March 2026

VIEW FROM THE HEIGHTS               

March 2026

Greetings,

This cartoon from the Church Times[i] says it all!

 Church - & religion - & God are all about hope! It is the ministry to which every faither is called. The spiritual muscle that we are required to keep toned.[ii]

Contrary to the doom and gloom of the secular media, contrary to Dante’s hellish warning "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,"[iii] the Holy One is the bringer of ALL HOPE.  The love and care of our Heavenly Parent are the promise that this world will never be neglected or abandoned.   

Easter is the proof.  Jesus was rescued from the grave, his co-crucified redeemed from a life of crime. Neither death nor depravity can separate anyone from God’s love. No person is beyond grace, no corner of the world outside the perimeter of Divine protection, no part of Creation uncherished.

As Easter people, we are the tellers of this Good News! We are the sharers of this great love. We are the bearers of God’s limitless hope!

May this Easter fill you with God’s richest blessings.

Embrace Hope!

Be the Hope!

Brenda

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[i] “Archbishop of Canterbury promises new Synod priorities”, Church Times, 20 February 2026

[ii] Ibid., quoting The Most Revd. Sarah Mullally

[iii] Dante Alighieri, “Divine Comedy”, 1321 C

February 2026

VIEW FROM THE HEIGHTS               

February 2026

Greetings!

This month, our newsletter has a guest editor: none other than St. Valentine!

I pass the pen to him…

Happy Love Day!

I am deeply honoured that you have chosen the anniversary of my martyrdom to celebrate God’s gift of love.

You know, of course, that my “crime” was to stand up for marriage when Emperor Claudius II forbade his soldiers to wed. He thought it weakened their combat readiness. My protest was not because I’m a romantic. Even though I am!

I was deeply opposed to Claudius the Cruel’s (as we called him) continual, bloody, military campaigns. Nothing good comes from warfare.

So celebrating love is the PERFECT tribute to me.[i]

As you think about what to give your beloveds, remember that cards and confections are not the only love offerings out there. The Bible has lots of gift-giving suggestions.  So think outside the box- and inside the Bible! 

Perfume is Scripture favourite and fresh well-water. Gift something that supports clean water or bee conservation. BTW, did you know that I am the patron saint of beekeepers?

Gift your best self to your loved ones and neighbours, near and far.

Paul wrote the primer on this:

“Love is slow to lose patience—it looks for a way of being constructive.

It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.

Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage.

It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people.

On the contrary, it is glad when truth prevails.”[ii]

Gift your best self to God.

Over to you, Micah:

God has already made it plain how to live, what to do,  what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,  be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.[iii]

Gift your best self to yourself:

“Love others as much as you love yourself.”[iv]

Which means, of course, be as fair and just and loving to yourself as you are to others.

Jesus was serious about that!

Friends, I wish you a LOVE-LY “Valentine’s” Day! (It’s weird referring to myself in the third person!)

And a LOVE-FILLED journey to Easter.

 Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope;

it can outlast anything.

It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.

In this life we have three great lasting qualities—faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love. [v]

Blessings & Love from us both!

Brenda & Valentine

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[i] St Valentine is believed to be the 3^rd Century Roman cleric who was martyred on February 14^th, 273

[ii] 1 Corinthians 13: 4-6 JB Phillips

[iii] Micah 6:8 TMSG

[iv] Matthew 22: 39 CEV

[v] 1 Corinthians 13: 7-8a,13 JB Phillips

January 2026

VIEW FROM THE HEIGHTS               

January 2026

Nothing harmful will take place on the Lord's holy mountain.Just as water fills the sea, the land will be filledwith people who know and honor the Lord.

Isaiah 11:9 CEV

Happy New Year!

May 2026 be the year God’s dreams come true!

It’s easy to doubt this, isn’t it? Or even denigrate the ideal?

But God has said that goodness WILL happen! And this coming year is the perfect reminder, the very prompt we need.  We will celebrate inventions and events that prove transformative change is possible.

THE BIG HAPPENING is the 250^th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. India, meanwhile, will celebrate 80 years as a sovereign nation.

Both point to God’s support for movements that give his children freedom to be their best selves, freedom to rule their own countries, and freedom to follow their own paths to the Holy. Empires and regimes, theologies and ideologies that limit [non-malignant] liberties: listen up!

Another important event in 2026 is the 150^th anniversary of the invention of the telephone. On March 10^th, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke those famous words: “Mr Watson, come here. I want you.” It was a request for help after a lab spill, and the world has never been the same since.  Lesson to be learned: a mess can be the start of something great!

My last commemoration doesn’t come with a nice round number. The World Wide Web will be 33 years old this year. Some time ago, [creator] Tim Berners- Lee was asked if it had turned out as he’d imagined. He replied that he was surprised by all the cats! Stating he had never anticipated "kittens" becoming a dominant feature of his creation! He also admitted to being more of a “dog person”.  Lessons from the Web: even when life doesn’t turn out as one expects, it’s still good. Also: cats rule!

Though diverse in time and nature, these significant milestones jointly lift up the human spirit. They are testaments to our ability to discover new ways of being, communicating, and existing in community.

We humans have achieved so much, surely, we can establish peace and justice on Earth? For people, for the planet, and, of course, for cats of every kind!

We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power.

Then will our world know the blessings of peace.

William Ewart Gladstone

(British Prime Minister 1868 -1874, 1880-1885, 1886, 1892-1894)

Wishing you a New Year filled with peace!

Blessings,

Brenda