ONLY WHEN IT HURTS

How grateful we should be for so many things! Cats Eyes down the middle of a road, hot water at the turn of a tap, light at the flick of a switch. And these are just conveniences. We could sur-vive without them. What are we to say of the people in our lives? Our loved ones of course, and our friends and work colleagues. But other people too, people who are there to help when we call. What matter if some of these are paid for the services they provide: what would our lives be like without them? What a good thing Christmas is, and birthdays and anniversaries? There is a basic goodness in human nature that knows we should not take people for granted, which is why we respond so readily to reminders on the calendar.

The diocese of Lancaster, our diocese, has a place in all this. At times it may appear to be a dis-tant and faceless outfit, but at heart it is just a family. It too is built around the same need for human help, and the same urge to say thanks, at least occasionally. It’s easy enough to spot the people in the front row, the priests in our parishes, the teachers in our schools. The man at the top too, of course, our Bishop, he is much more than an authority-figure. But there is more than the front row. Behind the 108 parishes with their small army of personnel. Behind the vast array of schools and other buildings with their ever increasing running costs. Even behind the constant urging of the Gospel to recognise our call to be missionaries in the world of today. Behind all of that, there are people, people who can easily get overlooked.

These are the people who provide financial, planning, educational, legal and structural services. Many of these are based at Balmoral Road in Lancaster. Others have a more roving commission. For the family of the diocese to make its way safely and effectively in the world of today, we cannot do without the services they provide. The diocese is ultimately about God and the things of God, which is why it has and needs a visible working structure. It is not being fanciful to say that all that structure is Love at work among us. So to those unseen and here unnamed people who provide the working diocese with all that it needs to carry on doing God’s work, year after year, THANK YOU.