I love change, but I appreciate that many find it difficult and unsettling. Thank God we are all different and it’s very important that we understand our differences, respect them, whilst at the same time move forwards with some aspects of change.

But what is change, for there are some very important differences in three specific types of change. Firstly, there’s the big changes like the Early Church deciding to make the first day of the week the main day of worship. There are currently no plans by the Pope or others to go back to keeping a Sabbath on Saturdays. Or take the ordination of women, which in my opinion should have happened when the Early Church changed the day of worship. Because it didn’t, it took far too long to make the permanent change because views got entrenched and the nature of Jesus and the understanding of our founding mothers & fathers got lost in creating an empire rather than building a kingdom.

For some removing pews is a big change because there’s usually no going back. The beautiful St Paul’s Bledlow Ridge took them out because of unforeseen circumstances in the 1970s. No one since has suggested putting them back.

Secondly there are changes in Church life such as reviewing the monthly pattern of services that can be experimental and if a complete disaster can be reverted back to what previously happened or adapted to suit a changing situation.

The change I’m drawing attention to here, are more like going away on holiday, or as they say ‘a change is as good as a rest.’ For me changing what I might wear in a service or using different prayers and formats, eucharistic liturgies etc., and even moving the chairs are changes in this category. They may be for one service or a short season. They may be to show the possibilities of what can be different but they are rarely if ever permanent or without reflection after hearing a wide variety of views. These changes also allow for creativity to flourish, so that we don’t feel tied to strict traditions or ways of doing things. As someone said ‘if we do what we’ve always done, we get what we’ve always got.’

We all change throughout our lives, our attitudes, our health, even some hardened beliefs. It’s natural so that every generation can and ought to make their mark on the next or the next generation will wonder why the last one didn’t. Our children and our children’s children live in a fast ever changing world and so they learn how to adapt. Some may feel that the church is some bastion of changelessness, but that is only ascribed to God who gives us gifts to navigate all the changes we will ever face.

As the famous oracle of Rural Ministry Leticia Cropley once said ‘everything has to change, especially traffic lights’.

And remember if you didn’t like the change however temporary, somebody else loved it, and if you loved it, someone else didn’t. And that is why Christ’s call to love one another is more important than any changes we might experience.

Don’t fear change, embrace it, for none of us are the same as we were yesterday or will be tomorrow.

Keep the faith but never ever to ourselves.
Love Philip x