That’s the thought that ran through my head as I watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with my daughter.

It was an anticipated event. We’d just read the book by C.S. Lewis and now it was time to watch the Pevensey children being whisked off into the magical world of Narnia. Yet, we don’t get to Narnia straightaway.

At the start of the film, we find the children in London during World War II facing the danger of enemy aircraft and falling bombs. As happened to so many of the 827 000 evacuated children in real life, the four Pevensey children were sent into the countryside to stay with a complete stranger.

How difficult must that have been? A friend of mine told me how she was evacuated from Liverpool to South Wales. There was the emotional heartache to leaving home to deal with, but also the disruption to life and to education.

As I watched the children getting on the train and heading into the unknown, it made me think of the impact of the last 18 months. Has there been a time since WWII where there have been so many legal directives put on our lives which have affected normal day to day living to such a degree?

I never thought I’d ever see the day when it was illegal to leave the house. When I couldn’t go over and help a friend out. When my children would go for months without entering a classroom.

It seems, though, that all this is now something of the past. As I write, we’re on the pathway back to ‘normality’ again. Are there more bumps on the road? Who knows? But we’re looking forward to ordinary life again.

For us as a church, we’re excited to restart many of the groups we stopped at the beginning of lockdown. Our clubs for primary age children are due to start back in September. Both will be on a Monday evening. WypeOut, our club for secondary age, will be back on Thursdays.

Seedlings, our toddler group, should be back in full swing with sessions on a Monday and Wednesday morning. The same too for our monthly Coffee morning (Coffee Connections) and Lunchbreak (Lunch with a talk).

There are details for each of these groups on our website as well as details of our Sunday services. If you want to know any more info or would like to come along do get in touch.

Whether you’ve been before or not, it will be great to see you.