The long awaited parish weekend has taken place at last. Several years in the planning and twice postponed by Covid19, it was definitely worth the wait!
The theme of the weekend was One in Christ: United to each other, and we certainly felt united as we talked, laughed, ate, worshipped, debated and danced together at High Leigh.
We were led through the theme by Adrian Chatfield who some of you may remember from his previous visit to Sunnyside when he led our weekend “at home”. He had a fund of memorable stories which showed us how we might more powerfully forgive one another, bear one another’s burdens and love one another. Click the links below to download Adrian’s slides:
Talk 1 : Members of one another
Talk 2 : Forgiving one another
Talk 3 : Bearing burdens
Talk 4 : Not doing ill
Talk 5 : Loving one another
We were blessed with wonderful worship and music with inspirational contributions from our young people. I found their prayer leadership at our eucharist on Sunday very moving.
High Leigh was a great venue and in between the sessions we had lots of conversation and fun. For me, and I suspect many others, one of the best things about the weekend away was the opportunity to get to know each other at a deeper level and enjoy one another’s company.
During the weekend we acknowledged that this is time a great transition for our church. We know from our time together that some of us are feeling fearful for the future while others are feeling less so. The challenge for us all is to carry forward into our daily lives what we learned at the weekend about being one in Christ and united to each other!
We are grateful to all those who worked so hard to make the weekend happen and who looked after us all so well while we were at High Leigh.
If you are interested to see the programme for the weekend click on the link below. It gives a very good overall picture of how we spent our time.
Article written by Lesley Culley
Comment(1)
Richard Lynn says
October 9, 2022 at 12:28 pmJust scrolled through the slides from talk 4 , “Do no ill”.
Maybe I’m looking through rose-tinted glasses, but I do not see in Sunnsyside “a rabble torn apart by rivalry or dissent.” We may have difffering political, sociological, philosphical, ecclesiological or theological views, but we’re either too loving or merely too civilised to allow them to come between us! The gloomy picture shown here is, I hope, more of as risk than a realit, but I suppose there’s no harm in a risk assessment from time to time – so long as we don’t spend too much time on it.
Having said that, I greatly enjoyed the weekend away and noticed this morning that the nine o’clock service was well attended and the buzz of consveration in the vestibule afterwards was encourgaingly animated.
Richard