Greetings one and all and thank you for such a warm welcome.  We have been overwhelmed by your generosity here, with cards, well-wishing and an overflowingly abundant hamper of food and refreshments.  We are all truly grateful for all the above and for the many other bits of practical help at the house that have made the act of physically moving here more bearable.

 

Moving On...

 

There is a saying that “when you move the people of God you  move the people of God”.  I think this means that when we relocate physically – by going to a different place or by standing somewhere unusual in church – we literally see things differently and this makes us think differently:  we are “moved on” in our journey of faith.   It’s part of why people go on pilgrimage and our move here certainly has some of those pilgrim qualities.

 

Firstly it has reminded us how much easier things would have been had we not had so much stuff!  “Travel light” has always been our Lord’s advice though I’m sure he was referring not only to physically baggage.  Drop all the non-essentials and we will have more in common with fellow pilgrims and will make more progress together.

 

Secondly, there is the advice about not looking back for fear that we will lack commitment for the task to hand.  It is painful to leave friends behind.  We need to be honest about that pain and thankful for the quality of the relationships we have enjoyed; but we do have to say goodbye and we do have to move on.

 

And moving on in this way is a reminder that throughout our lives, even if we remain in the same church from cradle to grave, we constantly have to say goodbye to our old ideas: ideas about life, about God, about the church and about ourselves.  These ideas have been like good friends: they have helped us on our journey but the time will come when we have to bid them farewell if the journey is to continue.

 

In short, a pilgrim people can never be content to “settle”; not intellectually and not spiritually.  We are on a journey home together with all the saints.  We have, as both the writer of Ecclesiastes and St Augustine said, a restlessness within our hearts and this prompts us to move on, to keep seeking, to keep growing and changing until we are fully conformed to the people God is creating us to be.

 

...and Settling In

 

In Katharine's letter for September we were reminded of that start-of-term feeling.  For me that feeling comes, appropriately enough, in October, the month I first left home to go to university, the month of colour – and often temperature-change all around us. 

 

We have now settled in as a family at home, at school and at work.  As we look forward to what is hopefully a good long “term” together, may this be a fruitful part of our journey as we seek a closer walk with the God who loves us and wants only the very best for us.

 

Jim