The church’s seasons move us on quickly after the Christmas period.   We shall throughout this month of January be celebrating the feast of the Epiphany.  Epiphany means the manifestation of Christ to the Magi.  Manifestation means an indication or a sign.

 It is interesting that the hymns for this season echo these sentiments

 The people that in darkness sat
A glorious light have seen;
The light that shined on them who long
In shades of death have been.

Or

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
The gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
Kneel and adore him: the Lord is his name

 These verses speak to us of glorious light, of the beauty of holiness.  Epiphany raises the voltage of God’s glory.  We are encouraged to wonder and been in awe of this glorious Godhead.

 Another hymn expresses it in these words

 Bright the vision that delighted
Once the sight of Judah’s seer;
Sweet the countless tongues united
To entrance the prophet’s ear

Heaven is still with glory ringing
Earth takes up the angels’ cry,
‘Holy, holy, holy,’ singing,
‘Lord of hosts the Lord most high.’

And to quote a final hymn

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart’
Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
Be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Here we see the movement of the manifestation of God’s glory being translated into a daily vision of God.  The word Vision brings me on to the main subject of this letter, which is to invite you to VISION SUNDAY on January 19^th.  At the 9-30am service on that day I will be presenting before the congregation a vision of the church for the next 12 months. 

As you have heard me say on several occasions we are in a fast changing world and the church as an institution has to engage and take account of these changes.   We know from both the secular and the religious press that the church is in decline.  We are anxious about the lack of children and young people.  How do we reach out to new people of new generations many of whom have had no contact with the church?  The P. C. C. has been giving a lot of thought to these matters during the past months and some of the fruits of our work will be shared in the presentation on Vision Sunday.

 If you care about the future of St Mary’s and the future of Our Lord’s church then please make every effort to be there so that the vision can be shared and everyone will know the vision for the church for the year ahead.  Obviously children, young people outreach, effective pastoral care together with high standards of worship will be included in the presentation.  It will be a PowerPoint presentation so please come early enough to get a good seat in the nave so that you can see as well as hear.  Please bring this to the attention of anyone who you think might be interested.

 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Unity week also falls this month.   The Unity service will be held at Martin Way Methodist church at 3-00pm on Sunday January 19^th.  There will be no Evensong at St Mary’s on that Sunday.

 May your New Year be blessed with a vision of God’s Glory.

 Your priest and friend

 Tom Leary

 Top of page