Dear Friends

I’ve been here just over two months now and I’m beginning to find my way around. I enjoy exploring somewhere new, especially when I bump into places like Salts Mill. I’ve been twice already! Most recently I called in during the 150th Anniversary Saltaire Festival. I found the story of Titus Salt and the mill quite compelling, such a daring, challenging and visionary enterprise on a grand scale brought to life in such a comparatively short time. If the stones of Saltaire could talk what would they tell us?

Not long after Titus Salt had opened his mill, I was interested to realize that St John’s chapel in Menston was licensed in a temporary building (1858) and it was probably also in this time of expanding population that the mental asylum which became High Royds was planned.

I find it fascinating to try and get inside the history of the past using my imagination. It comes even more alive as people tell their stories. Longevity seems to be one of the qualities of living in Menston, so there are experiences to share of 50, 60, 70 years here - which is quite something!

We also have something to tell of who we are in the present and what life is like in Menston today as well as our hopes and dreams for the future. We seem to be in a time of transition in which continuous change is what the future looks like, I suspect in a way we have never quite known before. As we live towards this flux which it seems will be our future it feels important that we tell our stories of the past which has shaped us as we support one another to live in the present hopefully.

Jesus was someone who was rooted in the present but lived towards the future in the kingdom of God. He always saw people for their potential, what they could become when they knew they were loved by God and valued in community by one another.

Yours in Christ,

Ruth