What really matters…

 

As I write, we find ourselves having to live with ever more restrictions as to what we can do, and who we can (and can’t) meet - and where… I hope people understand why it’s necessary for the moment to curtail some of our freedoms. But there’s no denying the pain and frustration this causes along the way. People who mourn a loved one but can have only 30 people at the most at the funeral - rather fewer if the church (like St. John’s) is smaller, and still fewer again at the Crematorium. Weddings which can accommodate only 15 - including the bride and groom. And now Baptisms may only be attended by six people (including the one to be baptised) - and in this area those attending must all be members of the same household or support bubble.

I’m making or have made arrangements for parishioners in all three categories. These are not the circumstances we would wish for. Where we celebrate (and we will celebrate) a small wedding, I hope that couples will come back when numbers can be greater, and they can bring in more family and friends to share the blessing. Where only a few can gather at the font - even without godparents - I hope they will come back later for the one who is baptised to be welcomed into the wider congregation with all the guests they want. And it may be that funerals with limited numbers will be followed in due course with services of thanksgiving.

But what I have found moving is the recognition again of what truly remains at the heart of our meeting in sadness and in joy - even with so many missing: to commend a departed loved one to the love and mercy of God; to say, this is truly what I want for my child who is recognised in baptism as a loved child of God; to know that marriage to this person is my calling - and that is true whatever life may throw at us!

“That’s the shortest ordination I’ve ever been to,” I said to the Bishop after Phil’s ordination as Deacon. It was sad that so few could attend (though the video is online for all to see). But the service spoke all the more clearly of the calling of those who were ordained. And made me still more thankful for the grace I have found in my calling.                          

Martin Jackson

More pictures from the Ordination of our new Deacon, the Revd. Phil Carter...