Bishop Richard’s Weekly Video Message and Transcript 17.09.2026

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Bishop's Weekly Video Message #304 – 17.09.2026

Video for September 17th, 2026

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.

Last week, I was on one of my prayer pilgrimages around the diocese. I had the pleasure of visiting 25  different churches, most of which I had never visited before. At some indeterminate point in the future I will be retiring, and I am determined to visit all the churches in the diocese before then.  We have over 400.  I still have some way to go, but I think I’m pushing 300 now. 

In each church we prayed a simple liturgy together asking for God’s blessing on the work there. By definition, the fact I haven’t visited usually means they don’t have a service every week, or they are serving very small remote communities, sometimes of only a few houses. Many are achingly beautiful in a wonderful setting. I always think its difficult, confronted as we are by the wonder of creation, to be an atheist in the diocese of Hereford.

I think some were puzzled by my choice of Bible reading. We read from Revelation 4, John’s vision of a throne surrounded by a sea of glass, bowing elders in their thrones, and overshadowed by rainbows.  Not much in there about prayer. However, the context in which Revelation was given is important. Apostle John was in a Roman labour camp on the Island of Patmos – not something you want in your 80’s. The Emperor Domitian was doing his best to wipe out as many Christians as he could. Alongside this, tracking back to the two previous chapters, we have the letters to the seven churches, five of which are so dysfunctional as to be in intensive care. An objective observer would be forgiven for thinking the early Christan movement was on the way out through the combination of external persecution and internal failure. Even John at the beginning of Revelation hints that his confidence in God’s power is shaky. 

Revelation is a difficult book, full of symbolism which requires work to interpret, and frequently interpreted wrongly – 666 as the number of the beast being a classic example. However, a clear theme that runs through it is of God’s authority and rule. “I saw a door open in heaven,” says John. This is presenting reality being peeled back to see the spiritual reality that lies beneath. Throughout our history Christians in extremis have taken great comfort from this book.  It reassures that however dire the circumstances or hopeless the outlook, God is still working his purposes out towards a good end.  Paul picks it up in Romans, “in all things, God is working for good in those who love him”. If one continues through the somewhat blood curdling imagery of the rest of Revelation, you eventually come to rest in chapters 21 and 22: the vision of a new heaven and a new earth. The plan is complete; the purposes worked out. The verse we so often read at funerals, “God will wipe every tear from their eye, for there will be no more mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away”. The tribulation makes sense in retrospect; there is only eternal joy to come.

Not only is this reassurance intended to comfort us that we are part of this story that God is telling, but it also validates the little, the local and the ordinary. There is a danger the contemporary church is so obsessed with growth, measurement and success that we forget the measures of success in the kingdom of God are not key performance indicators. That is not to say that we mustn’t examine ourselves to see whether we are being faithful to God’s word, not perish the thought that it doesn’t matter whether people become followers of Jesus or not.  The commission to make disciples is central to the churches raison d’etre.  However, the heroes of the book of Revelation are largely recorded as faithful souls who got killed for their trouble!  Even if they were unsuccessful their faithfulness, love and perseverance counted for something. Ultimately, the value of our actions is judged in eternity, not in the short-term horizon of our earthly lives.  Going back to my prayer pilgrimage, that’s why I chose that reading.  Our little local, ordinary churches are served by faithful people who work incredibly hard, giving of their time, money and talents to sustain the worshipping life of the church and keep our witnesses in stone standing.  Part of the purpose of our diocesan strategy is to keep as many of these places open. We also prayed for a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit to bring people to faith and deepen our Christlikeness.

We are part of the big story God is telling and bringing to a good conclusion.  Successful or otherwise we should never forget that.