MUSINGS
The Last Word Our new vicar, Revd Alvin Toh, wraps up this special transitional issue of In Review with a closing address. WORDS REVD ALVIN TOH
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Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. —Isaiah 43:19
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f there’s any word that can summarise what has happened over the past 1.5 years, it might be the word ‘disruption’. COVID-19 had taken centre stage, and disrupted everything else from the mundane to the extraordinary. The everyday mundane of handwashing and hygiene has been spotlighted as critical in combating the viral spread. The extraordinary events of the year, from the Tokyo Olympics to civil unrest and climate changes, were overshadowed by the growing COVID-19 infections, reaching 196 million cases worldwide and 4 million deaths globally by mid-2021. But if there’s another word that can also encapsulate all that has happened, it is the word ‘new’. This past 1.5 years has seen the world adapt to and experience new things… from the mundane to the extraordinary. We have done things we have never done before, innovated new ways of connecting and getting things done, and settled into
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a ‘new normal’ in our daily lives. We’ve since found ourselves accepting (or tolerating?) the necessity of developing new ways of conducting our daily and routine affairs that we would never have imagined ourselves ratifying before COVID-19 hit. I still believe that while COVID-19 is not directly from God — for God is good, and the source of all goodness and order, not evil and chaos — He has used it to work His sovereign purposes, and to achieve His aim of “doing a new thing” in the world today. For us in SJSM, God’s word from Isaiah 43:19 has been central in two very important journeys of transformation: both Project Spring-Winter as well as our Jubilee Vision. This verse was prophetically released very early in SJSM’s Metamorphousthe journey, and it has continued to make unexpected appearances over the years, through various platforms. And as we can all see, this shared journey has since led us into the many new things that have sprung up in our midst.
