Dear Friends,
On the stroke of midnight on the 31st December 2021, the ministry of Revd Alan Walker, vicar of St Jude-on-the-Hill Parish Church came to its appointed end. Given the circumstances consequent upon the restrictions imposed because of Covid, it wasn’t possible to give him the rousing send off he might otherwise have looked forward to – not everyone’s retirement would ordinarily be signalled by the letting off of fireworks – but no doubt there will be opportunity to say a proper ‘thank you’ in the not-too-distant future. Alan was in situ when I arrived in 2005 and he has proven to be a good colleague over the years. I am grateful to him for his support and encouragement and wish him well in his retirement. It has always seemed strange to visitors when they discover two large church buildings separated by little more than 100 yards. But it is worth reminding ourselves that in spite of their close proximity each building represents its own distinctive tradition – The Church of England, the ‘Established’ Church, and the Free Churches’, ‘Free from the Establishment’ – and while it is all too easy to concentrate on what is different about each of the churches in whatever way, better by far to focus on that which we hold in common. This being particularly relevant as we approach the ‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, – 18th to the 25th January – not least because, in addition to Alan’s departure, we have just become aware that Father Tony Convery, Priest in Charge of St Edward Confessor Roman Catholic Church, our local RC Parish church, is also retiring during January. He too has been a great support and encouragement to me during my time at the Free Church. John’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus Himself prayed that ‘they [his disciples] might be one even as we [in God] are one.’ And immediately we realise that to speak of ‘God’ as One is for the Christian, at the very least complicated. The Doctrine of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit – what the hymn writer describes as ‘God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity’. What ‘unites’ the persons of the Trinity is their inter-relatedness, each person defined and described in relation to the other(s) – The Eternal Son the only ‘begotten Son of the Eternal Father, the Holy Spirit proceeding either from the Eternal Father through the Eternal Son, or else directly from the Eternal Father, [a doctrinal controversy which, ironically sowed the seeds of division between the Western and the Eastern Church in the 5th century] – it is all to do with the inter-related nature of God. And so then should it be for the Church. Unity is to be defined and described in terms of the inter-relatedness that exists between otherwise different, diverse, distinctive manifestations of what it means to be ‘church’. ‘One size fit’s all’ is not an appropriate motto for the Christian Church. Moreover, such an approach can only serve to stifle innovative thinking, suppress energetic enthusiasm, and limit the church’s ability to respond imaginatively. We should never throw out ‘the baby with the bath water’, but that does not mean that from time to time it is necessary to change the bathwater…