15 April
Dear Friends
This is my last letter as locum minister. Dorothy and I return to Northern Ireland on Monday after nine weeks in Amsterdam. We benefited greatly from the ministry of the ERC when we lived in the Netherlands and it has been a great privilege to be able to contribute to the life of the church during this period of vacancy.
Although the public ministry of the church moved online and never ceased, like most other churches the ERC is still in the process of waking and rising from the enforced hibernation of the pandemic. It is unlikely that what will develop in the months and years ahead will be the same as what has gone before. Any major disruption to our lives tends to bring change and the same will be true in the life of the church, but change represents opportunity and is not to be feared.
Whatever the future holds for you, I am convinced that the ERC will continue to hold a vital and strategic ministry within the life of the city. It is not the history of the ERC that gives it significance – though its historical significance is enormous – but the vitality of its witness, the warmth of its welcome to the stranger and the commitment to building an authentic community of fellowship. All three of these – witness, welcome and community – require the hard work of building and maintaining healthy Christian relationships, an openness of heart and a willingness to care for one another. While, over the months ahead, we locums will come and go, it is the work that you the people of the ERC do together that, with God’s help, will shape the future ministry and life of the church. As you navigate your way through this period of vacancy and change, do not lose heart if progress seems slow. There is no reason why the next phase in the life of the ERC could not be even greater than all that has gone before.
I commend to you the encouragement that Paul gives to the church in Corinth: “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.” I would also echo his prayer for the church in Ephesus as a prayer for you: “Peace be to the whole community, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.”
David McMillian
(Locum minister)