As we enter a new season, Revd Dr Emma Ineson, Principal of Trinity College Bristol and Bishop Designate of Penrith, thinks about life's many changes.
Change is in the air. We feel it particularly keenly at this time of year. After the long, hot summer, trees are beginning to turn, and daylight hours are shortening. Children are going back to school, and young people heading off to universities, colleges and new places of work. At Trinity College where I am currently principal, we will shortly welcome a new cohort of students, ready to start their training for ordained and lay ministries. And in this Diocese, we look forward to welcoming our new Bishop, Viv, very soon.
Someone once said: Constant change is here to stay.
I am one of those who loves change; all things new and different. I enjoy seeing the possibilities change brings. Others find change less appealing and prefer to stick with the known solidity of past certainties. But we need both. To embrace change fully, to know where were heading, we need to know where we've come from, and what remains the same. CS Lewis said: Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth.
Even if you are someone, like me, who embraces change eagerly, it is important to remember that as we look forward to new things, were always building on the past, familiar ways. In all of lifes changes, this Autumn and beyond, may we know the secure continuity of our God who does not change (James 1.17), and yet whose mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3.23).