I recently visited Wakefield Theatre Royal to watch a play entitled ‘Something About George’ which focused on George Harrison’s life after the Beatles’ split up. The evening told the truly remarkable tale of one of music’s most understated icons, and addressed the question: “Where does life take you after being in the greatest band in the history of the world?” Well, after the Beatles, George went onto release the classic album ‘All Things Must Pass’ as well as other albums; he was involved in the first charity music concert to raise funds for Bangladesh in the early 1970’s, and also went into film production amongst other things.

In church we are now in the Easter period and our services and readings focus on the resurrection appearances of Jesus and the new life he offers to his followers. In our readings from the Acts of the Apostles we hear about the life and ministry of those early disciples as they begin to answer the question: “What do we do now Jesus is no longer with us?”  We find that for 40 days after the resurrection Jesus physically appears several times to the disciples, then on Ascension day he returns to the Father.  Ten days later, the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples in Jerusalem. This is seen as the start of the Church and for those early disciples, full of the Holy Spirit, they go on to do some remarkable things.  Jesus sowed the seed of the good news in the disciples’ hearts and they went on to share the good news far and wide.

We are all on a journey through life and for some of us we have always believed in God, for others our Christian life may started with a Damascus Road experience and for others we may still be searching.  The wonderful Easter story of Jesus overcoming death and offering us new life, challenges us to pray and think about the question: “What do we do with the rest of our lives?”  We live in a hurting world which is so much in need of hope and kindness and God’s transforming love. Let us as a church and individually share the Good News as we open ourselves to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit which brought Jesus from the dead and is available to us to today to build a new world.

Also whilst writing please continue to pray for the post of associate priest and especially on Tuesday 23rd April when we hope and pray to interview applicants. We pray that this time we shall be able to appoint a new team member.  Again, a big thanks to all who continue to help and support the work and ministry across the benefice.

Take care and God Bless, Glenn

Rev Glenn Coggins, Vicar of the United Benefice of North Wakefield