Brief report on the blessed time we have just spent with our Church at Lee Abbey (LA) Christian Community. This was our third visit to LA, the first without our children. We managed to get away from work early and travelled down in the light – a first for us! Friday night dinner was roast pork and we ate as usual with the LA Community, and this was followed with a welcome meeting. Already the peace of the place, and the welcome of the Community began to relax us, and we felt the presence of God. Saturday morning, bright and clear and after a leisurely breakfast we had two talks on the subject of being filled with the Holy Spirit in order to fulfil the needs of each other. The talks raised some interesting perspectives, especially around how we live lives which have become very independent and hence community life has diminished in our society, arguably leading to widespread depression and isolation.

Saturday dinner of shepherd’s pie preceded some home-made entertainment which was great fun. We chatted in small groups before turning in around 11:00pm.

On Sunday our talks concluded with the final session ‘spilled’ showing how our filled and fulfilled Church community could further spill out its love to our local community.

In and around the organised sessions, the joy of a LA weekend is the time spent with our Church, talking with lots of people for longer than usual and reflecting together on the talks and being inspired by the wonderful setting. Helen and I also found time to spend time together and it was a blessing to have this special time.