May is a month of transition. At the beginning, we can feel like we’re still in winter, with frosts and rain. By the end, summer feels just around the corner with longer evenings and warmer days. Our lives are still governed by these rhythms even though many of us no longer have the farming connections we once did. Our ancestors were much more bound by the clock and the seasons. The calendar and liturgical years were intertwined; the church was more central to people’s lives.
Ecclesiastes contains that well known passage about times and seasons, a time to plant and a time to harvest; a time to mourn and a time to laugh; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. This year, our diocesan family is focusing firmly on celebration. I have always thought that the continued existence of the church is one of the surest proofs of the resurrection. How could an organisation composed of frail, sinful people like you and me still be here but for divine intervention? No other human organisation has continued in this way. The world was vastly different 1350 years ago when Putta made the gruelling journey here from Rochester to become our first Bishop. England didn’t exist. Our diocese was carved out of the corner of a Mercian kingdom and part of an old Roman settlement. Over the course of our existence, kings have risen and fallen; cathedrals have been burnt down and rebuilt, fallen and been rebuilt again! Previous Bishops, in a variety of acts of architectural vandalism, have used their own (or their wealthy wife’s) money to remodel the Palace and even demolish bits of it they didn’t like. Meanwhile, in over 400 churches, faithful Christian people have gone about the work of the gospel. Priests have hatched, matched and dispatched, celebrated the sacraments and taught the faith. We have made the transition from Catholic to protestant; from Christendom to being a minority in a largely secular, indifferent and occasionally hostile culture. We have both remained faithful to the tradition and found ways to proclaim the faith afresh to each generation. There have been times of relative ease and times of real struggle. Churches have fallen down and been rebuilt, and populations have shifted.
All this has happened in the power of the Holy Spirit, whose gift we will celebrate at the end of this month. We have never had to do it on our own, dependent on our own ingenuity. To be a Christian is to be supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit. God’s faithfulness and that power are definitely worth celebrating.
+Richard