Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 19th February 2023

Dear Friends,

The recent testimony to the life of Mary Roslin from Hastings Meeting contains the following:

Mary had the gift of Patience, a capacity to Forebear and an innate Goodness to help people … Mary knew how to speak without hurting or offending others, that was her gift. 

I did not know Mary, but this testimony reminds me that I have a lot of trouble with the need for patience. The English word comes from the Latin verb patior, I suffer, the present participle being patiens, and the past participle passus. So we get ‘patience’ and ‘passion’ in English. Related to the problems with patience are: intolerance, anxiety, a troubled disposition, pain, the need to get things done or decided, the need to know, plus other people’s and one’s own failures. Kindness to self as well as others can help with this. So too can compassion and gentleness. Patience is one of Paul’s fruits of the Spirit (see Galatians chapter 5 verses 22-23) and for me it is one of the most important of the intangibles which I think of as a sort of kaleidoscope of divinity. This kaleidoscope has the all-pervading light of love, which is often practised by people of faith and people who claim no faith. However faith groups include believers who want individuals to succeed, and there can be support for those who struggle.

In one of the pastoral epistles (1 Timothy 3, v 5) towards the end of the New Testament, the author says Christian leaders, amongst other things, must be “of a forbearing disposition” (lovely old-fashioned word in a modern translation). Perhaps we can be thankful for all those among us who put up with and do not allow negativity to escalate during this transitional period of our Meeting.

In my bedroom I have an old, shabby, faded and beautiful Muslim prayer mat which I think is beautiful. It is full of mistakes, because only Allah is perfect!

With my love
Caroline Pybus

On behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (David Hitchin, Chris Lawson, Tim Pitt-Payne, Theresa Samms, Nancy Wall)