Time and Time Again. Sitting in the study at the manse I look over the back garden. On such days in autumn it is a joy to look outside. Instead of slaving over a hot computer, I can look at the birds, flowers and grass. We even have a squirrel flitting about, gathering seeds ready for the winter. But the grass is still growing, in fact I should have mowed it a few weeks ago, but I put it off. The next opportunity that suited me was spoiled by the (much needed) rain. So the grass continues to grow and is getting to that really unmanageable stage where it is too long to simply mow. I need to cut it long, with numerous catcher loads and then a bit later cut it short, with even more catcher loads full of grass. Hopefully that’ll be the last time for the winter. Timing is everything. If I had spent an hour mowing the lawn a few weeks back it would be longish now, but easy to cut and only another hour or so’s work. Instead, it’s developing into a major job that is likely to take a Saturday morning or afternoon. Which increases the chance of it being put off again. I’ve lost the moment and it has consequences. Time. There are at least two words that are translated from the Greek in our New Testament as time. The first is ‘Chronos’. It is the word from which we get such words in English as chronological and chronology. It denotes time, but time as an exact science. Time which lists dates and the ticking of a clock

as the seconds, minutes and hours are used, abused and discarded. The second word in Greek from which we get time is ‘Kairos’. It is time as an essential point or decisive thing. It denotes the God-given possibility of the moment. Though that ‘moment’ can indeed stretch out. In a world with digital clocks, timetables and plans of action, we are ruled by Chronos. A politician has to give an answer in time for the 6 o’clock news or she or he is deemed inefficient or has something to hide. It used to be that we could say ‘a quarter past the hour’ if someone asked the time, now we say 10:13. In business meetings we have agendas, minutes, sub committees and deadlines. Of course, they are all necessary, but somewhere in the middle of our time obsessed culture the Chronos needs to give way to the Kairos. Time as seconds ticking away replaced by the God given possibility of every moment. To tune into potential rather than be trapped by past, present and even future. Our God is the Lord of time. He created time as Chronos, but more especially he is master of the Kairos. That moment when God breaks into our mundane habits and clock watching, our activities and stresses. And God transforms them into something better, greater than the sum of the parts. I guess I’ll have to do the lawns this coming Saturday no matter how much else needs to be done around the house. The time has come, and is indeed overdue. And I wonder if I’ll notice that God can also break through ….. David

board and are following the church guidelines too. It’s important for us that our girls, parents and volunteers feel confident that we are doing everything we can to keep them safe in these times. As we reflect on the last 9 months of the year, we are so grateful for all the support we have received from our brownie parents, our wider guiding friends and leaders, and our church representatives. The first few months of the year we continued with our Zoom meetings and learnt about the country code and our wildlife in preparation for our meetings in the countryside. We also enjoyed learning about the night sky, made our very own compass and star constellation observers too! In February we took part in World Thinking Day, this year the theme was “Lets Stand together for Peace!”. We had an interesting discussion about Peace and what it means for our world and ourselves and how we can make a difference by our actions every day! In April we held our first face to face meeting outdoors, it felt so strange to be back all together, but the girls had so much fun outdoors enjoying themselves together. The smiling faces really did say it all! We continued during the spring and summer terms meeting outdoors and this gave us the opportunity to work on the “Buzz About Anglia” Girlguiding challenge to celebrate their 50th Birthday. We explored our local area on a Penny Hike learning about the different roads and terraces, we visited Christchurch Park a couple of times to use our map reading skills and do some nature art designs and explored the arboretums and plants and nature, we even found the Wollemia Nobillis, “dinosaur” tree too! We also had an enjoyable evening outdoors with a Zumba fitness instructor and the girls had a great time just being free and having fun while keeping fit. As part of our Buzz About challenge we had the pleasure of joining Jason from Rubbish Walks to walk and pick litter. This really

opened the girls minds to the impact of litter and just how much o f it there is around when you open your eyes to it. Jason challenged us to find the most unusual piece of litter, we think Brown Owl won that as she found the thermostat of a radiator half buried in the earth, there was also a large fridge freezer right by the path but that wouldn’t fit in our bins, so Jason was going to report that one to the council!

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