June 2008 Letter
June 8, 2008 by Dan
Later this month, fifteen members of our congregation will be off to Mtunthama with Medic Malawi to work in the school, hospital, orphanage and feeding programme set up there of the last few years. A second group departs in mid-July further deepening our links with the church’s mission in a needy part of rural Africa.
One encouraging feature of our church’s life has been the increased interest in and commitment to overseas mission. Each of the homegroups supports a mission partner financially and in prayer, and as they tell us when they visit, this means an enormous amount to those working often in difficult and isolated situations. Last year we were able to channel over £38,000 through the Mission Partnership scheme to a range of mission initiatives, from Central Asia to Kenya and from Senegal to the Shekinah Mission.
One family we particularly enjoy supporting are the Dryes, who we hope to see more of this month as Alistair takes part of his sabbatical in Torquay. We look forward to commenting on how Ella, Jonah, Rhiannon and Boaz have grown – and how Naomi looks as young as ever! Bishop John Ellison has now retired from Paraguay, Katy has arrived safely in India, and we are glad also to take on support for a former member of our congregation, Sarah Leedham, who works for the Christian environmental organisation A Rocha. It will be good to hear more in due course about what Sarah is up to. And we hope to have an update on Marine Reach from Brian and Ann Sloan after the evening service on 13th July.
All of this is to say that support for mission activity is not an optional extra but central to church life. “From those to whom much is given, much will be required,” and we do have a great deal in terms of resources compared to the church in many parts of the world. But we can also learn a lot from those who serve Christ in difficult situations. The prayer diary gives us a weekly mission initiative to pray for, and we look forward to plenty of intrepid tales once our Malawian parties return!
May 2008 Letter
April 30, 2008 by Dan
You can tell a lot about a person from their friends. That is true for Jesus too. Most people outside the church form their views about him from those who call themselves Christians.
At the church’s annual meeting last month, the reading was from Colossians chapter three verses 12–17. In those verses the apostle Paul is deeply concerned about how the Christian community lives. God’s chosen people, as he calls them, emphasising the privilege of our calling, are to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. They are to bear with each other, forgive as God has forgiven them and, above all else, to put on love (continuing his clothing metaphor).
This is because the gospel is not just a theological truth or abstract good news. It is embedded in community, demonstrated and lived out by those who hold to it. The salt of the earth are also the light of the world. The Holy Spirit changes not just individuals but also whole groups of people, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles. Indeed, the gospel is about creating God’s new community.
The new life that Christ brings is demonstrated above all in relationships. The calling is not just to love those who are like us. Love begins at the point of disagreement. That is where our commitment to each other is proved. In a fragmented society, the church can demonstrate unity. In a world where people grumble, criticise and bear resentment, Christian people can be encouraging, kind and forgiving. It’s not easy, often it goes against our natural instincts, but it is a mark of God at work by his Spirit.
After telling the Colossians what they are to be, Paul goes on to what they are to do. “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” At the annual meeting we touched on the priorities and targets for the year ahead. But on their own, those things are just events and activities. Our service is to be a grateful and joyful response to God’s grace to us, doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Faith in the environment
March 18, 2008 by Dan
A summary of Sir Ghillean Prance’s talk on Sunday 9th March is now available, including his action points and web links. Click here to read more.
March letter
February 23, 2008 by Dan
I know a man who teaches at a North American university. His wife, who brings up their children and has put her own career on hold, meets many forceful, career-orientated women who ask her what she does. Over the years she has prepared a ready response: “I’m socialising two homo sapiens into the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of utopia God wills for human history. What do you do?” Apparently she usually gets a fairly humble response: “Oh, I’m just a lawyer.”
Mothering Sunday (2nd March) gives us the opportunity to give thanks for those who brought us into the world and to offer our support and prayers for those entrusted with bringing up the younger generation. As the American woman intimates, there are few greater responsibilities and challenges than equipping children to live purposeful and rewarding lives, and the love and security of the parental home is central to that. Numerous surveys link parental care to childhood behaviour. But they also show some worrying trends. A U.S. survey reports that fathers spend on average 37 seconds a day talking to their young children, while some of those children will spend 54 hours a week in front of the TV. Where are their values likely to be learnt?
One thing that we would love to do at St. Andrew’s is increase our support for families with pre-school children, both by appointing a Families Worker and through enhancing the activities we offer. It is great to see that the crèche on Sundays has outgrown its room, and that Noah’s Ark on Fridays now fills that Abbey Hall to capacity, with spin-offs into Ark’s Angels and Christianity Explored. These are great foundations to build on.
“Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children” says the book of Proverbs (17:6). (Note that it is children who are to be proud of their parents rather than the other way around!) That says to me that within the family of the church all are to take an interest in and rejoice with one another across the generations. Social pressures tend to encourage us to mix just with those of our own age and outlook, but from the time of the first Christians the church has aspired to cross every human barrier with a welcome and love for one another which echoes God’s welcome and love for us. For these small children to feel from earliest days that the church is a place where they can feel at home and a community that cares is a great gift we can offer. Thank you to all who give their time to help our children experience something of God’s love and care.
November letter
November 1, 2007 by Dan
A fiftieth anniversary is a notable occasion and this month on St. Andrew’s Day, 30th November, St. Andrew’s celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the reconsecration of the newly restored church. Many still recall that memorable service, held in the presence of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, at which the Bishop of Exeter was accompanied by the Bishop of Liverpool (former vicar Clifford Martin) as well as the Bishops of Plymouth, Crediton and other civic and ecclesiastical dignitaries, and the congregation sang with conviction, “The Church’s one Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.”
Over the last fifty years we have not stood still. From the installation of the Piper windows in the 1960s to the setting up of the church shop in the 90s, the building has gently adapted to the opportunities of the day. Services are very different too. Looking back at the order of service for the reconsecration in 1957, it seems to come from a different world in its language, liturgy and even typeface. Those were the days of mattins and evensong, looked back to with great affection by many in our congregation and very different from the powerpoint projection and band at our services today.
To mark the anniversary we shall be holding two events to which all members of the congregation are warmly invited. On Friday, 30th November there will be a choral evensong at 7.00 pm followed by a St. Andrew’s Day party at 8.00 pm, with music, food and a quiz. Then at 10.00 am on Sunday, 2nd December, the Bishop of Exeter will lead a special service for Resurgam 50, to be followed by a celebration lunch in the Duke of Cornwall Hotel (for which tickets have to be purchased).
Anniversaries are occasions for reflection and, in our case, this gives the opportunity to look back with gratitude to God’s blessing on the life of our church over so many years. Different events will stand out for different people. Particular individuals have contributed in enormous ways to the various aspects of our church life, from flowers and bell-ringing to youth work and mission. All of us feel small and transient in the face of the thousand years of history and worship that have taken place on the site of our church building.
But anniversaries are also a spur not to just look back with gratitude but to look forward with hope, as Paul does in that great prayer that opens his letter to the Ephesians. Having listed the ways in which God has “ blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” he looks forward to “ the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.” Thanksgiving for the past and hope for the future go naturally together. Because of God’s past goodness, we can trust him for the future. Not many of us will be here for Resurgam 100, and who can guess what the shape of the Christian church will be by the middle of this century, but I have no doubt that the congregation will continue to sing with equal confidence that ‘the Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.
October Letter
September 25, 2007 by Dan
I have come across the transcript of a (slightly) fictional PCC discussion. The debate centred on whether to put a coffee facility, a serving counter with a few tables and chairs in the back corner of a certain church. This is a church in the centre of a city which receives lots of visitors through the day, some of whom are in need of a listening ear, a cup of tea, some friendship and what is called these days a ‘signposting service’ to point them in the direction of appropriate help.
Obviously in this (slightly) imaginary PCC meeting everyone wanted to look at the plans of this coffee corner, to see some drawings, examine the costs. We (I mean, they) wanted to know which pews would have to be moved, what would be the aesthetic effect on a grade I* listed building and how the heritage people would feel.
“Somebody asked, “What about the sort of person this facility would attract? Don’t we have enough problems already with addicts, rough sleepers, disturbed individuals?”
“They’re not problems,” others countered, “They are opportunities for Christ’s love to be shown in action. Jesus said that in so far as we care for such of the least of these brothers of his, we care for him.”
“That’s all very well,” said someone else, “but this is a place where people come to pray, to find quiet in the midst of life, to be uplifted and refreshed in spirit.”
“Maybe,” came the answer, “but we can’t ask God to help people if we won’t help them ourselves. And isn’t God seen as clearly in the service of the poor as in the beauty of our building?”
So continues the transcript of this debate, passionate but amicable, all arising from a genuine desire to serve God and use the building for his glory. Wisely the PCC decided to consult more widely with the congregation and the diocese, to see where the weight of opinion lies and to try and glorify God both in our heritage and our compassion.