Jim Rosenthal bids farewell to the Anglican Communion Office

Among lots of changes on the Anglican Communion front following the Lambeth Conference and some interesting developments since then, Jim Rosenthal is reluctantly leaving his long-time post at the Anglican Communion office in London. He writes his farewell at the Anglican Communion website. Here is an excerpt:

In Christ and in Christ’s church, there is always room for you and me. My experience speaks volumes to me as I ponder my future after 20 years of active ministry in the Anglican Communion Office in London. Don’t let fear or anxiety, or even people, make you feel that God doesn’t care or that you are unworthy of God’s activity in your life.

I came to the Abbey feeling anxious and a bit distant from God, the Church and more. Yet I knew that was where I wanted to be, where I belonged. What was God’s response? God led me to where the action is, the Crib, so I could be fully immersed in the joy of the incarnation, an immersion that was tangible and just as earthy as have been my experiences of touch and embrace that I have had in over 60 countries in these past 20 years.

We live in a strange and frightening time. I was so pleased that the Dean of the Abbey use a more up-to-date Bidding Prayer as he especially remembered the people who today live in Bethlehem, yes it is still holy, and its people are precious and an important part of the Christian story in our time. In our Anglican World we have much to pray for and to rejoice in with great thanksgiving.

There was no better seat in Westminster Abbey than the one I had this Christmas Eve. There is room at that Crib, and indeed at the cross (a golden crucifix was affixed over the chapel altar), for all of us who are able to accept the fact that unto to us a child is born is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called wonderful counsellor, mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace.

To those who have help transform my life for the last 20 years I say thank you from the depths of my experience. Those whose stories and photos have appeared in Anglican Episcopal World and ACNS over the years are real people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, people that I won’t forget and people that I do not want you to forget either. I know that Christ is counting on me and you to keep the story alive. In my sense of loss I feel a call to do even more to bring others to know the depth of love of crib and cross and yes, to know the joy of sharing in our great Anglican tradition of faith and practice.

Read it all here. Interesting to see which messages Jim Rosenthal chose to focus on in one of his last posts at the Anglican Communion website.