Dear Friends

I enjoy November.

There are compensations for the fading light and the dropping temperatures. Whilst we lose the warmth and the light at this time of the year there are seasonal charms that are perhaps more subtle and can go unnoticed.

We lose the leaves, which finally give up their multi-coloured dance and fall to the floor, but we gain the unimpeded views of a tree’s magnificent architecture. We lose the daylight but find a more subtle varied charm in the dusks and the stars, as Yeats so beautifully captured it: “the blue and the dim and the dark cloths of night and light and the half light"

We lose the sun warming our faces, but we gain those moments of pure beauty that come with the first frosts of the year, tracing patterns on spider webs and bushes.

We lose the summer fun and we have not reached December’s celebrations and yet with Remembrance Day and other occasions of remembrance, we can gain the stripped down appreciation of life in its simplicity and beauty. The reflection of what was and what can be, bring a clarity to today and a call to live as fully as we can.

As Jesus said:  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”.

God bless

Mike Gilbert, Rector of Baslow

Parish Safeguarding 

The Church of England is called to share the good news of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ. The life of our communities and institutions is integral to how we address this task. The good news speaks of welcome for all, with a particular regard for those who are most vulnerable, into a community where the value and dignity of every human being is affirmed and those in positions of responsibility and authority are truly trustworthy. Being faithful to our call to share the gospel therefore compels us to take with the utmost seriousness the challenge of preventing abuse from happening and responding well where it has.’  HANDBOOK

Safeguarding Concerns

If you have any concerns over any safeguarding matter, please contact the Parish Safeguarding Officer, Dave Dalby on 01629 813244  or Member of the Clergy, Revd Mike Gilbert on 07947092951 or the Diocesan Safeguarding Team on 01332 388678.