Letter from the Clergy -
February 2012

As I write this note, we are at the beginning of Christmas week, the Church is full of Christmas Trees and beneath one of those trees are the gifts for the angel scheme. Every year we invite individuals or groups to purchase a gift to the value of £20-£25 to support parents who are unable to provide for their children because of the long term impact of mental health problems. Every year I am overwhelmed by the response of people. This year over 40 presents will have gone out by Christmas morning: truly remarkable generosity.

I could not help but notice two recent pieces of information that came my way. The first was that it has just been announced that the world’s most expensive dessert has been declared to be a dish of chocolate, edible gold and champagne caviar, at a cost of £22,000 per helping. If that catches your breath, then let me point you to a New York restaurant that is offering a Chocolate Sundae at a cost of £18,000 per serving, but I must warn you that you need to give the restaurant two weeks’ notice of the order. How can such extravagance be justified? For most of us it is beyond our comprehension, let alone our bank balances, that we would ever spend so much on something to be consumed.

Many of us have a problem with extravagance, mainly when it seems to have no context; and yet daily we walk in the midst of the extravagance that is God’s grace and love, unmerited and certainly undeserved, and yet freely and lavishly given to us through Jesus.

For many of us January is a time of reflection and renewed objectives and so, in that spirit, most of us anticipate the Covenant Service, which affords to us the opportunity to respond and renew our commitment in the words: “I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal”.

I may never want to purchase a chocolate sundae worth £18,000, nor indeed wait two weeks for it to be delivered, but I gladly will give all that I have, in anyway that I can, to the God who has shown His love for me. Will you join me?

Rev. Melvyn Cooke
Methodist Link Minister