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Recently I was speaking to a retired priest. I mentioned the challenges of being clergy in 2022. After the last couple of years of pandemic we are trying to get back to church. I’d mentioned all the emails we get which seem to suggest how we feel and what we need to do to fix our church.

If we were to take seriously all the ‘ideas’ out there of how we should be church we would end exhausted, confused and overwhelmed.

As Anglicans in Canada we know we have to address many very crucial issues including Indigenous Justice, the climate emergency, racism, sexual misconduct, amongst others. We ignore these at our peril as all are gospel issues.

So where do we start? How do we avoid trying to run in ten directions at once and end up in a ragged heap not knowing where to turn?

In order to be of use to the world, (its people), perhaps sometimes we might concentrate on what our church is known for:

  • First and foremost we are called to hear and share the good news about Jesus Christ. So how can we live into that? By offering good engaging worship, which makes room for all people and all ages.
  • Encouraging people in the complex and often hectic lives to pray and study to give them the means and will to carry on.
  • We enable people to be part of communities that care for one another, allow people to known they are loved themselves, as well as loving, (in a variety of ways), those in our neighbourhoods and much further afield.  

Sometimes it seems we are at risk of charging off in too many directions all at once, and in the end achieve very little.

So perhaps it is time to stop, to think and remember what people really want: to be loved, to be valued and supported, to be assisted in the task of getting through the next week given the world’s challenges and their own needs.

We are called to hear and share the good news – let’s stop to hear it, that we might live it.

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Photo Credit: Mihaela Rosu