Today at noon we, in Auckland, have entered level 3 lockdown again. Hearing the news felt like things were starting to unravel. It was a step backwards and despite the warnings it still came as a shock. Amidst all the decisions that need to be made both at KPC and within the other community organisations I am part of, I have been holding this image of unravelling in my imagination. Unravelling happens for more than one reason. Sometimes it happens because we make a mistake –a needle slips and unravelling occurs. At other times it is more purposeful –we have discovered a mistake further back in our creating, or we have decided we want to do things differently, and so we need to make changes. It requires us to unravel in order to move forward in a new way. And so I pondered what this unravelling is about. Is it simply to blame an error some rows earlier, or is it an opportunity to re-form. After all we are a re-formed church. But perhaps it is both - to recognise where we have gone wrong; and to create something better, more beautiful, and more useful. In re-forming I see the need to step up in my behaviour – washing my hands more carefully, using the QR code more diligently, noting down where I go if there is no code... but I also see an opportunity for something more beautiful. How might I move forward in ways that add rather than subtract; that encourages and affirms; and that builds community? As a church, how might we best move forward in ways that as Paul said to the church in Thessalonika encourage one another and build one another up.
