Amy Boucher Pye

Tag: church

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Church life

    An ink and wax painting of a many-turreted church.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    Churches are going through a strange and different time during the coronavirus pandemic, aren’t they. Services moved to Zoom, Facebook live, and YouTube during lockdown, and then over the summer we got to meet again in person – spread out, masked, keeping distant. But still meeting together.

    This second lockdown in England has been tough with the church closed. Services can be broadcast from there, but no congregation. Yes, the church is still open in the sense that we’re meeting together virtually. But meeting in-person really is better, isn’t it.

    How has your view of church (or Church) morphed and changed during the pandemic?

  • Devotional of the week: Christ in all

    Yep, clearly the artists in my family are my dad and daughter, not me... (This is my creation, not my daughter's!)
    Yep, clearly the artists in my family are my dad and daughter, not me… (This is my creation, not my daughter’s!)

    Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:2–5; 9–11)

    Sadly, often in church life we fight battles with each other, sister against sister; brother against brother. Perhaps we think that we hold the whole truth and they fall short. Or a difference of opinion over a point of doctrine becomes the opening clash of a long and drawn-out war, which leaves lives bruised and relationships impaired. Or a matter of personality morphs into a heated battle that remains long in the memory of those involved.

    As the wife of a vicar, I’ve witnessed these spats between siblings, sometimes being wounded in the process. I don’t count myself as an authority on conflict resolution; nor do I claim to hold an infallible grasp on Truth. But we can see a way forward in our church family life through Paul’s letter to the Colossians. As we live out our redeemed lives, Christ is all and is in all. We can take off the old clothes, those old rags that hold the memory of conflict, and put on the clothes of Christ – compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love.

    Wearing his garments, we are more able to live in harmony and peace with our sisters and brothers, especially if we remember that Christ sacrificed himself for them, as much as for us. As we live out of our new self, we can then move forward in unity, being freed from infighting and enabled to forgive as we seek to love and serve others and God.

    For reflection: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24–25).

  • Some speaking this Spring

    I’m excited to have some opportunities this Spring for speaking; it’s an experience I liken to strapping on roller skates – scary at first, but exhilarating as I take off, the wind whipping through my hair. Might you be able to join me, or share the info with others?

     

    Adventures in Prayer: 29 March in Coventry

    Adventures in Prayer - PosterCorrection – not the 31st, like I said earlier! Sorry!

    One of the active members of the Woman Alive Book Club is hosting this day of us adventuring in prayer together. We’ll engage with various ways of praying, not only discussing them but putting them into practice, including:

    • Lectio divina (praying with the Bible),
    • practicing the presence of God,
    • praying at the cross, and
    • listening prayer.

    Prayer becomes an adventure when God shows up – which he promises to do!

     

    Beloved: Rooting Our Identity as Women of God

    5-9 May, at El Palmeral near Alicante in Spain

    DSCN8150A retreat for women, exploring our identity in Christ. What does it mean to be God’s beloved? How can we shed the false names of the “old self” that we may have adopted – worthless, controlling, fearful, worrier – and embrace the new name that God wants to bestow on us? He calls us chosen, precious, loving, gentle, wanted… but do we believe him?

    In our time together we’ll be exploring the spiritual practices that will help us live as the new creation that the Apostle Paul speaks of. As we learn to forgive ourselves and others, and to hear God, we can move into freedom and release.

    This retreat house in Spain is not to be missed. It’s a combination of a retreat and a holiday – warming sunshine, amazing food and conversation, a pool to lounge by… combined with God’s sweet presence as we meet together in the mornings. I’ve blogged about El Palmeral here.

    Restore your Confidence: A day conference for women

    14 May in at CRE Sandown in Esher

     Woman Alive and BRF will host the fourth annual women’s day at CRE, at which I’ve had the privilege of speaking previously. It’s a wonderfully encouraging day with a great roster of speakers:

    Jennifer Rees Larcombe, who runs the charity Beauty From Ashes, from The House of Prayer, will explore what might rob us of our confidence in God: unanswered prayer, disappointment with ourselves, misunderstanding the character of God… and how we can restore our confidence and relationship with him.

    Writer, speaker, editor and vicar’s wife Amy Boucher Pye tackles restoring our confidence in the Church. If it is the body of Christ, why does it sometimes seem to ooze with disease? How should we handle disagreements and can our wounds be healed?

    Bex Lewis from the Centre for Christian Communication in a Digitial Age looks at restoring our confidence in the truths we believe. How can we live out and share the good news in a society that seems to move further and further away from Christian principles?

    Catherine Butcher, writer, editor and currently heading the communications for HOPE will unpack the promise of heaven and explain how we can be heavenly ambassadors, spreading hope and giving those around us a taste of heaven.

    PLUS, Ali Herbert will be our host for the day and Sue Mills returns to lead the worship times.

     

    It’s free, but you need to register soon, as the 300 places were claimed about six weeks before last year’s event.