Dear Friends,

After 40 years in the ministry what does one write in what is likely
to be my last ever minister’s letter? Do I reminisce about all the
highlights of the past years or do I concentrate on just a few? It is
a too familiar trap in current church life. We concentrate on the
“good old days” when our churches were full and we were young
to the detriment of the here and now and the future. Yes, my 40
years have been full and rewarding but there have also been times
when things haven’t gone so well.

Throughout it all I know whom I have believed in and knew that he
was able to keep that which I committed to this very day (2 Tim.
1:12). I hope that this is the same for you.

This past year has been difficult for Viv and me. Day to day life has
carried on as usual yet, at the same time, it hasn’t. There have
been so many ‘lasts’ and at the same time many ‘firsts’! It’s been a
year of reflection and uncertainty. Above all it has been a year of
impending change for us all. What has helped is the love and
support Viv and I have received. Despite the uncertainty of the
future people have found time to share in our journey and
encouraged us in our endeavour to set up a new home. I hope in
the coming months that that same love and support for each other
will continue as you too step into your future here in the Reading
churches, and that it will sustain you.

It has been a privilege to be a minister, to be permitted to be part
of so many lives, to share in so many highs and lows and to walk
alongside so many wonderful, gifted people.

It has been an honour to be allowed to study God’s Word and to
preach Sunday by Sunday. Despite the challenges of being a
Christian in today’s world, I have found that when required the
church has stepped up when needed and being a minister has
meant that I could be there.

I accepted the call all those years ago and know that God has
strengthened and sustained me all that time. My prayer for the
Reading Group is that God will continue to strengthen and
support you, that where there is need you will step up and that,
above all, you will know the love of God and lean on him as you
continue to serve him and to live out and preach His Word.

Change is inevitable and all of us are familiar with it, be it in our
church life, our home life or the ever-changing world we inhabit.
The one constant that we can hold on to is our never changing
God who is the same yesterday, today and forever - as the
hymn puts it, ‘as thou hast been thou for ever wilt be’ (R&S 96).
The message we are called to preach has not changed despite
an ever-changing church and world. The challenge for us all is
that whatever befalls us, wherever we roam we know whom we
believe in, know that he died so we might live and know that we
can persevere until the end.

​

With best wishes,

Robert