Weekly Update – 12th March

Dear All,

This Sunday is the first Church Parade service of 2023 and it is always a pleasure to welcome the Uniformed groups and their families in to church to worship with us. We are very fortunate at St Nics to have such strong connections with all the groups, many of which are led by members of our regular congregation, which adds to our wider community links as a church.

Over the past few weeks since Rev Chris & Sarah’s retirement I have been asked many times, in all the places I have been to in Allington, whether we have a replacement yet and how long that will be. People are always shocked by my answer, “no” and a replacement will take a while! In most companies/businesses when the head/key figurehead leaves a replacement is already chosen and ready so there is no discernable gap, and everything can carry on without pause. In the Church of England it is different and we are encouraged as a congregation and church community to stop and reflect on what has been, think about where we are and consider what we would like to be, before noting these thoughts into our job advert (Parish Profile) for a new priest and moving on. The time that a parish is without a priest is called an interregnum – a dictionary definition of this is “An interval or pause between two periods of office or any period of freedom from the usual authority.”

I like this 2nd definition as it sums up what a period of interregnum means for a church community – a chance to try new things or to see what new things will develop as Aristotle, the Ancient Greek philosopher says “Nature abhors a vacuum”, meaning that once there is a gap something will always come along to fill it. In Christian terms it’s the “bubbling up” effect and certainly over the last few weeks there have already been signs of new things and ideas coming to the fore in the life of St Nics, which is very encouraging as we try and plan our way forward as a church community. In one of Rev Chris’s last sermons he talked about having to let things go and “die off” for new growth and life to flourish which is the whole point of the time of an interregnum. With that in mind let’s embrace this time and move forward as a community rather than standing still as The Bible tells us “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is the promise for a new lease on life. The phrase “new creation” refers to a fresh work of God, the bringing forth of a whole new substance.

Please note all the services going on for Holy Week and Bishop Rose presiding over our service on Easter Sunday.

Fiona

Children, Families & Schools Minister