Coming up for air

It's a beautiful, sunny day today in Coventry and I reckon I have one of the best views in the city from our window in the church centre - our church bathed in sunlight.  It feels like spring might just be on its way and it feels like a good time to come up for a breath of fresh air!

It's been a busy, busy time for the church office over the last couple of months.  You may have noticed the resulting web silence on this blog! 

Julie has had exciting numbers of people coming to enquire about weddings and baptisms and has been supporting David as usual in all aspects of his work but particularly on the Coventry Pentecost celebration.  Sadly, there have also been funerals to organise, including that of Helen Sidebotham.  We have both felt privileged to have been able to support the whole church community as it has expressed its love for the whole Sidebotham family both verbally and practically over the last month.

As well as the normal weekly office work, I have been working on how we plan for the big events taking place in our city this year.  The whole staff team have been thinking through what we should be getting involved in (and what we shouldn't, for that matter!) and this should all become clearer as the year goes on.  We have such a wonderful opportunity with the Olypmics coming to Coventry, and all the extra activity and visitors that brings, to really practise the welcome and hospitality that we have been thinking about over the past months.

We're also looking at how to best use the office space that we have and how we can welcome people better and work together more efficiently and effectively.  Again - more on this to come. 

There are others planning exciting projects around our church too.  As part of Coventry Mysteries week in June this year, Spires Philharmonic Orchestra are commissioning a piece, with words written by local school children, inspired by the painting of the Last Judgement.  We're just about to start welcoming the schools involved to help them learn about the church, the painting and the history surrounding it.

It hasn't all been hard work however - it's been a real treat to have Sam, Bill, Peter and others in the church 2 or 3 days a week working on replacing the gratings.  A more merry band of workers it would be hard to find and a real blessing to have familiar, smiling faces lovingly repairing our building!

And we're looking forward properly now.  Amy and I are working with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) on their outreach activities in the city over the coming months.  The Coventry Pilgrimage is an exciting thing for us to get involved in and Easter promises to be a real time for celebrating God's goodness to us together. Then summer (and the Olympics) will be here soon!  Lots of work but such an exciting time....