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Good morning.

At the age of 54 I moved from Ireland to Scotland.  So I’m a bit of a migrant – enough to have felt the challenge of starting over in a new place; enough to have felt not just the loss but the uncomfortable feeling of not belonging any more in my native land.  It’s a mixture of exploring the new while mourning the loss of familiar place, family connections, friends, history.

Nothing like of course the Scots whom I found commemorated on a memorial in Waipu, New Zealand.  They sailed to Nova Scotia, crossed Canada and sailed to New Zealand – never to return. 

It has all changed of course.  The berry picking migrants around where I live in Scotland can come and go with the seasons – never quite losing touch with home.  But one of the great migrations of history is taking place as the peoples of Africa entrust themselves to traffickers and their flimsy boats on the Mediterranean.  They yearn as migrants always have for a transition to a new world where they can have dignity, a home, a job, an upbringing for their children, medical care. 

The Bible of course knows about this.  Moses led the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt towards the promised land.  They faltered along the way and wondered if they would have been better to stick with slavery in Egypt.  They murmured against Moses in their uncertainty – as they tested the strength of their hopes.  But they pressed on towards hope and a future.

God our Father

You give us visions of new futures,

New hopes and new possibilities

Give us courage to leave behind what is past

And to stretch out towards the new

Amen.