From Revered Kate Bottley, Vicar of the churches of Blyth, Scrooby and Ranskill:

There was a fair bit of shouting and panic in the vicarage on Saturday night, no not the rugby, but a power cut! The kids ran down from their bedrooms, the dog actually woke up, and Mr Bottley was sent to ferret through the kitchen junk drawer to find candles. The log fire and candles lit, we settled down for the duration. And it wasn’t just us; the whole village was deathly quiet and pitch black. We could stand the darkness for a bit but novelty soon wore off, Graham tripped over the dog and after 30 minutes my usually brave son was heard to say, “when will this be over Mum, I’m not sure I like it”. When the lights did suddenly come back on they seemed really bright and the telly was unbelievably loud.

For Christians the themes of light and darkness run through all this week, the darkest hour at the cross and the new dawn of Easter morning. At our sunrise service a single candle will be carried into a dark church and all the candles will be lit and the place will be taken from pitch black into glorious, dazzling and beautiful light.

Darkness struck powerfully and without warning yesterday in the spring sun-lit city of Brussels. As I watched in horror as the news unfolded; I - like you - saw pictures of people running away and thought immediately of those who had not been able to make their escape. Thinking of those who dwelt in the fear and darkness of the moment of terror. At a time of darkness like that it’s difficult to imagine that the lights will ever come back on. I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know they we have a choice to be people who dwell in darkness or people who search for light. To live in fear, hate and division, or to choose hope, peace and unity.

As Dr Martin Luther King said:



Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

So like a frightened kid in a power cut I don’t know how long the darkness will last but I choose to not let it scare me into hating, I chose to always look in hope for the dazzling light of love.