River Wissey Lovell Fuller

Rector's Letter

January 2002

Epiphany

January in the Church calendar is the season of Epiphany. Epiphany is the time when we celebrate the arrival of the Magi or Wise men. It is also the time when we thank God for reaching out beyond his ancient people the Jews to the rest of the world and all of us. At this time of year we are reminded that God's love knows no bounds. Its not limited to the Jews, not limited to the Church. God's love extends to everyone and everything that he has created. God is everywhere, but in order to know him we have to experience him.

God is present and active wherever we are, whatever we are doing. God is present and active whether we know it or not in all creation, in every time, every age. The surveys continually show that most people believe in God, they are just not sure about who he or she might be. In other words they believe something Godlike exists they just don't know him or her or it. Those of us with an active faith know something of God, but not all there is to know. We need to be ready to share what we have learned of the nature of God. We need also to be ready to listen to other people's experience of God, the divine, or however they chose to describe their experiences. Hopefully through sharing our common humanity we will come to share something deep and eternal. God the creator of all and the sustainer of all can and will use everyone and everything as a revelation.

We need to begin with our common humanity because for Christians it is through our relationship with God in Christ that we become fully human. It is in this way that we can rediscover a potential and wholeness that we seem to have lost.

In Jesus God became human to show his love and identification with all humanity. In Jesus God became a part of creation to show his love and identification with the whole of creation. This is what Epiphany means. This is what we celebrate.

Every blessing,

Revd Nigel Tuffnell

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