FROM THE CLERGY
Vicar’s voice
After three months’
study leave in Berlin
we welcome
Rev’d David Walsh
back to the parish
I
’ve been delighted to return to St Philip’s
and discover how many people stepped
forward in my absence to lead new
initiatives.
There is a place for absence in Christian
ministry. It concerns me how often
assessment of parish ministry these days
echoes the language and criteria of our
contemporary neurotic, driven culture.
How much have we done? How busy are we?
Yet there are times in Christian ministry
when the wisest thing to do is to stand back
and wait. And see what happens.
Back in the first century, the apostle Paul,
describing the growth in the church at
Corinth, wrote:
‘I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave
the growth.’ (1 Cor 3.6)
Christian ministry - which isn’t just for
people with dog collars - is like gardening.
Possibly a bit like cooking. Sometimes we
have to step back and wait.
It’s understandable how anxious we are to
bring absence to an end, how uncomfortable
it can make us feel.
So many difficult experiences in our lives
are tied up with absence. Those early
absences we only dimly remember from
our childhoods, hours spent wondering if
someone was returning. The absences after
the failure of a friendship, of a marriage.
The absence left when children finally leave
home. The absence brought about by death.