It was as I was preparing to preach on the Baptism of Christ a few Epiphanies ago that it first struck me that the words spoken over Jesus – ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’– take the form of a song, a canticle - in fact, the last and greatest in the wonderful series of canticles recorded for us in the early chapters of Luke. Up to this point, of course, we have already been treated to the Magnificat, the Benedictus and the Nunc Dimittis, along with the first few lines of the Ave Maria and the Gloria: men and women, young and old, clergy and laity all contributing to this wonderful outburst of praise, with a great company of the heavenly host thrown in for good measure! But at this remarkable epiphany moment, as Jesus is raised from the waters of baptism, it is God Himself who joins in that outburst in a brief but heartfelt love song to ‘my Son, the Beloved’. It reminds us of the moving words of the prophet Zephaniah:‘The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing’.‘The Beloved’: it’s a phrase to which St. Paul returns in his letter to the Ephesians, where he writes of God’s ‘glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved’. And as we inch our way out of a pandemic that has so changed and challenged us all, it’s my Epiphany prayer for 2022 that we might be drawn afresh into the love of the Father for his Son and marvel afresh at the glorious grace through which that love song is extended to us all.
On Sunday January 23rd we will welcome back our Funday@4 service.It's a joint service with Hascombe Church that takes place at Dunsfold. It's a relaxed service in which we welcome all ages but especially families and children.There will be plenty to do so if you're free please join us at 4pm on Sunday, January 23rd.
Clergy Wellbeing in a Time of Covid: Autonomy, Accountability and Support, sets out how clergy have reported on their levels of physical, mental, spiritual, relational and financial wellbeing during the pandemic. The study also reports on respondents’ perspectives relating to autonomy, accountability and support.A second Living Ministry research report, ‘You don’t really get it until you’re in it - meeting the challenges of ordained ministry’ analyses interviews with 61 clergy on their experiences at key stages of their ministry, including starting curacies and incumbent posts and later in their careers. Dr Liz Graveling, who oversees the research programme, said: “While our latest panel survey reveals widely varying experiences of clergy during the pandemic, it will be of little surprise that the biggest impacts on wellbeing were in the areas of mental health and relationships. “However, taken together and as part of a ten-year study, these reports tell us that strong connections with other people were crucial to clergy wellbeing before as well as during the pandemic and that both individual clergy and the wider church have a role to play in ensuring that ordained ministers receive appropriate personal and professional support as they face the challenges of their ministry.”The Living Ministry programme is a 10-year research project into the flourishing of Church of England ordained ministers. The project, which launched in 2017, publishes regular updates on its findings for distribution among dioceses, theological education institutions and national church bodies.
