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Hallo again to all.
This week Brian reports that his parish
'has just called a new rector, the Reverend Malcolm Young, who will assume his duties by September. The calling of a new rector is always a joyful occasion. My parish has had an interim for a couple of years and she has done the things that a good interim should do, the very last of which will be to leave at the appointed time.
When I heard the name of our new rector, I looked him up in the clergy directory and almost fell off my chair. He seemed, well, so young. I have never had a rector who wasn't older than I am, and Fr Young is not much older than my children. At that moment, I didn't know what I felt—except that he seemed to be quite capable.
I now realise how lucky we are to have found such a young clergyman to be our rector. I'm sure that our parish will thrive and I am sure he will figure out how to have a crusty old soul like me in his parish.'
We're all too familiar with the reports of the decline in the numbers of young
people entering the ordained ministry. The News Centre this week carries a story from the Christian Science
Monitor (USA) about the dramatic decrease in those numbers in every denomination. 
This
fall-off has reached a point where, in developed countries, it's a Big Problem. (As someone once commented, 'Jesus of Nazareth was dead at
an earlier age than most persons today enter ordained ministry'.) And yet most Anglican-related news is focussed on the proclamations of bishops
and various retired bishops that our church, if it keeps doing X or doesn't begin doing Y, is going to hell in a handbasket. But the future
belongs to the young, truism though that is.
Brian's new rector might become a bishop someday and thus eventually a retired bishop—at which point his grousings may become international news. But for now he is, as a young priest, a symbol of the church's ability to regenerate itself: a young clergyman taking the helm of a large established parish and carrying it into the future, one baptism at a time.
The online Anglican world grows one web site at a time, and we are pleased to list new web sites for parishes in Australia, England, Ireland, and the States. You'll find them all in New This Week, along with a number of new and interesting links. We're also delighted to point you to an in-depth and incisive report by Peter Owen on the recently completed Church of England General Synod. And returning to youth issues for a moment, have a look at the journal Catalyst, now online, written by and for GenX clergy and laity in the States. Finally, in the News Centre, you'll find one of the largest-ever rosters of news stories. No, we've no idea why. It's supposed to be the silly season in the northern hemisphere, from where most of the news has emanated. (Someone please give those newsmakers a lemonade.)
On the other hand, in the southern hemisphere, our Anglican brothers and sisters in Australia are about the serious business of their General Synod, which is continuing this week. Please keep them in your prayers.
See you next week.
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| Cynthia McFarland cmcf@anglicansonline.org |
reid@anglicansonline.org |
Last updated: 22 July 2001
URL: http://anglicansonline.org/