The twenty third day of Advent: Sharing

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In April next year Boroughbridge Community Larder which meets in our church hall will be four years old. It’s an amazing project run by different groups in the town including our Methodist church family. Here is its Christmas message: 

As we come to the end of 2025 Boroughbridge Community Larder would like to thank everyone who has supported us throughout the last year. Our visitors went away with a staggering 15.2 tons of food this year which otherwise would have gone to landfill. (Nearly 60 tons since we first started)

This would not have been possible without the support of all the  local supermarkets & independent shops who have donated their surplus food (Morrisons in Boroughbridge & Ripon; Booths, Aldi, Sainsburys and M&S in Ripon; Aldi & Lidl in Thirsk; Fink in Boroughbridge; Great Ouseburn Village Store; Marton cum Grafton Village Shop) plus Boroughbridge Allotment Society. Also, the local householders who have brought in their unwanted store cupboard items.

Also special thanks to Rev Ian Pruden who kindly allows us to hold the Community Larder in Boroughbridge Methodist Church. 

Last but not least, a massive thank you goes to all 39 of our wonderful volunteers who give up their time each week to make this happen.

So please remember, Boroughbridge Community Larder is NOT a food bank, it is an environmental project so ANYONE can come along for a free bag of food. We're open every Weds from 12.00 to 13.00. (From 7 Jan)

Hope to see you there soon!

Christmas is about thinking of others. We’ve had an Advent study group for the last four weeks also in Boroughbridge which has used the now retired Bishop of Leeds course called Who am I? We’ve explored what it means to be human and this morning I led the final session on the call to be inclusive. In the material was a quote from the late Rachel Held Evans taken from her fabulous book Searching for Sunday: 

“God’s Kingdom is like a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered round a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they said yes. And there’s always room for more.”

All have to be included. That’s why God came on earth vulnerable and was met by outsiders and soon became a refugee. The new Roman Catholic  Archbishop of Westminster has been commented about by some right wing press as being controversial by saying Mary and Joseph and Jesus are like migrants fleeing danger and seeing a new safe life here. We label all those in boats as trouble but not all are.

We live Christmas and all are included. We say a special thank you in this season to those we never thank at other times, we try to look out for the lonely. And so on. Maybe in contrast to the larder and the safety of Egypt for the holy family the world today needs to look long and hard at its message. Maybe the naked pastor has it right (sadly) in his cartoon today…