FROM THE PULPIT
This is likely to be my last letter to you before Revd Lesley-ann Craddock
comes to join you in August.
I want to thank you for doing such a great job of work during the vacancy. I
want to particularly thank the vacancy committee and the vestry for all that they
have done over the past few months which has brought us to this happy
situation where we now await a new era for St Oswald's.
New things are always tricky for church. There is a kind of default position
when it comes to change in many congregations, and that position is not
usually a positive one. There are, of course, good reasons for this. We belong
to a church which has many admirable traditions. We have a liturgy which is
in some ways envied by many other church groups or institutions. We have a
system of church government and church law which has a respectable
pedigree.
All of this can give the illusion of permanence. We can be left with the feeling
that this is the way things have always been. But a moment's reflection will
make us realise that this is illusory. I was once chatting with a man about the
Bible and this man insisted that the only worthwhile version among all the
recent translations was the King James Version. He said to me in all
seriousness: 'If the King James Version was good enough for St Paul, then it
was good enough for him!' In his understandable reverence for the King James
Version he had forgotten that the King James version had a beginning - 1611
to be precise. It hadn't always been there, although by the middle of the 20th
century it was understandable that some folks might think it had been.
The point is clear - things have a beginning, and that means things change.
There were bibles before the King James Version, and there obviously have
been Bibles since. And there is plethora of different versions of the Bible today.
Change and development happens. And that is a good thing because it means
that we are alive.
Life is about change. We change all the cells in our bodies every seven
years. So it is at least biologically true to say that you are not the same
person you were seven years ago. You are completely different. The same is
true, or ought to be true, with the rest of our lives and that includes our life in
church. So as we prepare to welcome Lesley-ann let us remember that we
are part of a living tradition, a lively tradition that is forever new.
So may God bless you as you move forward into the future that God has
prepared for you with confidence and excitement.
Love
Scott
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