Vicar's Letter

This month's letter is written by our Licensed Assistant Curate, Mother Ann Clarridge

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Our life is a journey and the beginning of the New Year is a good time to get out our road maps of life. Each time another January greets us, we have an opportunity to pause, to see where we have been, to notice how far we have come and to ponder how that journey has been for us. To reflect on and gain wisdom by looking at the places of our hearts where we have travelled during the past year. As we look back over the past year, we can identify the places that blessed us, affirmed us, and enriched us. We also need to reflect on the situations that challenged us, tested us, discourage us or maybe even tried to destroy us. 

No two Januarys are ever the same and it can be helpful to take stock of our present situation and consider our inner resources and of those around whose lives impact upon ours. 

The road and our journey along that road as an image of the spiritual journey are evident in both Hebrew and Christian scriptures.

The road of faith that Sarah and Abraham travelled, trusting that even in their old age God still had some marvellous surprises in store for them (GN 12:1-9); The star-marked road of the Wise Ones, a road that could be travelled only in darkness (Mt 2:1-12); the road to Emmaus, travelled by two sad and discouraged disciples who were transformed by a blazeof love, retraced by feet hurrying to tell the good news (Lk 24:13-35). 

Any one of these stories could be our story. 

Each New Year is unique and as a congregation we will be facing a different challenge; a change of direction as we are looking forward to welcoming a new vicar. It will be important that we do not get caught in old patterns of thinking and behaving but be open to new ones. 

We will need Abraham and Sarah’s faith, to trust in God for direction and to look for the brightness of the light of love in darker times. 

When we walk into a new year, we are invited to enter into the unknown. We do not know what events will surprise us along the way. We can only see life for today. To live in the present moment; in the presence of the God who loves us and who journeys with us. 

Gracious God, in this new year we pray to live justly, with compassion, to live lovingly, with fidelity, to live mindfully with awareness, to live gratefully, with generosity, to live fully, with enthusiasm. Amen 

Adapted from: May I have this dance? ‘January’ Joyce Rupp. 1992:23-27

Blessings,

Mother Ann