This Sunday Morning Thought was aired on Rutland and Stamford Sound on Sunday 16th February 2025

Sunday, the 23rd of February, will be my last Sunday as part of the Oakham Team of churches. I’ve been appointed as vicar of two churches in Corby and I will start there next month. Therefore, this week is my last week here and I will be saying goodbye to the people of Rutland. 

I’m sad to be leaving Rutland. We’ve been a part of the community here now for four years. It’s been the longest I have been a part of any community since leaving home. The new adults of this modern generation find themselves changing homes and jobs most years during their twenties. This has been the case for me too. But in the last four years, I have found a stability in my new family and community here in Rutland. We moved here during the Pandemic, and after all the instability that the pandemic had caused, it was wonderful to come to a new place and start to set down some roots. We have been so happy in Rutland. 

This then makes change all the more harder. Change is exciting. I’m excited about the new opportunities in Corby and the new people I’ll get to know and the new communities I’ll join. But that doesn’t stop change being hard. It doesn’t make leaving or saying goodbye easy. I’ve felt quite emotional having to say goodbye. It feels as though it has all come quite quickly. But in all of this I take hope in that this is all part of God’s plan. 

There is a saying that we use, being ‘in the right place at the right time.’ When life feels uncertain, I lean back on this saying, trusting that God will have me in the right place at the right time. I was in Rutland longer than expected but it’s worked out for the better. I see that as being here in Rutland, the right place, for the right time. So as I go onto Corby, I trust that this is God taking me onto the next right place at the right time. I believe that God does that for all of us. He will take us to the right place at the right time, and for me, knowing this, makes the change feel that bit easier. I hope it makes change easier for you.