AN INTERESTING WEEK already. As with most weeks in a vicar’s life I’ve been engaged in dozens of conversations across the generations about change. No reader will need me to tell them about the galaxy of opinions, for and against change – any change, that are represented in such conversations. After many years in pastoral ministry I’m still asking myself why it is that we human beings (me amongst them, of course) are so resistant to change. Surely we ought to have caught on by now that change is inevitable, and when we’ve all worn ourselves out talking about our reactions to it we can, so often, find ourselves recognising that it’s necessary, anyway. I was a happy little 2 year old by all accounts, but I’m glad I haven’t remained 2 years old for the ensuing 50!
I was enthralled by the first series of Downton Abbey and have been keeping an eye out for news of the second series, expecting to be as hooked on it as the first. Great writing, fabulous casting, the whole work held my rapt attention, and I’ve learned today that series 2 promises more romance and tears – and the kind of delighted laughter and recognition that the redoubtable Maggie Smith conjures in any screen play with which she is involved; she’s a national treasure of the first order. But the second series is set in the context of the Great War and the incomparable tidal wave of change that it wreaked upon the face of the whole earth.
Her Ladyship, who hitherto had most graciously both distributed the Flower Show prizes and won them would come to see change of a kind never previously dreamed of. Millions lost their lives, millions lost those they held most dear. And young surviving house-servants who had once waited upon M’Lady would grow up in a world changed beyond all recognition. We’ll doubtless be asking ourselves whether the change was ultimately for good or for ill during the forthcoming series. We won’t arrive at easy answers – not if we remember the enormity of the cost. And we might wonder about the accuracy of the oft-used “they were the good old days”. And doubtless we’ll reflect on the inevitability or otherwise of such great change and whether, or not, there was anything that might have been done to stem the tide.
Is all change inevitable? What brings about good change? What brings about bad change? Can we do anything about change, one way or another? And should we? And if we concede that change is necessary in our own time what would we most like to change? And could we? And should we? And the most important question of all – once we get past the talking – will we? Will we feed the hungry and share water with the thirsty? Will we ever change?
