Ever since I became Area Dean of Epping Forest Deanery 5 years ago, I seem to have been involved in change.  First we had to et the Deanery Finances in line with Diocesan guidelines and then we were faced with the loss of 4 stipendiary posts.  Along with the rest of the Church of England we are wrestling with what it means to be the Church in the 21st century in a largely secular and increasingly pluralist society.  It sometimes seems that we are caught up in a whirlwind were things happen that ware not of our choosing and over which we have little control.

In the midst of this, the Deanery joined the rest of the Diocese in setting forward a Vision for each parish and the Deanery as a whole.  Our Vision Statements in the Team sound good but we all know that words are not sufficient.  We have to match them with action.  The Vision Statements we made were an attempt to become authors of change rather than victims of it.

One change we were not expecting was that in which the Team is currently engaged - that of saying farewell to Theydon Garnon as they move towards a United Benefice with Theydon Bois.  When the Church Commissioners publish the Scheme, Theydon Garnon will embark on a new and creative journey of faith - as indeed will the Team without them.  What are being forged is a new partnership but the friendships we have made are not confined to parish boundaries.  If they are genuine, they are lasting and I hope that we might (together with Theydon Bois)  find a new way of being associated with each other, perhaps via a Prayer Cluster through which we pray for each other as we all go forward into God's future following a Christ who lead us not into uncertainty but into the deeper certainty of God's love and care for us all.

Both Theydon Garnon and the rest of the Team will be doing something new but what will remain constant in the faith with which it is done.  It is faith in God which carries us through to his new dawn, his new age and the vision of his Glorious Kingdom.  In that Vision we all share, no matter who we are associated with.  Her are some words of Andrew Elphinstone, who, coming to terms with an illness that changed his life, wrote a remarkable book: Freedom, Suffering and Love.  In it he wrote:

"... Trees that are healthy bend with the wind yet remain upright; they grow new branches and let old ones die, and all the while their roots go deeper.

Christianity is very healthy and can take new things in its stride, be buffeted by them and yet thrive on the experience.  If it were not so it would not contain the universal truth about God's creation and his creative intent.  And that is exactly what it does contain."

God's creative intent, his love for us - is our constant which never changes.