The Rector's Column - May 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters,  

In order to have the Scriptorium ready to go for the first of the month, the content is drafted later in the month previous. So, as this issue goes out, we are a few days ahead of the electoral convention. A part of me feels it would be easier to write something after Saturday (May 3).  

As it stands, this moment, near the end of April, we are in a position of uncertainty. Talking about even the near future, at the moment, is an odd thing right now. We are sitting in this place of uncertainty. Rationally, we know that whatever happens in the election, change is coming to the diocese and ultimately to St. Dunstan’s. Not knowing what that change will actually entail or when it will exert its impact is harder for some than others. 

However, we always live in uncertainty. We do not know what today brings, never mind tomorrow or next week or next month. This world brings us moments of success and joy and it brings pain and struggle. What is certain is our hope. Jesus is our hope. All that we are, our future, our present, everything is in his hands. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul expresses the knowledge that what they experience and offer to the Corinthians is treasure held in clay jars. The apostles were simply, Paul knew, plain old containers. These containers, though, were filled with an inexpressible treasure: The grace and presence of the Holy Spirit. 

Paul, et al, did not minister to and among them out of his own skill, knowledge and charisma. It was the power of God working in and through them that had transformed the Corinthians. Early in 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses a conflict that was burbling away in Corinth. The parish had become divided in various ways. One of these was in terms of which apostle the party in question claimed as its patron and source. Paul completely rebuked this notion. It wasn’t any one of these apostles that was their hope, salvation, power, giver of direction, or source.  

The apostles each were, under the Holy Spirit, simply those who sowed seed or watered. The growth came from God. This is true for us now. We have had the great joy of knowing the presence of God among us and of the power of His grace. That is where our certainty lies: the Lord. If we want to continue to experience His grace, we must recall that we are simply jars. The treasure is the presence of the Living God. As long as we continue to seek Him, to look to the cross, to cry out to the Holy Spirit, to devote ourselves to the mission He’s given to us (Matthew 28), we will continue to know His grace. God is able to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine through His power at work within us (Ephesians 3:20). He is able.  

Whatever the outcome on Saturday, this remains true and needs to be the cry of our hearts and the core of our prayers. We are all servants in the Kingdom of God, called to faithful obedience. The outcome is in the hands of God, so we never despair but worship and persevere. 

The Lord be with you,  +Fraser