CHANGE, THE CONSTANT CONDITION

Dear Friends,

I am writing on Whitsun morning, 50 days after Easter (hence it’s more modern term Pentecost), when the Church ‘took wing’ with the Holy Spirit being conferred on the disciples in wind, often symbolised by a dove, and as if on fire. On a recent visit to Wells Cathedral in Somerset the nave was full of white paper doves suspended from cross-wires between the pillars, filling the whole space; it changed the feel of the building, which is the whole point of this major festival, that of change and new perspective.

Organisationally, as significant national institution, we are transitioning and adapting to changed circumstances in our (in)ability to recruit and pay for stipendiary ministry, along with renewed understanding of the ministerial task needing to be shared by the whole people of God, lay and ordained. Our new ‘Isle of Ely Villages Team Ministry’ is our own manifestation of this change; the future does not have to look like the past, but needs to embody the most important aspects of our shared history while addressing the challenges of the present day while also looking to God’s future. The Church remains a bastion of stability (‘to whom else can we go, you O Lord, have the words of eternal life’) and yet while retaining its role as a guardian of the nation’s religious, moral and ethical observances, attitudes and laws, it is learning quickly and importantly about the necessity of embracing inclusivity and difference, owning up to its failures to do so in past generations. Tradition is capable of change, and we are the better for adapting; nostalgia is immutable and leaves you in the past, and as they say “it’s not what it used to be!” Like the inability of the weather to always be warm and sunny, there’s no such thing as a poor day, only the wrong clothing.

At a more personal level, each of us is surely challenged to embrace the wind of change in our daily living, being set on fire with enthusiasm and passion for what we feel called to do. In cases where someone needs to reform their way of life, it might involve a complete turning round, a conversion experience; a Damascus Road moment like St Paul might elude us, but the small changes of which we are capable can bring enormous benefits. Such might include behaviour, diet, attitude, stewarding of our resources, and our precious use of time, and to do so we might seek the help of trusted advisers as well as clinicians, family and friends. The nation’s mental health is a major cause for concern at the moment, and my hope is that each of us might review our lives this Pentecost, seeking those changes which deep down we know we should, while remembering that Jesus said ‘I came that you might have life, and have it in all its fulness’. It’s his Holy Spirit, and he is with us.

Mark

Revd Canon Mark Haworth