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| Ordination Sunday 14th June 1987 |
Over
breakfast I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard that ‘On this
day…’ in 1777 the United States adopted the Stars and Stripes as their national
flag.
Then I realised it was 14th June – which for me is a memorable date because it was ‘On this day…’ thirty one years ago that I was ordained. It was Trinity Sunday 1987 and I was 26 years old!
Then I realised it was 14th June – which for me is a memorable date because it was ‘On this day…’ thirty one years ago that I was ordained. It was Trinity Sunday 1987 and I was 26 years old!
I suppose
in some ways it was a different age: No internet or emails so I actually read
newspapers and made telephone calls. No ‘cut
and paste’ facility on my electric typewriter, so I wasn’t tempted to use the
template for last week’s order of service and forget to change the date! No Whatsapp, so I wrote letters and no
Spotify so I listened to CDs!
It’s also true that back in the late 80’s Church life was different too. There were more people around. We were still the beneficiaries of what I sometimes think of as the ‘Billy Graham’ generation. Those folk who had come to faith in the 50’s and 60’s – many of whom have now been ‘promoted to glory’. A repeat ‘influx’ of new people has never really been repeated on quite the same scale.
I have had the privilege, over these last thirty-one years, of serving in five churches: in Northamptonshire, Worcestershire, the West Country and two in the Home Counties.
However, for me, today isn’t just about looking back but re-committing myself to those ordination vows I took in my late twenties – even as I now enter my late fifties!!
I think I am fortunate that I still have a sense of optimism and conviction about local church life, never more so than in serving amongst my present congregation for whom I have the deepest respect and admiration.
My prayer for coming days is that, with God’s help:
I’ll continue to strive to make sermons as interesting and relevant as I can.
That our worship together will resonate with daily life.
That we’ll be an ‘encouraging’ congregation.
It’s also true that back in the late 80’s Church life was different too. There were more people around. We were still the beneficiaries of what I sometimes think of as the ‘Billy Graham’ generation. Those folk who had come to faith in the 50’s and 60’s – many of whom have now been ‘promoted to glory’. A repeat ‘influx’ of new people has never really been repeated on quite the same scale.
I have had the privilege, over these last thirty-one years, of serving in five churches: in Northamptonshire, Worcestershire, the West Country and two in the Home Counties.
However, for me, today isn’t just about looking back but re-committing myself to those ordination vows I took in my late twenties – even as I now enter my late fifties!!
I think I am fortunate that I still have a sense of optimism and conviction about local church life, never more so than in serving amongst my present congregation for whom I have the deepest respect and admiration.
My prayer for coming days is that, with God’s help:
I’ll continue to strive to make sermons as interesting and relevant as I can.
That our worship together will resonate with daily life.
That we’ll be an ‘encouraging’ congregation.
That we’ll seek not only a personal application for faith but a corporate/civic/ society understanding too.
That we’ll be a church, confident enough in God, that we go on asking questions.
I have no doubt they’ll be ups and downs in coming days, but I have every confidence that God will work beside us every step of the way and that ‘good’ things will develop.
On 14th June 1987 my prayer was that God would help me ‘make good my vow’ – and that prayer has never changed.
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