Monthly Letters

Dear friends,

As the warmth of summer yields to the amber light of autumn, we find ourselves once again in a season of change. The earth reminds us that endings and beginnings are entwined: every falling leaf carries both loss and promise, every shift invites reflection, gratitude, and trust.

This past week brought significant news for our diocese, the appointment of Bishop Sarah, the Bishop of London to the See of Canterbury. It is good news indeed for the wider Church, yet it also brings questions and mixed emotions for us here in London. Times of leadership transition stir gratitude for what has been, and curiosity, sometimes anxiety, about what is yet to come.

The in-between sense of life is also visible among our clergy and lay colleagues. Some are moving on, leaving roles or parishes they have faithfully served; others are arriving, beginning new journeys and opening fresh possibilities. We inhabit this threshold together, feeling the pull of departure, the excitement of arrival, and the subtle tension of all that is changing.

Earlier this month, I spent a day with clergy holding Permission to Officiate reflecting on this very theme Mind the Gap: Transitions, Liminality and Boundaries. Drawing on the work of anthropologists like Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, we explored how transitions move us from what was, through a liminal “in-between” space, toward what will be. These thresholds, though unsettling, can become sacred ground: places of listening, re-imagining, and renewal.

Scripture reminds us that God’s transforming work often happens at the edges: with Hagar in the wilderness, Moses before the burning bush, The Samaritan woman at the well, or the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Walter Brueggemann reminds us that faith is “holy disorientation… an invitation into pilgrimage.”

So as we navigate this season, in nature, in our diocese, and in our own lives, may we mind the gap with attentiveness and hope. The God who meets us in the in-between, in the comings and goings of colleagues and friends, will guide us toward what is next, with grace enough for the journey.

With every blessing,

Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy
Bishop of Willesden