Pastors’ Blog

Weekly reflections on religion and what's going on in the world.

Pastor's Message

Rev. Derek Elphick

9/21/21

Our family will be hosting out of town guests later this week. In anticipation of their visit, I decided to see what a walking tour of Bryn Athyn would look like. So one sunny day last week, I walked out my office door and began my tour – around the BACS campus, over to the ANCSS campus, then to Cairncrest, Glencairn and the Cathedral, and then winding back through the Bryn Athyn College campus to my office. It took me 45 minutes and 3.4 miles.

As I’ve been telling my staff, I’m recording all my “new perspective” experiences in a notebook because I know there will come a point in time when I will lose this “new eyes” perspective. So when all the newness has rubbed off, I can go back to that notebook and remind myself of what I had seen and what caught my attention.

I mention this because I continue to marvel at all the wonderful uses served in this town and all the people who are dedicating their lives to the spiritual mission of our schools and church. It’s useful to think from the perspective of someone visiting from out of town because a visitor can take things at face value and appreciate all the good they see without getting bogged down by the “back story.”

From my perspective, the future is bright. Like anywhere else, we face some tough challenges but we also have some incredible opportunities in front of us and we get to choose which to  focus on and make a priority.

I marvel at how much has changed in Bryn Athyn since I left 30 years ago – for some that change might be too fast and not the right kind and for others it might not be fast enough or the right kind. I’ve stepped into my new post at a time of exciting new opportunities. You will hear about one of these new opportunities at the Semi- Annual Meeting on Wednesday, September 29th, in which plans for a new school and society building will be presented.

I hope you can make it.

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