Moving On: A Reflection on Faith & Times of Change
February 12, 2024
Read on below (and click the link) to read a reflection I wrote about leaving the bayhouse behind and learning to trust God for all the details.
I wrote a piece last summer for Red Tent Living, a website and blog for Christian women in the States. It's about the place we had in Port O'Connor (if you've ever been there, I'm sure you'll get it!). The photo at the top of this page is of the view I describe in the piece. It's funny how God provides and nice to re-read my writing now we're many many miles away, in a very different place, but with the exact same God. He provided then, He provides now. His Creation continues to be beautiful and restorative (but with a few more grey, rainy days and nowhere to easily launch a boat).
Enjoy!
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A sermon given at an all-age service at the wonderful church of St Wilfrid's, Calverley, on June 29th. The reading was Matthew 16:13-20: it was fun to work the film Labyrinth into a sermon on a very well-known text!
Treasures in Jars of Clay by Revd Will Donaldson Good morning everyone and thank you so much, Michael, for asking me to preach on this wonderful occasion. It’s a real honour and privilege to do so! Some of you know that I was a tutor here for 6 years from 2007: it’s a joy to be back in my retirement on the chaplaincy team, alongside Jane and Bruce. What will be your abiding memory of Wycliffe Hall? It might b e lectures, whether at Wycliffe or in the Faculty, when your eyes were opened and your mind stretched to explore the heights and depths of academic theology It might be the Focus mornings or the Study Weeks, with their leaning towards practical preparation for ministry, underpinned by parish placements and missions It might be worship in chapel, when you experienced the presence of Christ in the singing, the preaching, the liturgy and the celebration of communion. It might be your fellowship group, where you got to know a group of fellow students really well and journeyed with them through the training process, and they were there for you when you needed support It might be the enjoyment of belonging to the wider community – the chats over coffee in the Common room, or the discussions over lunch, or the theological boxing matches in Fight Club (where no punches were pulled!), or the more refined formal occasions like Matriculation and formal halls, or our community notices on Tuesdays with the drum rolls and the gold awards and – not to forget - the Principal’s jokes (all under the pretext of needing to link things up!), or maybe your abiding memory will be the Hall Photo last month that ploughed on despite thunder, lightning and torrential rain! How hilarious was that! An d you could spot the people whom Jesus would have called ‘oh ye of little faith’ – they had brought their umbrellas! There’s one other memory that I hope you will take with you into your future ministries: it’s our text for this morning: 2 Cor. 4.7. - ‘ But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us’ . Let me explain why I would love you to embed this in your heart as we send you out… 1. We have been entrusted with Treasure
