Church letter

September 2025

Click for the church letter from August 2025

A prayer to share, now as then

Eternal God and Father
help us to entrust the past to your mercy
the present to your love
and the future to your wisdom
In the name of Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

I have treasured this prayer ever since I first came across it many years ago. I love its simplicity and its continuing relevance to all our lives. Often people are so weighed down by memories and regrets from the past, both their own mistakes and misdeeds and the wrongs done to them by others, that they are unable to find freedom and fulfilment in the present. Excessive anxiety about the future is equally disabling, detracting from the enjoyment of what is good now, for fear of what the future may bring.

I pray this prayer for myself, for my loved ones and for those I know in need of its reassurance and encouragement. But recently I have come to see a much wider significance in the words. They are relevant not only to individuals but to government, politics, international relationships and indeed to the Church. The mistakes and bad experiences of the past do not have to hinder our present actions; nor must we succumb to despair about the future.

We are called to live in the present, to act now, in love and hope, and trusting in the power of God to heal and to guide. I only discovered quite recently that the writer of this prayer was Augustine of Hippo, the renowned 4th-century scholar, philosopher and theologian. Prior to his conversion to Christianity in his early 30s he had lived, by his own account, a dissolute life of which he was now ashamed. He knew at first hand how much he needed God’s mercy. Moreover he lived, like us, in a time of political instability and anxiety as to what the future would bring. Yet his message was one of hope.

Pandemics, global warming, terrorism, the threat of a third world war, there is plenty to worry about. But as Jesus said, don’t waste your time and energy worrying about the future. St Paul, like Augustine, had plenty to repent of, and he also knew all too well that he could not look forward to a quiet old age and a gentle death. His answer, like Augustine’s was to live his life in faith, hope and love.

This is what that simple prayer is all about.

Revd Dr Rosemary Kobus van Wengen, Assistant Priest