Video for January 8th, 2025
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video. And a happy new year if its not too late to wish you that. I hope that your Christmas celebrations were a joy, even as they fade into memory and normal life resumes.
I also want to welcome you to our diocesan year of Celebration. This year is the 1350th birthday of the establishment of the diocese by Bishop Putta in 676. It’s a humbling thing to be part of an organisation which predates England and to be able to trace my predecessors in an unbroken line back to Putta in that year. Its hard to imagine what this part of the Welsh Marches was like so long ago not that long after the withdrawal of the Romans. In fact, the name of one of our deaneries, Ross and Archenfield, takes part of its name from the ancient Romano British kingdom in the area at the time. Very few organisations have survived that long whilst retaining a recognisable link with their past. Our theme of celebration this year goes some way to explaining how that has been possible.
The Judeo-Christian tradition has always valued rhythms in life: work and rest; contemplation and activity; times to pause and reflect and to celebrate what has been achieved. These celebrations place the good things in the context of God’s providential care, seeking to prevent an excessive pride in our own achievements. In I Samuel 7 the story is told of Israelite victory over the oppressing army of the Philistines. They attribute it to a whole-hearted return to devotion to God, setting aside the syncretism that had crept in to Israelite worship. As freedom and their ancient lands are restored to them, the prophet Samuel instructs them to set up a stone as a memorial. The stone is called Ebenezer, meaning in Hebrew ‘thus far has the Lord helped us’. We named our last house that for a similar reason – not I hasten to add because we drove some Philistines out before we moved in.
Such memorials were enacted and continue to be so in Israel today. Celebrations like Passover and Sukkot, the feast of booths, call them to recall the key events in their history. Similarly, our Christian year is marked by festivals and celebrations to call us remember and give thanks for the great story of which we are a part. We have just celebrated Christmas and Epiphany. We look forward to Easter shortly. Saints are celebrated and remembered to point us to exemplary lives of faith, reminding us of what can be achieved when ordinary people surrender to Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Those Christian celebrations have changed their form over the last 1350 years but the fundamental story they tell hasn’t changed. The fact that we are still here after all this time is testimony to the truthfulness of what we proclaim and the reality of the spiritual power that animates our journey. Myths fade with time and human energy alone could not sustain the faith in the face of numerous cultural challenges over that time. Recalling the deeds of God, celebrating and giving thanks for them is not an invitation to fossilise them in a cultural tradition. God has acted in many times and places, appropriate to their context. To celebrate the goodness of God in his sending Jesus and the Spirit is to be reminded of his constant outpouring love to all of creation. Our celebration must involve a reflection on our current fidelity to those principles, and a preparedness to reform ourselves, that we continue to proclaim the faith afresh in each generation.
So, I hope our celebrations this year will take individual shape in our parishes and deaneries alongside diocesan pilgrimages, teaching days and gatherings to take counsel together. As we give thanks for the past and celebrate all God has done in our diocese and nation over this extraordinary length of time, I hope we’ll be challenged to look forward to however many years it will be until the Lord returns. What do the works of God through frail and broken people through history say to us today? How can the Gospel principles that motivated our founding Saints give us fresh insight into how we are to be faithful in the here and now.
I hope and pray you all have a safe and prosperous new year. May we together celebrate the goodness of God over 1350 years and commit ourselves afresh to serve him now and into the future.
+Richard