Peterhead Methodist Church
Philippa Baker-Short Why I Am Joining
I am one of the large and diverse group of people who are being received into membership on Easter morning - some by Baptism, many by confirmation, and one or two, like me, from elsewhere in the wider Church. My own walk with God over the last few years has seen me sojourning, and being blessed in several different parts of the Body of Christ, Church of Scotland, Baptist, Catholic, and Geoff has asked me to share with you a little of why I am now taking on the commitment of membership in Peterhead Methodist Church.
The first reason is because I have been met here by the reality of the living God in such a powerful and life-changing way. Six years ago I suffered a breakdown while working with the Church of Scotland in Jerusalem. Hospitalisation, and the loss of marriage, job and home, were followed by five and a half years of therapy, and mental pain and depression that often had me very near the brink. Things were very bad in the autumn last year, with the very best in human care having left the basic problem unchanged. And it was then that a sense of needing more of God, as the only hope in what felt like a hopeless situation, brought me here to the Methodist Church on the second Sunday in September.
As soon as I sat down I knew I was in the right place, because the sense of God's love and presence were so tangible and real. And it is just amazing how God has been at work in my life since then. Things continued to be really hard for the next couple of months, but by this time the pain and darkness were entwined and undergirded by hope and comfort. And then at last, on the 20th November, everything changed, when the healing love of Jesus broke through, in response to a simple prayer, and drove away the darkness and depression with his power and love and light.
Things haven't all been easy since then, and God's hand touching deep, sore places has brought many tears. But for all that I have never been so happy in my life before. Living close to Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is such an amazing experience. And I just want to keep on growing in my relationship with God, in this place where His love and reality have met me in such a life transforming way.
I want to be where God is. And God is here. But I also want to put a seal on my belonging in this part of His Family. Right from that first day when I came to the Methodist Church I have been so blessed by the love, acceptance and welcome I have found here. It is not the sort of Church where you are required to wear a mask, and pretend that everything's OK, when in truth you are breaking down inside. Instead you can be real, and find that reality, no matter how messy, met by tenderness, prayer and compassion. And it is also a Church where there is joy and playfulness and laughter - in fact all the things that make up family life as it is meant to be. I don't have very much by way of natural family but this Church has become my family, in a way that means more than I can ever say. And it just feels very right to put the formal seal on that by becoming a full member.
I'm becoming a member because I very much want to. But I'm also doing it out of a sense of obedience, because I believe it is what God is asking me to do. Sometimes God asks us to do things, and we simply obey in trust, even though we can't yet see His exact plans and purposes. And that is the case with me, although I sense that it is something to do with putting myself in a place where it will be possible for God to use me, if He chooses.
I have really loved the Catholic Church, and been deeply blessed by being part of it. It has carried me through some very dark days, when the power of sacrament and symbol sustained me when all strength was gone. I plan to continue to worship with my Catholic brothers and sisters at Mass on Saturday nights, even though the brokenness of the Body means I will no longer be able to share at the same Table. It is a real sadness to leave. But it is a step I feet that I must take, to be available to God in a fuller way than is possible for a woman within the Catholic Church.
Through the darkest days the sense of God's calling on my life has never gone away. I still don't know what that may mean. But I'm taking this step to say 'Yes' to the God who has sole claim on my life.
| Bella Third | Louise Forbes |
| Philippa Baker-Short | Ann Donald |
| Becoming a Christian | Discover the Christian faith |