CREDITON Methodist Church’s minister Rev Donna Leigh led the service on Sunday, October 26, and her theme was “hope”.

In 2017, after eight years of study, Donna was ordained a Methodist minister at Coventry Cathedral, which was a wonderful and amazing place.

Coventry is the perfect example of hope and rebirth after the awful decimation of the city in World War Two and, of course, this theme of hope is going to be what we see in the next couple of weeks as we come to Remembrance Sunday.

The old St Michaels Parish Church is stunning. It had been there for hundreds of years. On that fateful night in 1940, incendiaries rained down and the city and St Michaels were burned and destroyed.

When everything had cooled down and they were able to enter the old church, they were able to build a cross from some of the beams that had fallen down and they erected it in a pile of rubble.

They were also able to rescue the brass cross that had been on the Communion table. This cross now is not like any cross you could imagine. It is twisted, buckled, and deformed but is entirely beautiful because it has risen from the heat, flames and rubble and now sits on the Communion table of the new cathedral which was built in 1962.

Donna was wearing a cross, the original of which was designed by a priest called Arthur Wales out of three nails from the old church. She wears it proudly to remind her of her ordination. It is a sign of hope - a hope that has risen from the rubble of that dreadful time.

We have to acknowledge that Dresden was burned as a result of what happened in Coventry. There was a service of reconciliation between Coventry and Dresden about 10 years ago when all the communities came together to heal the hurt of that time. Such an amazing message of hope from the evil of 1940.

Donna moved on to photos of Jerusalem, where in 2014 she and her husband led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The beautiful city of Jerusalem was for her a symbol of hope. The last day they spent there was in the Garden Tomb where they shared in Holy Communion with pilgrims from Germany, Italy, America, Australia and Argentina.

It was just incredible. In the distance Donna could hear the Muslim call to worship. It was a wonderful time of coming together of worship and prayer and communion with each other. It was an incredible time of all these different people from all over the world and was a really emotive and inspiring time of hope.

As we listened to the readings, particularly Romans 12, love and hope came together in these verses. Hope is a time of birth, healing, promise and of possibilities. It is hope that keeps us going when our circumstances are so difficult at times. It is the hope in our faith that keeps us going when we feel low. Hope is the central core of what it means to be a Christian. It is the very essence of our souls and, of course, it is available for everyone.

Donna had spoken about Coventry and the hope of the destruction of that awful night in 1940, the hope that she saw everywhere on that pilgrimage in 2014 to where the very seat of Christianity was born on the day of resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have had the heartbreaking scenes in the last couple of weeks where the hostages have been returned and hopefully there is hope coming out of the peace talks that will continue.

Are we hungry for hope? That morning Donna heard that inflation has risen and the cost-of-living crisis is again an issue for everyone. Where is our hope?

Donna believed that when we come to church, when we receive the Holy Spirit, when we feel that hope and the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ it is something that we have to continually work at and acknowledge that this morning the hope of Christians is here for all of us.

Sometimes we have to work intentionally to keep that hope and our faith alive. It is to be, as it was in Coventry, of the filth and the dirt of life at times coming out and rising and becoming hope-filled as we live our life of Christianity.

It is the thing to choose hope, to choose faith and we just hope and pray that the situation we see in Gaza and Israel can come to an end and that the peace talks continue.

We also hope and pray that the war in Ukraine can come to an end and we hope and pray for our own society where so many are in need especially as we come up to Advent and Christmas where people need that hope in so many ways.

Donna’s message today was that we all hold on to that hope and pray for hope for others.

Bronwyn Nott