Dear friends
‘Where are you?’ This is how the first conversation between God and humanity begins, in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Adam and Eve are hiding from God because they have eaten the apple, they know that they are naked and they are ashamed.
‘Where are you?’ is a great question from God. Rather than offering an accusation such as ‘What have you done?’ God searches for the lost. It’s a question inviting relationship and response. My interest in this question, and many others in the conversation between God and humanity, has been reignited by the book ‘Questioning God’ by Timothy Radcliffe with Lukasz Popko, two Dominican monks.
‘Where are you?’ is a great question for us, as we stand on the threshold of Lent 2024. Lent is a season for ceasing to hide, for answering Gods call and for letting God find us, despite all the fears and shames that might hold us back in the safety of cover. God is calling each of us into the next step of faith and trust, of hope and love.
Some of you will know that Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent is one of my best beloved days. Each year I seek to rest in its truth: that we are loved by God not because we are good but just because we are. It’s a day to just accept that I am human, fallible, often wrong, yet precious to God. As the prayer book says, ‘We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep…’ Ash Wednesday is a day for responding to Gods call.
And faith teaches that wherever we are, God is also there, as the poet George Herbert writes,
‘Whether I fly with angels, fall with dust,
Thy hands made both, and I am there;
Thy power and love, my love and trust,
Make one place ev’rywhere.’
I do hope that you will make your way to the cathedral in person or online on Ash Wednesday, 14 February, for the beginning of Lent. On Ash Wednesday this year the Cathedral clergy, with clergy from the wider diocese, will be outside offering ‘Ashes to Go’ in the Outer and Inner Close. The Eucharist will take place at noon and at 5.30pm. Ash Wednesday is a day for turning to God and experiencing the joy, freedom and relief of being forgiven and accepted, without compromise.
By happy coincidence Lent begins while we host Luke Jerram’s ‘Museum of the Moon’. The enormous ‘moon’ will form the focus for a Festival of events intended to invite people to their cathedral, perhaps for the first time and give them memorable and unique experiences. I’m hoping that the moon will evoke wonder and help people to see the cathedral differently. The moon is neither planet nor star, but exists in relation to the earth, with its cycles, waxing and waning, affecting the tides. It’s a significant part of our lives, the brightest object in the night sky. I’m hoping that while we have the moon with us, we’ll all be provoked to reflect more about God, the creator of the earth and of every universe. All the events are on the cathedral website.
This year, during the month of February, we will once again have a particular focus on stewardship. I will be writing to you again about this and to invite you to take part.
I’ll close with an Ash Wednesday prayer, by Angela Ashwin.
Life-giving God,
We thank you for creating us out of the dust of the earth,
And breathing your life into us;
May these ashes be to us a sign
That life is more than our physical bodies,
And that our hope of eternal life
Depends, no on our merits, but on your mercy alone,
To which we now turn, in sorrow for our sins,
and with the trust of children.
Amen
With blessings and best wishes,
The Very Revd Catherine Ogle
Dean of Winchester