Becoming More Patient
During a lesson with a tennis coach last year, the coach picked up on the need for me to be more patient in my tennis game. He challenged me to keep looking to get the ball back into play rather than trying to hit a winner. As I’ve worked on this, my game has improved.
I don’t think that I’m the only one who struggles to remain patient. The prevailing culture in much of our world seeks quick fixes and is prone to short term solutions. The world wants to see things sorted – and the quicker the better.
The Mennonite theologian Alan Kreider has highlighted how central patience was as a virtue to the early Christians. For they “believed that God is patient and that Jesus visibly embodied patience.” Such patience was manifest in the early Christians’ behaviour and was shaped by their formation and teaching in preparation for baptism. They took their time.
Others are rediscovering the importance of patience. In a recent book provocatively titled When Church Stops Working, the authors highlight how today’s church needs to embrace the invitation to wait patiently upon God. Part of this they see as the need for the church to avoid the contemporary drive to “acceleration.” And, instead, to patiently seek “resonance” with God’s actions in the world.
I wonder what it would look like for you and your church to be more patient in discerning what God is doing in your locality. How might you collectively be more patient in 2026, and attentive in a new way to God’s gentle promptings?
All of us at RI wish you a happy New Year, and every blessing for 2026.
Alastair McKay, Executive Director
RI in Kenya: Practical Peacemaking training
Nine Bishops and eight spouses from the Anglican Church of Kenya participated in the pilot Practical Peacemaking programme that ran at the end of October 2025. This was designed to resource participants for better handling the tensions and conflicts that they face in their roles as senior church leaders. The feedback received was encouraging, and they were particularly appreciative of including the Bishops’ spouses: they are key people within their dioceses, including being presidents of the Mothers’ Union, which is at the forefront of social outreach in Kenya (and across Africa).
RI is looking at building on the relationship established with the dioceses represented by this group. We are planning on delivering a training of trainers’ programme in May 2026 for nominees from these dioceses: a pair of facilitators from each diocese, one male and one female, who can then offer grassroots training for local leaders and young adults. The focus will be on practical insights, skills and processes for better handling disagreement and conflict, both within the church and in the wider community.
Rt Revd Moira Astin, Bishop of Crediton, RI Chair of Trustees, Revd Fedis Nyagah, RI Kenya Project Manager, and Revd Dr Alastair McKay, RI Executive Director.
Reconciling Mission Conference 17 March 2026, Coventry Cathedral
As 2026 begins, we’re looking forward to hosting our annual Reconciling Mission conference on Tuesday 17 March. Past and present participants of the Reconciling Mission programme will gather at Coventry Cathedral as we celebrate the work of the graduating 4th cohort of groups from the dioceses of Bristol, Leeds, Lincoln and York.
This will be an opportunity to encourage the 5th cohort who will be regathering for the first time in person since their initial training week in May 2025. In addition Mina Munns, RI’s Network Lead, will host a session for Reconciling Mission network members
Our keynote speaker this year is Revd Dr Joshua Cockayne, academic dean of Cranmer Hall and director of the Bede Centre for Church Planting Theology.
Please contact Becky Gaskin if you are part of the Reconciling Mission network and would like to join us.
Update on Reconciling Mission 6th cohort
RI has concluded that there is insufficient interest to confidently launch a 6th cohort of the Reconciling Mission programme in 2026. We are having to be patient! Recruitment for the next cohort will therefore resume in the early autumn of 2026 with the aim of securing sufficient participation to launch the 6th cohort in 2027.
One benefit of this development is that it will enable our director, Alastair McKay, to be more directly involved in the development and delivery of new programmes in Kenya, in partnership with the Anglican Church of Kenya.
Reconciling Mission book
We are delighted to announce the publication on 22 January 2026 of the Reconciling Mission book. Co-authored by Alastair McKay and David Brubaker, the book explores how local churches can engage in more mutually respectful ways with neighbours and local organizations. The book offers theoretical and theological reflections, distils wisdom from recent research and connects this with local case studies drawn from both the UK and the USA.
The authors offer a vision of Christian community engagement which places God’s reconciling work at the heart. The case studies provide a wide spectrum of how congregations can engage their local communities: from addressing felt needs, to raising awareness, to advocating for change, to organizing with multiple partners and community residents.
The book is a resource for thinking about churches’ deeper engagement with their local neighbourhoods, in seeking to realize more of God’s reign among us.
Bishop Rachel Treweek says: “This book offers encouragement, practical insights and hopeful examples in the adventure of joining in with God’s kingdom transformation. I am delighted to commend it.”
If you buy through the Bloomsbury website, you can receive a 20% discount when checking out by using this code: GLR BD8
RI Trustees
Everyone at RI would like to thank you for your support in 2025 and we look forward to continuing our journey together in 2026. Special thanks to our wonderful trustees (left to right, with Alastair McKay): Mark Simmons, Revd Richard Westwood, +Moira Astin, Revd Ruwani Gunawardene, Akeem Adagbada, and our treasurer, Peter Wolstenholme.
Prayer requests
We welcome your prayers for Reconciliation Initiatives. In particular for:
- The 4th cohort of the Reconciling Mission programme as they prepare for their concluding conference in March, that they will be strengthened for their ongoing journeys of missional engagement with local communities.
- The 5th cohort of the Reconciling Mission programme – groups from Durham, Newcastle and Southwark dioceses – that they will make the most of the ongoing action learning groups.
- Alastair McKay and Fedis Nyagah, for wisdom as they develop plans for a training of trainers’ programme in Kenya in May, and discern the right co-facilitators and programme shape.
- The next steps for the Being White programme.
Thank you for remembering us in your prayers. May you be blessed as you join us in God’s reconciling work.
Grace and peace to you,
Revd Dr Alastair McKay, Executive Director
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