Church News Volume 1, Issue 6

Dear friends,

The Millennium has arrived and the prophets of doom have been proved wrong. The end of the world has not come. Civilisation as we know it has not been extinguished. We have not been overcome by the Millennium "bug", (although this may be due to the vast amounts of money spent to allay disaster). Those who stored up large amounts of food "just in case" will be eating tinned fruit and rice pudding for the next few years! Midnight struck on December 31st of the last millennium, nothing changed: no great disasters, no messianic new age, no miracle cures either. Everything was just as it had always been. After all the hype and expectation - nothing!

Are you disappointed? Do you feel let down by someone or something from whom you expected more as the date changed from 1900-2000?

The world is still the same - wars, suffering, violence, hatred, sin. The picture has not been transformed - if anything our expectations of change for a millennium have confused our view of the world even more.

Our view of the world and life in general is often as though we are viewing one of those computer generated pictures popular a few years ago. At first glance they appear as just random coloured dots on a page. But gradually our eyes adjust and we see the picture "behind" the coloured dots. But, if you are like me, you never see the picture, no matter how hard you look, even if you are being guided by someone who can see it !

Many people hoped that a new millennium would bring a new picture for the world. A new age when people would begin to see clearly what we are doing to the earth and to each other. A time when the direction we ought to be going as the human race would be made clear for us all.

Nothing has changed. The picture is still at best blurred, at worst indecipherable. The Christian Faith preaches a message of hope which is more relevant now than it has ever been. The Christian Faith attempts to make sense of the chaos and confusion that life's picture displays to us.

Underlying all is the fundamental truth of the Faith that, although times change, fashions come and go, empires rise and fall, life's picture becomes even more jumbled, God is unchanging. He alone is the only stability in life, the thread running though the years, holding time itself together. If we are to make any sense of the changing years, we need to begin by coming close to the One who is changeless.

I believe that the more we learn about God, the closer we can get to know Him, the clearer the picture of life will become. The more we learn to trust in God the less we shall be worried about what is, or is not, going to happen in life.

"Seek the Lord whilst He may be found. Call upon Him whilst He is near."

God is close to us, He has come in flesh in the person of Jesus His son. To follow the ways of Jesus is to draw closer to God and to begin to see more clearly that a new age has dawned - and if we wish to be a part of this new age then we have to make the effort to find out more about and follow the Lord Jesus.

Come to Church and worship the changeless One. Come and try to see the clearer picture He presents to us in Jesus. Happy New Year!

Your friend and Vicar.

Revd Ian M. Finn

News Letter Archive.