Articles - From the Clergy

Over the past few weeks and months the topic of conversation that has cropped up most often in my conversations with the people of St Edmund's has been that of "Waiting for our new Vicar".

Many times during my spell as a hospital chaplain I sat with people who were waiting for very different things. It occurred to me that waiting is a time that can seem quite empty when you're doing it but in fact it is full - full of thoughts and feelings - of anticipation, anxiety, excitement, nostalgia or anger to name just a few.

Whether it is thinking about the wonder of an eagerly awaited event or the fear of one that may involve loss of some kind or that feels threatening in some way, waiting often means contemplating some kind of change and this is something we humans don't always find comfortable or deal with particularly well.

We say things like, "It's the waiting that's the worst" - because waiting can make you feel powerless and yet it seems to me that it's in this seemingly empty powerlessness that we make some of life's most surprising connections in quite unexpected ways: with ourselves, forced into listening, perhaps for the first time, to our own thoughts and feelings; with other people (there is invariably an unlooked-for unity in adversity and celebration alike) and with God, who of course is to be found in all of the above, just…waiting.

Steve Smith

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay