News, and comment, from the church over the last couple of weeks has been dominated by the announcement that the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Sarah Mullally is to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. There is much I could write about that, but for now I will draw your attention instead to the fact that in my own diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, we are also awaiting the arrival of the Rt Revd Joanne Grenfell as our new diocesan bishop.
Joanne paid a visit recently to Haverhill where I serve, on the far edge of Suffolk – at least if you look at the map from Ipswich’s point of view. I am not supposed to write too much about that either, as while it was an official visit, it was not a public visit, because although she is officially the bishop, having been legally confirmed in that role, she has not paid homage to the King or publicly begun her episcopal ministry. But everything I say is in the public domain!
It was with some cautious excitement that we welcomed her visit. It is not often we receive official visits, as Haverhill tends to be seen as just that little bit too far from the centre of the action in Ipswich. And she was coming to a community project in the town, rather than the church, because she was still only the not-quite-bishop of the diocese – so there were certainly no bells rung to herald her arrival. So it was with some trepidation that I spoke to her engagement officer to arrange the visit, to find out exactly what he was expecting.
‘I want her to see the reality of life in Haverhill,’ he said. He had visited this particular community project a few years ago in a different role. He told me that on that occasion, he was being introduced to some of the project’s clients when a fight broke out in the corner of the room, the police stormed the building, and the offenders were led away through the debris of broken bottles and discarded needles that littered the estate.
‘OK,’ I replied, ‘but if she is coming to Haverhill, it is not because we are a problem that needs to be solved, but because we are a community that embraces the reality of life in a transformative and hope-filled way.’ The communities which we serve in Haverhill have their fair share of challenges, it is true, but there is much more to the reality of life than that. The church is there to remind people that we cannot ignore those challenges, but in meeting and transforming them, there is the possibility of real hope and light.
Often, it is by dwelling purposefully in those in-between places, those places on the edge or that are not-quite-what-they-should-be, that we see the most powerful transformations, because they shift our focus away from the familiar. That is something I saw acknowledged in Dame Sarah’s inaugural addresses, and something that I think could be important for the world, and for the church, in the time to come.
And it is important for each of us, in small ways too. So where are your in-between places? Not the problems that need to be solved, but the opportunities to be honest about the realities of life, and to confront them confidently and hopefully.
Max Drinkwater
