Dear Friends

Last quarter Iwrote about the closure of our Stallingborough church. This quarter sees the final services at our Laceby Road Church, on 30th May. Like Stallingborough they have chosen not to make a major event out of the closing service and, like Stallingborough, they have asked that the last service be taken by a retired minister whose ministry has meant much to them. I am sure that any who wish to share with them on this occacion will be welcome. We are very grateful for the work and witness of the Laceby Road congregation during the time the church has been in exitence, and for the contribution it has made to circuit life as a whole. The members can be proud of a number of achievements, not least the solid support they have given to Side Door, in all sorts of ways.

And it is the future of Side Door which is exercising our minds now. This is a rather special piece of work and, for many people well beyond our own circuit, a beacon of hope for a declining institution. Wheather Side Door should continue to exist has never been an issue and it is not an issur now. The only issue is working out the conditions under which the work of Side Door can flourish and grow in the future. The Circuit Meeting on 25th March will almost certainly be asked to take some decisions about this, so please pray that we may have wisdom to discern God's will and act upon it.

I want us to remind ourselves that just a little way into this new Plan we will begin to celebrate the great 50 days of the Easter Season. Easter is not just about the happened on a particular morning in Palestine around 2,000 years ago. It is about the new life, new hope and new strenght which the God of resurrection speaks into our lives now. God is in the resurrection business and is inviting us, as lod ways and pervious patterns change, to open ourselves to the new life and to be active agents in beinging it ot others. That is our calling and we do not have to fulfil it in our own strenght.

Michael.




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