Letter from our Chair of Trustees

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, ….’ So opens ‘The tale of Two Cities’ by C. Dickens. Thinking of cities around the globe one can imagine just how true that is at this time; from Wuhan to Milan there will be stories of bravery and heroism, tragedy and loss. The human condition from its basest to its highest behaviours endeavouring to grapple with reality.

But what of us in our blessed, small plot? How are we to be?

I believe we are called to be people of hope. In the list of virtues hope often gets short measure, coming as it does so close to love, but now is the time when we should seek to recover its meaning for us. Hope looks forward; hope is about what is to come. Our House is not called ‘The Old Kenwyn Rectory’ or the ‘The Old Bishops’ Palace’ (though there were many old bishops!), nor is it called ‘The Old Cathedral School’. It is called ‘Epiphany House’, a place of ‘showing’ what is and pointing towards what is to come. We do not hope for what was but for what will be. Our ‘Restore and Renew’ Project is not halted, though no building work is going on, the vision remains in place; the tasks are continuing, the future is coming towards us. A friend has sent me an email headed ‘This too shall pass away.’ That is hope. We are not to hope that all will ‘return to normal’. God’s works are always greater than our limited imaginations and when we constrain imagination with anxiety and fear we are bound to take a wrong view.

So, take heart in these dark times, as Dickens says further on in the opening quote ‘it was the spring of hope.’ ‘Be of good cheer,’ says the Lord, ‘I have overcome the world’ (Jn 16:33)

May each and everyone of you be sustained by the Spirit of hope which will bring you into the fullness of the presence of the Living God.

I look forward to seeing as many as can attend at the AGM, whenever that may be.

Sincerely.
Leslie T Attwood.