“In this first month of a new year we look again at our own hopes and fears for the future - the
future of our nation in the lead up to a General Election, the future of Europe, troubled by
warfare in Ukraine and mass migration, the future of the Holy Land with a just and
comprehensive peace for Israelis and Palestinians still a distant dream, the future of the planet
and its diverse life, in the face of climate and many other environmental crises. When Ezekiel
spoke of ‘detestable things and abominations’ we find many echoes in the corruption, lies, acts
of violence and injustices of today.”
I read that in the morning and it struck me how it was such a comprehensive short summary
of the troubles we face in our world at the beginning of 2024. Then that same day at lunch time I
was attending one of several Churches Together meetings I belong to. This one always begins
with what is called Dwelling on the Word, where a passage from the Bible is read twice and we
simply respond saying what has spoken to us. That lunchtime it was introduced by the host

church by saying what a difficult time they had had recently, both as individuals and as a church
as a whole.
The part of the Bible chosen to dwell on was Psalm 27. It mentions various troubles the
Psalmist is facing but alongside this is his radiant faith in God. The Psalmist speaks of his
adversaries and his day of trouble, he has much to weigh him down but the Psalm is a
testimony of trust and thanksgiving. Someone commented on what an example to us his faith is.
There had been a such a complementary nature to the first part of my day. Did the rest of the
day continue on in a similar way? I think it did, the next thing I did was bizarrely to collect
hundreds of PPE medical gowns from my dentist, boxes of them, so they could be sent to
Ukraine, an immediate connection to an ongoing war in Europe. After that it was a visit to a
family and the personal tragedy they were going through. So, again the global and the
individual.
Hopefully personally your 2024 has had a peaceful and healthy beginning but we know that
for many that is not so. Whether it is trouble of our own or agonizing over the troubles of others
we are all challenged by the words of Psalm 27. The Psalmist could go to his place of worship
and offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, he said, ‘I will sing and make melody to the LORD.’ May
we all do that in 2024.
With best wishes, Robert