This time last year, along with countless other people, I was praying for the 33 Chilean miners trapped after a mining accident.  Amazingly all of them were rescued alive and reasonably well.

Only a month later 29 miners died in a disaster in New Zealand, and this week 4 died in Wales.

33 lived, 33 died - I didn't know that until I Googled the information.

It's one of those moments when I don't really know what to say, but somehow feel I ought to acknowledge.

Lots of questions that will never find adequate answers - the 'why'? questions especially.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn.

These words seem to recur in my thinking and writing a lot

Nearly a year on, I wonder how life really is for the Chileans who rejoiced so fulsomely last autumn? Or how those affetced by the New Zealand disaster are rebuilding their lives?  And even now, those in Wales, shocked, numb, bewildered, angry, heartbroken...

To remember, to attempt to come alongside, to commend each and every man, and each and every person who loved him, to God's merciful love... that seems about all that can be done.

Thankfully, depsite events of the last year, mine disasters are rare nowadays, but we must not get complacent or forget that behind every statistic is person.

Today is our church AGM - not the most thrilling of events, it has to be said, but probably one of the least understood.

It has a legal function - as a charity we have to approve our audited accounts and elect our office bearers and trustees for the next period (some annual, some tri-annual)

It has a Baptist-history function - we prepare written reports about the past year that form part of our archive and will, one day, allow people to understand how we tried to follow Jesus in this place at this time.

It has a forward facing function - it marks the start of another new year and another opportunity to try to get it right in our disicpleship!  Just a couple of weeks after our covenant service we begin to work again.

It has a fellowship function - yes, we have lunch between the end of worship and the start of the meeting, but we also have an opporutity to listen to one another more lcosely and communally.

The AGM itself is a very short meeting.  A lot of churhces merge it into a routine meeting and lose the distinctives.  Today we are having a very short AGM after which we have a 'normal' church meeting.  This is important, given the legal function of the AGM and that there are matters we would wish to discuss which are not of releavnce to OSCR (or Charity Commission further south).  I know this an example of my 'anal' tendencies but the two meetings model makes more sense, so that's what I've unanimously decided we will do!  How un-Baptist is that?!

Hopefully we'll have some new students along today, and hopefully some of them will like us enough to come back.  Hopefully we'll have a useful meeting - though next year I won't let anyone ask for the date to be changed and then go on holiday the day they asked for!!  You know who you are and I'm still waiting for you to hand in your handwritten copy of Psalm 119 as puinishment...! ;-)

Have a good Sunday wherever you are, whatever you're doing..