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I'm sure that, like me, you have been in shopping in the supermarket or wherever and have have witnessed the scene of a small child nagging their mother all the way around the shop: Mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum MUM! I want some chocolate! Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum... until you get to the point where YOU want to go and get it some chocolate just to get it to shut up.

Maybe this is the initial theme of our reading from Acts. Paul heals not out of compassion for someone who today we would probably see as grossly exploited, who probably has a form of mental illness or disorder being used for profit by unscrupulous religious purposes. Rather Paul heals her out of irritation and a desire to shut her up.

Yet it is perhaps a story about the need sometimes to hear things we don't want to hear.

And rather than shut our ears to it – sometimes we need to listen to an unpalatable truth.

And just such an uncomfortable truth has been sent to us this week by the Bench of Bishops.

They write.

Dear Friends,

At Governing Body last week, there was an important debate about the future of ordained ministry in the Church in Wales. We face some startling statistics.

A quarter of our current serving clergy are aged over 60, and less than 10% are under 40. This means that we shall have problems in the near future as clergy begin to retire in large numbers, and yet we still have the business of the Church to run, and the leadership of ordained ministry has a key role to play in that. Of course, this is an opportunity as well, as we can seize the day to explore the ministry of all the people of God, and search out and develop new ways of being Church, and exercising ministry to sustain our life. The Bench of Bishops is doing just that, and looking at radical plans for the future of ministry in our Church. But we remain convinced as a Church that the ordained ministry has still got an important role to undertake, and we need to do some work in seeking out vocations – especially among younger people.

More details about the Vocations Initiative can be found on the Church in Wales website, but note its title:

Dyma fi, Anfon fi. Here I am, Send me.

The implication is that each of us must consider whether God is calling us to ministry – indeed, to ordained ministry – or at the very least to help those whom God is calling to ordained ministry to respond with the answer “Here I am, send me!”.

As a first step in the Vocations Initiative, the Bishops have set aside the Sunday after Ascension as a Ministry and Calling Sunday. This Sunday - today- comes just at that point of the Church’s year when the disciples were waiting for the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and we are waiting for God’s spirit to renew our Church in our own day.

The aim of the Ministry and Calling Sunday this year is to invite all members of the Church to pray: to pray for vocations, to pray that we may be a Church which invites and nurtures vocations.

Ministry and Calling Sunday this year will be just a beginning, and more will follow. We hope nonetheless for a good beginning to this initiative and that will come with your support this year in mobilising all of us to pray for vocations.

With thanks in advance for your help and support,

Signed by the Bishops of the Church in Wales, including our own Bishop Gregory who is leading on this issue.

So how do we respond to those words? They are not easy ones to hear, especially for those for whom traditional patterns of ministry have been a central part of church life and faith for most of their lives. For the church to lose at least a quarter of our clergy within just a very few years means great uncertainty. It means change – and if we are honest, change that may have to come about without the consent of those involved. For me personally it means a very different future to my career – and a very different kind of ministry than the one I originally signed up for.

Now I believe in ordained ministry – otherwise what am I doing with my life? The church has been agitating for a little while on this issue, perhaps not really facing up to the nagging voice – I was at St Michaels College 5 years ago when they did the study that letter is based on. In fact the last time the bishops issued a statement like this 3 years ago, the biggest response came from Radio Wales who dragged me in for a 20 minute interview – which was even trailed the day before heaven knows what that did to the audience figures – join us tomorrow when we will have Rev Richard Hainsworth in the studio – guess what he's a vicar and he's in his twenties – the freak! Sadly the CiW was not inundated with potential young vicars despite the best efforts of Jamie Owen and myself.

I say 'sadly', because we do need to encourage more people of all ages to offer themselves for ordained ministry. Those figures do give the impression that in less than a decade, vicars are going to be an endangered species – think of us like Giant Pandas, only not so cute. And unless some sort of breeding programme is going to be brought in – and you know my views on that subject – we each need to play our part in identifying and encouraging those with a calling to priesthood. And particularly here – because if the church is looking for new priests in their 30's and 40's, there are not many churches in the Diocese that have more members in that age range than we do in this church and this parish. The answers to the Bishop's prayers may not be out there. They may be in here.

But as the Bishops also say, this can hardly be the whole answer. While 8 new young priests a year would be nice – and that is what is needed to make up the retirements – it is also a long shot. We ordain 2 a year if we are lucky at present. They also indicate that radical plans for the future need to be put in place.

But I never think that scare tactics are the best way of inspiring people embrace a different future. On the one hand we need to face up to the realities. But on the other, we should not let a sense of fear or panic drive us into either putting our heads in the sand or coming up with half-baked schemes in a desperate rush for a solution. Something must be done. This is something. Therefore we must do it!

There is one, very biblical alternative approach to facing great change. In the gospel reading, which is part of a longer speech that we have been hearing from for several weeks, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his death and his ascension. He is open with them that he is going away and that the future is going to look very different. They respond with fear and denial. They respond with rash promises of action that they can't keep. But Jesus does two things. Firstly he listens to their concerns, their fears. Then he assures them of the fact that they will face the challenges because he has chosen them for this purpose, and he will be with them through it all. It will be difficult, but they can make it - if they remain united.

Like Jesus tried to prepare his disciples, so that they could be ready and equipped to face an uncertain future well prepared, so we have a choice too. We can wait for the future to happen to us. Or we can start happening to the future. We can take control of the situation and equip and prepare ourselves to respond to it, with confidence that God is with us, and that Christ lives in his people, the Church.

So I want to finish by assuring you that this process is in good hands in the Parish. We are particularly fortunate to have in Mike our Rector, someone who has spent most of his ministry preparing the church for these things, and leading in those areas where these things became a reality some years ago.

So we have already begun to respond. That is part of what the Living Theology course is all about.

The PCC is beginning a period of listening and reflecting together.

Our own church council have been invited to think and pray about these things and future meetings will start to reflect more deeply on the issues and they have started by just listening to each others hopes and fears and thoughts and responding prayerfully.

But how do you fit into this? What if you are not going to offer yourself for ordination and are not on the church committee? Do you still have a role to play?

Absolutely. That may be a ministry of encouragement to someone who is exploring their calling. Maybe you will be the one thorough whom the calling comes to them?

We can all join in the process of listening to each other. Of helping us be prepared. Please do speak to your council members. Help them reflect.

But above all, we need to recognise Jesus' priority and keep the unity of the Church. We may well have very different ideas, but in the end we will need to move forward together. And move forward with positive attitude. Not just as a local church, but as a Diocese and as a Parish. We are going to need to work together as churches, sharing what we have with each other.

New appointments here are already being made with an eye to a new future rather than propping up the past – to quote the rector at the AVM he said of St John's church - A new colleague would to be responsible for developing the mission of the church in a flexible way in our benefice while being based at St John’s Church.

Note the very careful wording – the mission of the church in the benefice while being based at St John's is very different from saying Vicar of St Johns. The same applies to me too – based at St Margaret's - serving the mission of the Benefice – not Vicar of St Margaret's. And to Brian Reader, and Sidney and Gill, and the PA's and maybe others too. Based here. Asked to serve where ever they are needed.

The Bishops quoted Isaiah – here I am, send me. I think I prefer to change that slightly.

God is calling us to a very different future.

Our response has to be – Here we are. Send us.

And we offer ourselves in faith that just as the people of Israel, Jesus' disciples and the early church each had to discover – things may change radically in this world, but God is the same yesterday, today, forever – the Alpha and Omega, first and the last. And this means that God's future is no better but no worse than God's past. Our future with him is no better but no worse than our past.

Jesus prayed that we would know the Father's love like he did, so that he could send us to make that love known to our world. Sent to be one, as he is one with the Father.

Can we reply – here we are – send us?