September Letter

September 13, 2007 by Vicky 

Back from holiday at the end of August, here are some of the things I am looking forward to this autumn:

There will be a new feel to the staff team. Andrew is ordained deacon this month, Dan newly-priested and John still relatively new as our team vicar based at St. Paul’s. Tom Brassil starts in a new role as music leader for the 11 o’clock and evening services as well as taking on Katy’s responsibilities for schools. And within the team Dan is going to look after Focus, our student group, while Andrew develops events for those in their 20s and 30s. Personalities and gifts will differ, but we remain united in a common drive to build up the body of Christ and grow to that maturity of faith which Paul cites as the goal of ministry (Ephesians 2:11–13).

Then there is Resurgam 50, which will be the catalyst for a schools’ art exhibition and music day in the autumn, as part of our aim to develop links with education and the community. A special celebration is planned for St. Andrew’s Day, and a service with the Bishop of Exeter is to be held on 2nd December to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the reconsecration of the church. Meanwhile we continue to work with our advisers on possible plans to redecorate and relight the interior of the church, to set up a coffee facility opposite the shop at the back of the church, and to landscape the land between the church and the Abbey Hall to offer disabled access and a performance space. Progress has been thorough – but frustratingly slow! – and the next stage is to approach various funding bodies to see what support they are prepared to offer. Many people have remarked on how attractive Brian Pollard’s signed prints of St. Andrew’s are and we are most grateful to him for his generosity in painting this unique picture of the church, complete with balloons and snow.

There are plenty of special events and services all listed on the autumn programme card which is now available – Harvest, a Songs of Praise evening, Ian Tracey’s organ recital, concerts, meals. But I suppose what I look forward to most in this new term are the ordinary things of church life: the chance week by week to look together at the Scriptures, the gathering with fellow Christians each Sunday, the praying and caring and visiting and learning which deepen our faith and our relationships as we work out what it is to be a Christian community here in the heart of the city.

The apostle Paul in that chapter of Ephesians writes that, “speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ.” Let us pray that this autumn, that may be true of us.

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