Thoughts from the Benefice

 for August 2025

Dear Friends,

Change is here!

Most of us have a regular routine for getting up and starting our day. We are comfortable about the way things are normally. However, there is the statement: ‘change is here to stay’.

August in North Norfolk is a change from the other months of the year. The holiday lets are full. The beaches quickly fill up on busy sunny days. The car parks are full. Visitors crowd the pavements of Holt. Visiting drivers are not sure about passing places on the narrow village roads or to cope with the parking as they try to drive through Stiffkey or Cley. There are children around in the daytime because of the school holidays. Some of our friends fly off to France, Spain or Greece to find warmth and sun, (unnecessary this year!).

The church celebrates change this month with the festival of Transfiguration. Jesus is on the mountain with some disciples and is seen by them with Moses and Elijah. They represent the past, the Law and the Prophets, how things were for the peoples of the Old Testament. Yet on that mountain, Jesus and the disciples hear the voice saying that Jesus is God’s son. God giving his son for love of the world. A change from the God of the Law and the Prophets to God’s son and the God of Love. This is one of signs of change that made the disciples look forward and becomes the foundation of our beliefs in the Christian church.

Here in this benefice, we too look forward to change. Welcome was given to The Reverend Jonathan Dowman at the end of last month. We look forward to the start of his ministry among us this month and the changes as Rector he may wish to see rather than us – a group of retired priests and lay readers who have tried to lead the services and write these letters in the benefice in the interregnum.

So, look out! August a ‘change’ month!

Canon Peter Hartley