Dear friends,
It is time to say good-bye. After just over 8 years of being the vicar of St Mary’s, Burley, it is time to move on to pastures new. It is impossible to sum up 8 years in a few lines and knowing my propensity to be verbose, I will not even try! Instead I will pick out a few important things that have characterised my time here in Burley. Probably like many of you, I find it hard to even think clearly about the period before the pandemic, so I guess that is the place to start.
The pandemic has altered our lives in so many ways that we could not have even begun to imagine three years ago. I was very keen to draw people together and to make sure that we were serving and loving our community in every way that we could. The PCC were given pastoral lists and within a couple of weeks of the lockdown we had services and coffee every week online. I loved the fact that some of our older congregation members who hadn’t managed to get to Church for a while, could sit in front of their ipad or laptop and connect with old friends. Many aspects of community life were enhanced as we sought new levels of reliance on one another. We became more creative as we sent out Christingle packs and Easter eggs, created nativity trails and gave presents to keyworkers. For me the most significant positive outcome of the pandemic was the Love Burley initiative. Becky, along with Robert and Susan Saville and Stella Fullerton, created a network of hundreds of people who looked after the most vulnerable people in our community; a project that was seen as a model for Bradford District. The Church was a beacon of light and hope at one of the darkest moments in recent history.
Back in 2018 St Mary’s celebrated its 175th birthday. The service was certainly one of my highlights as we welcomed Bishop Nick to preach. It was a beautiful day and the atmosphere afterwards as we ate together behind Church was so sweet. All sorts of other events took place from a magnificent Ceilidh at the Queens Hall, a wonderful historical exhibition in Church and an invitation for many of our school children to experience Church in new ways; some of them even got to play the organ and wear my robes!
I hope one of the legacies of the last few years has been a regular encouragement to reach out to those in need both in Burley and further afield. That is certainly not new; I am reminded of the work Peter Sutcliffe did to create Open Door over 25 years ago. However, St Mary’s, alongside the other Churches, and many Burley residents were at the forefront in creating Wharfedale Refugee Response, an organisation that over the last 7 years has done incredible things to support local refugee communities. Through our friendship with Johnney at Pizza One, we have been able to financially support a Church in Aleppo. I will never forget the time when we invited Bishop Toby and Johnney to do a special service together to pray for the dire situation in Syria (I even got Bishop Toby to play his Cello with our youth band!). In Bradford, Mary has really helped to develop empathy with some of the poorest in Manningham; before the pandemic many of our congregation stepped out to serve homeless people at St Pauls. The Church has also been involved, often behind the scenes, in supporting individuals in need in Burley itself. Jesus reminds us that it is how we treat the least that defines us.
I guess we all want to be remembered for something significant. I suppose I would want to be remembered for pushing the boundaries. I have never been one to just accept the status quo, but rather to find creative ways to move forward. When we found we had too many people coming to our Christingle service, we provided two (and last year three!) and what a joy they have been to all who have been involved. Pushing the boundaries has especially seen in my encouragement to worship together in the park during the Burley festival. We have often tried to get people together from our different Churches, but the results have been patchy at best, but to draw our congregations together in the park, often on days that looked unpromising, has been such an encouragement to me and has built friendship and trust among members of our Churches.
I will miss Burley and so will my family. But Jesus calls us to plant seeds and to faithfully water them. Often that is a very unglamorous job that requires patience and a very thick skin. Much of my work has happened under the radar. I know many of you would have preferred it if I had spent more hours crafting my sermons so that they could be short and memorable. My gifts and priorities have often been elsewhere. Jesus calls each of us to give of the gifts that he has given to us and to not compare oneself with others.
I know God has exciting plans for St Mary’s. The next vicar will be very different and he/she will bring a new and courageous dimension to what happens here. I look forward to the stories of germinating seeds and lives changed as we seek God’s presence to transform us and our community.
Bless you
Alastair