FROM THE RECTOR – July 31, 2020

Every now and then we are given the opportunity for a fresh start. I believe that can and will be true for Saint Paul’s Church. While over the past now too many months, we have discovered in new ways how to be the Church outside our walls. As we look to the future we will discover how to be so in new ways within.

So much has happened: the fear of pandemic and sickness; the challenge of physical distance from those we love and who love us; the uncertainty of returning to work and school and yes, play; calls for justice and understanding our common history in new ways; of living together yet apart. All of these have caused us to view the world differently.

The same is true for the Church. Here however, we are given something that is beyond anything the world can give, and that is HOPE. We are reminded that while old things are being cast down, new things are being raised up; that creation itself is constantly being made new, that we are being made new.

As followers of Jesus we are given the assurance that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,   nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). It is grounded in that love that we look to our future in hope.

So, maybe it’s time we begin, not to look to returning to the old ways of “being Church”, but opening our eyes to new opportunities, new expressions, new vision of who we are called to be. We will gather again, but we will do so as a new creation. May we be open to all that will come to us and for us as faithful followers of Jesus, who was never content with the way things were.

Let us pray.

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

George