Wind and tide in the small church

The Cruising Club’s weekly yacht race was proceeding slowly down the inner bay in extremely light winds. The far marker is about opposite our place and we watched them approach the turn.
The first of the smaller yachts arrived, turned gracefully at the buoy and took the wind on the beam… And continued on down the Bay – stern first. The tide was going out faster than they could make way against it. For some time they sailed steadily but lost ground in the tide. For them the race was over. Later the bigger yachts managed to make progress but the race was soon called off and everyone motored home.

The very small church has great strengths but it is often vulnerable to external pressures that are not of its own making. Nobody in the small church should feel a personal sense of failure when the locals are agreed that closure is clearly the only strategy left.