The Archbishop, the footballer and a barrel of laughs

Reflections on a great weekend...

On Friday evening Sue and I attended an event at the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough, entitled “Sentamu By The Sea”. An almost full theatre listened intently as the current Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, shared something of his life story, and then answered questions from members of the audience. He really is quite a character, not at all the typical image of an Archbishop! He told of his very humble beginnings; how he was baptised as a new born infant because no-one thought that he would survive; his upbringing in a very poor family; his coming to faith at the age of 10 and subsequent passion for sharing the good news of Jesus; his training in law, and then persecution and imprisonment under Idi Amin, which led him to flee to the UK. He told the story with a mixture of humour and pathos. His message was both challenging and inspiring.

On our way back to Doncaster we called in to the Living Hope Church in Hull. As a life-long Hull City supporter, one of my heroes of a few years ago was former Northern Ireland international Stuart Elliott. It was a great joy to me, as chaplain of Doncaster Rovers, when Stuart signed for the Rovers two or three years ago. Although things didn't really work out for him at Rovers, it was great to get to know him during his time at the club. Stuart was well known as a Christian, and he recently made the decision to hang up his boots and become assistant pastor at Living Hope Church. Having a Sunday off gave me the opportunity to visit Living Hope and catch up with Stuart. It was great to see him and great to worship at the church. We were very warmly welcomed and felt very much at home. Clearly God is doing great things there, and Stuart is passionate about Jesus.

On Sunday evening we were with friends in Lincoln attending the first night of “The Seriously Funny Tour” with Jeff Lucas and Adrian Plass. It is a long time since I have laughed so much. It was wonderful to be reminded that a sense of humour is given to us by God, and it seems so sad that some Christians appear to have had their sense of humour removed! Laughter is great medicine. Interspersed with the humour were some very reflective and insightful moments. It was a privilege to be there.

Three very different events, each were blessed by God's presence. God is a God of rich variety, and so are his people!