All change!  That used to be the exciting greeting on the old railway branch lines – take your luggage, mind the step, cross the bridge and someone would be there to welcome you and guide you to your destination.

So why are we becoming so afraid of change? Are we fearful that our train will not take us to a familiar station? Perhaps we lack the confidence to see that we are entering an exciting, unfolding landscape to which God is leading us.

As we cut ourselves to ribbons over issues of sexuality, gender of the ordained priesthood, money and the ownership of our buildings, etc. etc., let’s not forget that there is something to which we all belong called the priesthood of all believers. We hear criticisms of the ‘pick and mix’ in worship and lifestyle but let us welcome and use it to sift out the dross from what is pure gold. It is easy to think that the classics as handed down to us were the only styles current in their time rather than acknowledging that there must have been rubbish even then but that it has been discarded and forgotten!

‘Love one another as I have loved you, and love your neighbour as yourself.’ So where are we in all this? How do we offer neighbourly love to those who clearly do not love themselves very much: drug addicts, binge drinkers, drop outs..the list could continue. Is this where we should be introducing the dreaded C***** word: CHANGE! And with it changing not our beliefs, not the gospel but the way in which we present it to the world and give hope to the hopeless.

At synod we will be looking at ways of going forward in love, we hope, towards a new and full episcopate whilst honouring those for whom this is a change they cannot accept. There is a place for each one of us and plenty of space in which to exercise compassion, restraint and trust without too many legalities.

Some people find change difficult, others find it a challenge. It is always worth trying new ways: there will be times when they are not successful and others when it is clear that they were meant to happen. What we must remember is that one of the greatest introducers of change was Jesus Christ who brought about revolutionary concepts and ways of thinking. As we close one door to open another it is worth recalling T. S. Eliot’s words… ‘to make an end is to make a beginning; the end is where we start from……..

Are we being called, perhaps even more strongly than were the early disciples, to make a beginning from an end that has left us in somewhat of a cul de sac and to leave behind in it some of our worst prejudices and fears. As Open Synod members we dearly hope that openness and Christlike love will overcome our dread of moving on.

Are you game to catch the train to the future?

Shirley-Ann Williams