From Rev Richard Washington May 2025

Rev Richard Washington
Team Vicar, Great Yarmouth Parish

This year’s Lent Course was called, ‘Life Balance’ written by Robert Warren and Sue Mayfield. It was all about understanding and putting into practice God’s gift of (the) Sabbath. In a world that seems to have forgotten about Sabbath, we looked at ways of building it back into our lives. A very kind, thoughtful and committed group of parishioners took part and I am grateful to them for their openness, wisdom and engagement. Out of all the discussions over the five weeks, I have three major takeaways which I want to share:
 
First, getting our society to re-engage with the Sabbath as a time for worship and fellowship isn’t necessarily about getting everyone back into church on Sunday mornings by stopping Sunday trading and recreating the past. Instead, as a parish we need to think of Sabbath more flexibly, perhaps creating new and varied opportunities for others to come and worship – and that means ‘Sabbath’ worship on weekday nights, on Saturdays or Sunday afternoons. Sabbath doesn’t need to be synonymous with Sunday!
 
Secondly, Sabbath is about attitude and behaviour, not just observing a special day of the week or time. We need to carry Sabbath attitudes into our daily lives, finding moments for prayer and reflection as we go about our business, respecting the beauty of God’s created order, upholding the right of others to the same peace and rest we crave, and releasing people from unjust burdens
 
Lastly, Sabbath is as much about play and joy and celebration as it is rest, worship and prayer. This doesn’t mean superficial avoidance of difficult things. We can’t always be joyful and celebratory; indeed in our group we shared stories of loss, loneliness and pain as we discussed our experiences of Sabbath. Nevertheless, we I identified and shared areas of our lives where we take pleasure in activities and creativity, where we celebrate with our friends and families, or where we take joy in the world around us
 
As we move into spring and summer, I pray that we all learn to build Sabbath more deeply into our lives and learn to offer its joys and peace to others in our community
                                            Fr Richard

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