Just before the congregation at St Alban’s moved out of the Church to go into the Surgery for a few months while the restoration takes place there, we packed up a basket of everything we would need for our services there.

About the same time, I found a feather (I can’t remember where, now) which I have carried around in my Prayer Book ever since as a reminder that we need to travel light.

In the early days of the New Testament, Christians were known as ‘Followers of the Way’, those who were on a journey - rather like the people of Israel as they travelled through the Wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt.

And we still need, as one of the hymns puts it, to be ‘pilgrims on a journey’ - we need to travel light.

As we journey into a New Year, how do we travel light in the Gospel, so that we are ready to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ afresh to every generation?

Which parts of our tradition are so valuable and helpful that we need to take them with us?  Which parts of what we do have become unhelpful, and need to be left behind to lighten the load?

As we prepare to move back into St Alban’s in the next month or so, these are questions which the St Alban’s Church Committee, the staff team and the congregation will need to think about.

What have we learnt from our time in the surgery?  We have worshipped in a different way, in different surroundings - some things we have liked, and some things we have missed.

This journey has been a once in a generation opportunity to learn something new about our worship and about how we can be Christians in this place - we need to make sure we learn the lessons, and travel as lightly as we can when we move back into the Church soon.

Happy New Year.