In her first blog post as General Assembly Moderator, the Revd Clare Downing shares new discoveries, and encourages lifelong learning with Jesus
I鈥檝e been learning some new skills.
As of this week, I can not only record myself on video, and edit out the mistakes, I can add photographs while not losing the voiceover. Sermons can have visual aids again.
Other recent discoveries include polls on Zoom, the video conferencing platform, which can be made so that they have multiple possible answers; if someone is screen sharing, you don鈥檛 have to let their document take up most of the space; and, just because a YouTube clip works perfectly well in a PowerPoint presentation, when you try it on Zoom and you鈥檙e the only person in the 鈥渞oom鈥�, that doesn鈥檛 mean the clip will work when you鈥檙e in a real meeting.
That鈥檚 just a start 鈥� it鈥檚 some of the practical things. The restrictions that we are all living under have meant that I鈥檝e been learning about myself too 鈥� or at least being reminded of some of my foibles and failings. Despite the fact that I don鈥檛 come into any of the high risk categories, I鈥檝e not been easy to live with. I鈥檝e had to learn to do things differently, whether that is around spending most of my time at my desk, or drastically reducing the number of times I pop to the supermarket.
The old saying 鈥測ou can鈥檛 teach an old dog new tricks鈥� may be true of dogs (though I have my doubts) but one of things about being human is that we are eminently adaptable. In other words, we learn. And, as disciples of Jesus, we are 鈥� or at least we should be 鈥� constantly learning. If we are walking the way with Jesus, then we should be seeing new things, being challenged in new ways. The question where do we see God at work in these times is a vital one.
I hope that, in the coming two years, I will have plenty of opportunities to learn from people all around the 探花社区, and beyond. I鈥檓 looking forward to hearing about what you are learning in your journey with Jesus.
And if you鈥檙e really desperate, I鈥檒l give you a quick tutorial on editing videos.
God bless,
Clare
Clare Downing, August 2020