Starting curacy in the midst of a global pandemic has certainly been a journey into the unexpected.
How do we manage to connect with each other, to worship together, to serve our communities and each other, when we can't meet together in the ways that we're used to and when we're all experiencing loss at so many levels? All this has certainly caused me to reflect upon what it is to be a healthy and sustainable church. And it's been that reminder that relationship is so key to what it is to be church together. How do we live out what it is to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our strength, with all our soul and to love our neighbour as ourselves? How do we do that in a time of crisis? Are we ready to recognise every human being as our neighbour to be loved as ourselves. And how do we do that well with and without both the challenge and the help of technology.
As we continue through this season of Lent in 2021 I think there is something healthy about recognising that we sometimes have more questions than answers. But I also think that it's often in being willing to ask those questions, in being open to journeying into the unexpected, remembering that God is a very present help in times of trouble and that Jesus calls us to follow him as the spirit works in and through us.
It's as we do that that perhaps we begin to discover more about what it is to be a healthy and sustainable church
