Rev Chris update 6th September, 2020

Rev Chris update – 6th September, 2020

Dear all,
Last Thursday evening I was privileged to attend the licensing service for the new priest, Revd. Gareth Dickinson, at St Luke’s
church. The last couple of licensing services I have been to have been ‘online’, so it was nice to be at one where we were able to be physically present. I know that for many of you the opportunity to be back in church is important and we are gradually developing things over the coming weeks and months. Please be patient as we work out the most appropriate, and relevant, way forward.

Dealing with the implications of a global pandemic, and how we come out of lockdown, are not what I had in the forefront of my mind at the beginning of this year. It was not something that came up at ‘vicar’ training but I suppose that our ‘job’ as Christians is to discern what God is saying to us in the midst of all of this and, indeed, what he is ‘calling’ us to do, and probably what he is ‘calling’ us not to do any longer. As I said in last week’s online service, broadcast from the cross on the North Downs above Lenham, we cannot change the situation, but we can change our perception – or put it another way, from the bible;

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

Personally, despite the challenges, I think that we have before us a wonderful opportunity to rethink things and to encounter God in new and exciting ways for ourselves and for others.

Rev Chris