Since I posted the letter below the reaction from my diocese has been calm, commited and even on occasion, enthusiastic. One of our more senior priests wrote to me, jubilant that at last someone had admitted that the emperor has no clothes. For my own part, I feel stangely energised. There is a huge task to be done and it is actually quite exciting.
Since writing, things have moved on apace, and the way ahead seems to be emerging slowly but remarkably clearly, like a photograph in a developing tray. we're a long way from flipping the picture into the fixing dish, but there are some distinct lines and lights and shadows and the picture looks pretty good at this stage.
Just this week several of us from the diocese made a long planned fact finding trip to the Bishopric of Taranaki. I will write in more detailo of that expedition later, but the timing and the things we observed in the North have been providential. On arriving home I was visited by Mike Hawke, with whom I have been friends since the 70s. Mike is never short of ideas and this time was no exception. He gave me one which was nothing short of inspired, and I will, again, speak of that at a later date. Watch this space. Our Archbishop, David Moxon, also a good friend and a much respected colleague, has been in touch and has some processes which look like they will be fruitful.
The only slight dampener has been that I left my camera, in its bag with all the knick knacks and doo dahs on the plane from New Plymouth to Wellington. Air New Zealand found it and immediately lost it again. With every day that passes, I'm getting less optimistic about seeing it again, but it's insured, and all I have to put up with is the absence of my addiction paraphernalia for a while.
Since writing, things have moved on apace, and the way ahead seems to be emerging slowly but remarkably clearly, like a photograph in a developing tray. we're a long way from flipping the picture into the fixing dish, but there are some distinct lines and lights and shadows and the picture looks pretty good at this stage.
Just this week several of us from the diocese made a long planned fact finding trip to the Bishopric of Taranaki. I will write in more detailo of that expedition later, but the timing and the things we observed in the North have been providential. On arriving home I was visited by Mike Hawke, with whom I have been friends since the 70s. Mike is never short of ideas and this time was no exception. He gave me one which was nothing short of inspired, and I will, again, speak of that at a later date. Watch this space. Our Archbishop, David Moxon, also a good friend and a much respected colleague, has been in touch and has some processes which look like they will be fruitful.
The only slight dampener has been that I left my camera, in its bag with all the knick knacks and doo dahs on the plane from New Plymouth to Wellington. Air New Zealand found it and immediately lost it again. With every day that passes, I'm getting less optimistic about seeing it again, but it's insured, and all I have to put up with is the absence of my addiction paraphernalia for a while.
Comments
I have a sneaking suspicion that maybe the prayers in the antepenultimate paragraph of your letter are being answered even as you offer them.