I emphasise 'celebrate', because that implies we do something special to mark its occurrence, and yet I suspect that for some it becomes just another Sunday.

Pentecost is one of the three main festivals of the Christian year, along with Christmas and Easter. Unlike the other two it hasn't been adopted by secular society and so the third major festival of the Christian year is rarely these days noticed by those who have little contact with the Church. In years gone by many towns, particularly in the north of England, had their "Whit Walks" but the Whitsun break from school and even from work has been lost in fixing half-term to the Spring Bank Holiday and setting this as the last Monday in May

Increasingly it is difficult to find expressions of faith amongst the many activities at Christmas, and the despair of Easter and the joy that follows are disguised with fluffy bunnies and hidden behind piles of chocolate. But Pentecost ... well, that is free from such commercial trappings, and is in danger, therefore (even within the church) of passing by unnoticed.

This year, like many others, the Birthday of the Church will pass by with few aware of it happening and maybe even those within the Church a little uncertain of its significance. Yet Pentecost has so much to say to us, especially those of us who feel (at times, if not always) that the church is under attack, and that we are too weak, too feeble, too few, to make any sort of difference in the world.

Whilst Christmas and Easter are so much about what God does for us -- in Christ he comes to us, he dies for us and is raised for us -- Pentecost is about what God will do with us. Pentecost is the time when we recall that a group of frightened and reticent individuals were transformed into a bold, brave and vociferous company who transformed the world. It is also the time when we recall that the promise made to them -- that God's Spirit would fill them and equip them -- is the same promise that is made to us, and we therefore open ourselves to that same Spirit.

Human history is littered with examples of individuals who thought they could change the world or change themselves -- very few have managed it. However the history of the Church is full of examples of those, both individuals and communities, who achieved far more than they could ever have imagined when they opened themselves up to the Holy Spirit.

This Pentecost let us, as a church and as individuals, be open to the leading and filling of the Spirit and let us begin that process by coming to worship on May 26th ready to celebrate this important occasion in our life as a church. And if we do, we never know where we might find ourselves being led.

May God's Spirit fill us all.
Rev Craig Bowman

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