David Morgan, after more than 3 years out and about in our town centre, retires from his position as Bromley Town Chaplain

David Morgan's 3-year term as Bromley Town Chaplain has come to an end and he now will be devoting himself to his role as Minister of Trinity Bromley united reformed church.

We expect to appoint a new town chaplain later in the year, but in the meantime our other members of the Chaplaincy team, of course, continue with this important work.

For new enquires re Chaplaincy services, please contact in the first instance your local church. There is also a wider network of churches available, who may be able to help, through Churches together in Central Bromley.

And, whatever your circumstances or reason for coming to the Chaplaincy web-site, we pray that Jesus Christ may bless you!

Not platitudes, not wishful thinking, not denial, but in the reality of the worst recession in living memory, where is the hope this Christmas ?

There is hope – the old has passed away and we will grieve for it, but the new is coming-in. The new will certainly be different and may be better. For example, if we should lose the selfishness and greed which has been so much in evidence over the last 30 years. What life will be like we don’t know, but we’re talking about a new order, a new world, but…  first, we have to go through the transition –  and that will be painful!  This is the reality we’re facing this Christmas.

The last 10 years we’re been living off increased debt. Our perceived prosperity has in actual fact been increased poverty – we just hadn’t realised it. Now with property prices fallen and falling, we do! With banks (and not just banks) having become insolvent, we can no longer increase our debt to fund our living expenditure. Accordingly, our standard of living will reduce enormously – our ability to spend as we’ve become used to has simply stopped dead. What is more, we have the double whammy – not just that we can’t borrow more to spend, but that we also now have to start paying back what we have previously borrowed.

We’ve already seen the initial effects of this in the High Street with Woolworths and MFI going into administration. We see cut-throat competition, offers and reductions everywhere; Christmas sales in November – unprecedented in modern times. If you have money to spend, there are bargains galore, but for the many many people who don’t have money to spend, they just won’t or can’t buy. The Government’s idea of borrowing money to reduce VAT therefore doesn’t make sense – reducing prices isn’t going to make any difference. Our problems (both in the UK and globally) arise from taking on too much debt. To borrow more is not a solution and the final irony is the announcement in the pre-budget report that we will borrow £15 million so as to provide debt counselling!!

So what is required ? Well, what is being forced upon us – is a total re-evaluation of what life is all about.

The world has fundamentally changed. Our materialistic society has collapsed. Through this enormous shake-up we begin to see that much of what we bought and valued was not really important. Our shop till we drop mentality, our need for the latest IT gadget – our materialistic advertising-induced wants are not real needs. We can live without them and we’re going to have to.

If we don’t know someone who’s lost their job, we soon will ! We may even be made redundant our-self. There are no easy solutions, we may even become bankrupt – lose everything. Hopefully this won’t happen to us, but it may do – and it certainly will to some.  So where is the hope this Christmas if you’re worried and facing possible redundancy or if you’ve actually been made redundant or alternatively, if the attitude of your employer is that “you’re lucky to have a job and therefore you’ll do anything” – effectively a slave?

Well, the important thing to remember is that our worth does not derive from what we do. It does not derive from our job or being in paid employment. It does not derive from our status or position in society. Our worth derives from being what we are – human beings made in the image of God. Let’s recognise and remember that
God cares, He is still there, and Life goes on

Our dreams may be shattered, what we’ve lived for may be no more, but
God cares, He is still there, and Life goes on

Our initial reaction may be shock, denial, shame, anger, depression, or all of these. If this is you, don’t suffer in silence – talk to someone about how you feel. Talk to a friend, your family, or you can talk to us. It may feel like a bereavement – in a very real way, it is. We’ve lost our vision for life, our pride in life, our understanding of life. But… Life goes on!  We need a new vision, there will be new vision, although it will take time.

Now, in the run-up to Christmas, why don’t we focus on what deep-down we know is important – not the value of the presents we give and receive, not how much we eat and drink, but the value we put on people – on friends, on family, on what we do for others & what we let others do for us; on our relationships – to love and be loved, to care and be cared for, to help and be helped.