The Revd David Houghton writes . . .

'Nothing in the world is single; all things by a law divine.'

These words from Love's Philosophy, a song set by Roger Quilter, do better than I can to express the emotions I feel at making the move from St George's Paris to Surbiton. Moves are not at all easy and there is sadness and excitement, nostalgia and adventure. I suppose I feel quite alone in making this journey, but this is not really so.

An extraordinary truth is that our lives are bound up in a complex pattern and woven together with each other, and with the purposes of our heart and of God. Nothing is single: everything, for us as believers, has a dimension of the eternal and of 'the other'.

My time is Paris has been one of grace and gift. Nothing about it can be said to be insignificant or wasted. The course of our lives takes us into the circles of many people and events. These are times to be cherished as precious. It's as if we are lent to each other for a period. God lends us to each other. We must not be possessed, but received graciously and reverently. Now I am to be entrusted with the privilege of sharing in the lives of the people of St Andrew and St Mark, Surbiton.

I am certain that I still have work left to do in the Church and that the opportunity presented to me to do that with you somehow feels 'right'. For all sorts of personal reasons, it will be good to reconnect with the Diocese of Southwark and with family members and friends. And I will bring with me the gifts that I treasure from so many encounters in diverse places in my ministry.

I am particularly looking forward to meeting you individually; hopefully this will be easier than it has been in Paris, where hardly anybody lives near the church - indeed some travel over 100 km to come on a Sunday! So I am going to make one plea - before even I arrive. This is that as far as is possible we can talk either face to face or on the telephone.

Like most of the world I have converted to email communication, but I am aware of its limitations, even its dangers, and as far as I know we have not really got together a satisfactory way of dealing pastorally electronically. I much look forward to seeing you and listening.

We are still in Lent. This is a season of withdrawal, perhaps as did Jesus, to a secret place to pray. The monastic 'cell' is the secret, private place of union with God for the monk or nun. It is equally a time and place for opening hearts. And so for knowing the deep mystery that lives within us.

This is the divine presence, the friendship of God. So 'Nothing in the world is single' - for the Eucharistic community calls to pray for each other, in the knowledge that mysteriously we are bound with each other and God only knows what joys there are still to be discovered.

David Houghton

April 2007

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