Time To Say Goodbye

As you may know, I am leaving these parishes soon. My last Sunday will be 1^st March, and I shall be moving to a new post in Oxfordshire. First and foremost, I want to say how grateful I am for the support I have been shown by the community here over the past 6 years. It’s been a huge privilege to live and work here. Thank you for all your encouragement and kindness.

Goodbyes are often untidy. We leave things unsaid, we leave projects unfinished, we find that the business of leaving - a job, a school, a relationship, a home - somehow uncovers lots of little webs of connection which we had barely noticed were growing up around us and in us. The pulling loose of our roots can feel brutal and strange, and the call of the new can feel daunting and wobbly as well as exciting. Nonetheless, living with goodbyes is something we must all learn to do, and we must try to do it well.

We may be saying goodbye with great excitement, off on a new adventure. Or we may be saying goodbye to someone dearly loved at a graveside, to a cherished habit, even a much loved view as new housing springs up. The cost of doing something new is often the loss of some well loved “old” thing.

I find my faith a great comfort at times of change and “goodbye” (I might be rather an odd vicar if that were not so!) - and for two reasons.

The first is that I am convinced that God’s love, for me, for you, for all people, for all creation, is completely unchanging, no matter what else may change, no matter what else we may have to say goodbye to.

Jesus says:

“behold I am with you always, even to the end of the age”

So, whatever we face, we face not alone but in the company of Christ.

The second is that I am convinced that God’s love intertwines in our lives creatively, beautifully and constantly, always creating anew- new dawns in the sky, new leaves on the trees, new eggs for the nest. God’s way is always, even when we feel at our lowest, to create beauty out of an unfathomable well of imaginative love.

The Bible says:

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

So even when we feel we are “finished”, God is already weaving something new and beautiful for us to discover.

The origin of the word “Goodbye” is “God be with you”, and that is, most surely, my prayer for these communities. My hope is that each one of you will find lovely new things springing up during the coming year - friendships with your neighbours, flowers in your gardens, talents in your sheds - and that you will also find, springing up, a sense of God’s unfailing and unchanging love for you, which will take root and grow in your heart.

Thank you again, so much, for all the goodness you have shown me.

Every Blessing,

Revd Kalantha