2022 Spring

A Happy New Year to you all – I do hope it will be an easier and less exhausting year than the last one and the one before that. And as we journey through the seasons of Epiphany and Lent, we look again at how we might best serve God and our churches in this strange new world.

If the past two years have taught us nothing else they have surely shown us that we must be flexible and open to learning new things. How many of us had ever ‘zoomed’, or recorded ourselves leading worship, before 2020? Not many probably. But use of technology has become part of the ‘new normal’ and there are advantages. Our online gathering on 13th November was a great success and was attended by over four hundred people – from all over the UK and even further afield.

It is good to keep our minds open and exercised by other learning too, and in this issue two Readers, David Heading and Peter Shears, describe how enriching further study has been for them personally and for their ministry. Isabelle Hamley (who is also the featured author in our regular Books section) urges us to make good use of the learning resources available for the Church’s Living in Love and Faith initiative, and we have reprinted Gertrud Sollars’ short article on the Adams-Myland Fund for the benefit of anyone seeking to embark on further study. The section finishes with a consideration by Tony Jefferis of how we might bring our experiences of study in our secular lives into our ministerial development, and an exploration by Andrew Baker of a different way of thinking, inspired by the writings of St Bonaventure.

The climate crisis continues to preoccupy us, and rightly so. It has been good therefore to be able to share Cathy Rhodes’s report from COP26, and our other contributors look at such important topics as exactly who make up the missing generation (and how can we reach out to them?), diversity in all its forms and how to engage justly with people of other faiths. The extract from Isabelle Hamley’s book on Judges also makes a challenging read.

In the next issue, we will explore New Testament books – Acts and some of the non-Pauline epistles. Following this, the next two themes will be Chaplaincy and how we might be a truly welcoming church. Of course, every issue will also carry several other feature articles to provoke and inspire you.

I am always glad to hear from potential authors, especially with new and original suggestions for articles. You can contact me on editor@transformingministry.co.uk
– please do keep the ideas coming.

With best wishes

Richenda