St. Michael’s Vicarage, Alnwick
February 2021
Dear People of Alnwick,
It was a delight and a privilege to have Bishop Mark, our new Bishop of Berwick, preach at our streamed service on Sunday 24th January when we celebrated the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.
Bishop Mark subsequently joined us for our Zoom coffee session after the service and, amongst a wide variety of topics discussed, he echoed the feelings of many of us when he pointed out how eager he was to be able to be out, meeting with people and engaging in a more natural way than through streaming and Zoom meetings.
Of course we all recognise how fortunate we are to have modern methods of being in touch and the great blessings we can derive from instant communication in a way that our forebears would have thought impossible.
We are perhaps equally aware of the way in which these technological miracles can be misused.
Who would have thought that any world leader might find themselves removed from their greatest vehicle of communication because of their inability to express themselves in a temperate manner?
So, yet again, we are reminded that things which are, on face value, such a blessing can, in the wrong hands, be spoiled and abused.
In the world of communications St. Paul was, in his time, most definitely a leader in his field. Undoubtedly some of his pronouncements were controversial but, as Bishop Mark reminded us in his sermon, Paul listened for the word of God in his life.
The book of Proverbs (21: 23) reminds us: ‘To watch over mouth and tongue is to keep out of trouble’.
However we find ourselves communicating, now and when this pandemic has come to an end, let us do so with mutual respect, with an ear to what God might be saying to us and for the building up of relations and, above all, the Kingdom of God.
With every blessing,
Paul.
