Articles - From the Curate

September is a time I associate with making a new beginning, probably because it marks the beginning of a new school year and I can remember that as a child I was glad to have a fresh start with a new teacher and the opportunity to try a little harder and play around a little less. It is good to have significant points in the calendar when we are able to think about making a fresh start, a new beginning.

I think that it will be during September that we will fully realise that we are at our own new beginning, beginning as a Church without a Vicar, at least for the next few months. Whilst the time of vacancy can be unsettling for some and certainly hard work for those who have to take on additional responsibilities, it can also be a time when we rediscover who we are and our sense of identity in this place.

It can be an opportunity for us to experience the ministry of visiting clergy and to perhaps take a more proactive responsibility for our own spiritual health. Vacancy does not and should not mean stagnation and it is perhaps best viewed as a new beginning with each other, with our parish and most of all with God.

The gospels are full of stories of new beginnings, stories about people who found a new beginning by being with Christ or by leaving all and following him. Each day we are offered a new beginning with God, this is the good news of our Christian faith and one that will hold us in the days ahead and always.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay