From the Rector | August 2026

Theology of Change

This article is an excerpt from the August 2026 Venite.

Change is rarely a single moment; it is a slow, holy unfolding. Thomas à Kempis, the quiet medieval voice behind The Imitation of Christ, understood transformation not as a dramatic conversion event but as a lifelong pilgrimage of becoming. In his world, growing in sanctification (to set apart for special use or purpose) was not lightning but steady fire—a daily consenting to God’s shaping love. For the church, this lens offers a way to understand change as both inner renewal and social transformation, braided together in the Spirit’s work.

Thomas teaches that true change begins with interior humility, the willingness to see ourselves honestly and let God’s grace do its patient work. He writes:

“If you wish to learn and appreciate something worthwhile, then love to be unknown and considered as nothing.”

That line reminds us that transformation starts when we release the ego’s need for control. In our congregational life, this humility becomes the soil where new ministries, new relationships, and new justice commitments can take root.

But Thomas never stops at the interior. His theology insists that inward transformation must spill outward into acts of mercy, gentleness, and solidarity. For him, sanctification is not escape from the world but deeper engagement with it. When we allow God to reshape our hearts, we become people who reshape our communities—through advocacy, compassion, and courageous truth-telling. Change becomes sacramental: an outward sign of inward grace.

Christian theology adds another layer: the belief that God’s transforming work is not limited to individuals but pulses through systems, cultures, and movements for liberation. Thomas’s call to imitate Christ becomes a call to imitate Christ’s justice, Christ’s healing, Christ’s boundary-breaking love. Sanctification becomes the Spirit’s invitation to participate in God’s ongoing repair of the world.

In this season, our church is living this theology of change. We are discerning new ways to serve, new ways to welcome, new ways to embody Christ’s compassion. Like Thomas, we trust that transformation is slow, honest, and communal. We trust that sanctification is not perfection but alignment—our hearts bending toward God’s dream for creation.

Sisters and brothers in Christ: continue walking this path of holy change, letting God shape us into people who carry mercy courageously, justice boldly, and love abundantly.

In Love & Service Bound,

Aelred Bernard+

Rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church