From the Rector

Dear Everybody, hello again.

Is loyalty a good thing?  Tony Blair reshuffles his cabinet.  Nigel Worthington has an end-of-season cull at Norwich City.  At the same time as believing in the need for change, they ask their supporters to be loyal to them.

Some people just don’t like change.  It’s their temperament.  “Rather the devil you know…”  When this comes to our shopping habits, financial experts call it “brand loyalty”.  When it comes to incompetent banks, they call it inertia.  What’s the difference between loyalty and inertia?  In these terms, it’s about whether you are happy.

Loyalty in families, though, can mean putting up with quite a lot of unhappiness for the sake of relationships.  Loyalty itself implies a relationship that happens over time, and has time to repair itself if things go wrong.  Occasionally, though, family members have abused family loyalty or tested it beyond any reasonable limit.

When St Benedict founded his order of monks, part of his rule was “stability”.  Once you enter a monastery, you stay there, and learn to get on with your brothers.  Too bad if they can’t cook or can’t sing.  Learning to live with others’ foibles is part of life.

The loyalty to God that is demanded of Christians would be outrageous, if Christians did not believe that God is intensely loyal to them.  Similarly, in all our relationships, loyalty usually breeds loyalty, and even love.

In our society, we are constantly advertised at, to get us to change, and to choose.  Loyalty is a commitment, a choice that has already been taken.

God bless you in all your commitments.                          

David Head