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AT THE BEGINNING of these conversations, in the depths of the global coronavirus pandemic, it was common to speak about being in a time of transition:
Some people call a season like this a liminal time. It comes from the Latin limen, meaning “threshold”. Something is ending and something else is beginning and the two exist overlapping and at the same time. Already, but not yet. It’s still the same faith, we still carry out the same practices in community, but we slowly begin to practice them in new ways and in new places. This is potentially transformative—for good or for ill. That’s the scary part. The outcome is not pre-determined (“Yielding to the Life of the Spirit,” Bishop’s Charge To Synod, 2021.)
It seems clear now, in 2024, that the threshold has been crossed, the transition over. Locally, nationally, and globally we are already in the midst of a new reality—a reality prompted and shaped by the many personal, social, economic, and cultural disruptions arising from the coronavirus pandemic as well as a whole array of national and global issues and crises. It is sobering to list even a few of them: wars; the rise of authoritarian and populist politics at home and abroad; a worsening environmental crisis and climate emergency. Major socio-political movements have grown up in response to terrible tragedies in our broken world—Residential Schools, Black Lives Matter. In the developed world and possibly beyond, there has been a stark decline in trust in institutions and institutional (and other) authorities, including clergy. All of these things have had and are having an impact on the Church as a whole and in the Diocese of Huron. Indeed, at times it can be tempting to despair but, in our best moments, we know that this is not a truthful Christian response. We recall and take comfort in the words of scripture, which shape and ground us in joyful hope:
Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).