Letter from the Rector – November 2009
November 2, 2009 by Andrew
At the end of this month, on 29th November, we shall be holding our Service of Thanksgiving to mark the inauguration of St. Andrew’s as a Minster. Over 150 invitations have been sent out to churches, city councillors and other guests to join us as the Bishop of Exeter leads what we hope will be a joyful and memorable occasion. The service is the climax to the week of activities, concerts and exhibitions described in this magazine, and we are particularly grateful to Peninsula Arts and the Local Studies Department of Plymouth Library for the considerable efforts they have put in to helping us mark this milestone in the history of St. Andrew’s.
Our church was itself founded originally out of a minster, the monks of Plympton priory setting up a church on this site in Saxon times to serve the little fishing community around Sutton harbour. Minsters in the Middle Ages were centres of Christian mission before the introduction of the parish system. Monks and evangelists would travel from them to villages and settlements of the region preaching, teaching, baptising, marrying and burying. York and Wimbourne, for instance, have ancient Minsters dating from that era.
In recent years, the term Minster has been re-introduced and bestowed upon a few churches in major cities that do not have Anglican Cathedrals, such as Stoke, Rotherham, Sunderland and Doncaster. There were plans in the 1920s for St. Andrew’s to be made into a Pro-Cathedral but these never came to fruition, and now we are delighted that the Bishop of Exeter, responding to a petition by the city council, has decided to declare us a Minster as part of the 1100th anniversary celebrations of the Diocese in order to recognise the significance of Plymouth in the life of the Diocese and the region.
The original purpose of the minster, to proclaim the Christian gospel in the locality, provides a great model for us as we grow into being the minster church in our own day. For many in our society the Christian faith seems obscure or outdated. Others have had an experience of church life which is far removed from the joyous discovery of the first disciples that we read about in the New Testament. The challenge is for today’s church to live and preach the good news of Jesus with a relevance and imagination that makes people aware of the call of God on their lives. That remains the desire at the heart of all our activities, to make known what the apostle Paul calls ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’.
Nick McKinnel
Letter from the Rector – October 2009
September 24, 2009 by Andrew
On Sunday mornings we are looking at the beatitudes, those curious sayings of Jesus which declare blessed those who are meek and merciful, poor in spirit and pure in heart, mourning and hungry, peacemakers and persecuted. Familiar as they are, there is much in them that all of us need to hear afresh.
Most noticeable is the contrast between what Jesus calls blessed in Matthew 5:1-10, and the values by which most people live. I quoted recently these ‘alternative beatitudes’:
Blessed are the pushers, for they get on in the world.
Blessed are the tough, for they never let life hurt them.
Blessed are those who complain, for they get what they want.
Blessed are the blasé, for they never worry over their sins.
Blessed are the slave drivers, for they get results.
Blessed are the knowledgeable men of the world, for they know their way around.
Blessed are the troublemakers, for they get their own way in the end.
Blessed are the popular, for they never lack friends.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, once described the world as a shop window, with all the world has to offer on display. But, he writes, it is as if some practical joker has come in and switched the price tags around, so that worthless things have a high price put on them, and things of real value are rated low. In the beatitudes Jesus gives us those qualities of the highest value and shows up the shallowness of much that our society esteems.
Above all, the beatitudes give us an important reminder of the Christian character, of what those who follow Jesus are to be like. Much of church life is inevitably about activity, things to be done, ideas to be followed through. But the purpose of those activities is to help us become more like Christ; to be merciful, poor in spirit and pure in heart. What we are is every bit as important as what we do.
The Sermon on the Mount is descriptive rather than prescriptive in that it describes what life is to be for those who are part of God’s Kingdom. The apostle Paul writes in a similar vein of the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). In the month we celebrate harvest, let us not forget to look at the harvest of our own lives, and ask that we may live out those qualities which Jesus himself calls blessed.
Nick McKinnel
Letter from the Rector – Sept 2009
September 1, 2009 by Andrew
Taking a look at our new programme card, I think we are in for a great autumn! The highpoint will be the Celebration Service on 29th November when the Bishop of Exeter inaugurates St. Andrew’s as a Minster, an occasion intended not for patting ourselves on the back but to call us to engage with renewed confidence with the life of our community and the wider church. Around that weekend we are planning concerts, services and events to help us mark a notable milestone for our church.
There will be a fresh feel to our staff team as we welcome Steve and Katy Nichols this month. Steve has just completed a PhD through Bristol University and will be ordained at Exeter Cathedral on 13th September (10.30am). He comes as our new curate and another Steve, Steve Carkett, becomes a ministry assistant alongside Gemma-Louise, to help particularly with school’s work and with our youth and children’s activities. Steve C has been a relay worker with UCCF this last year and is already a favourite with the children in Climbers. This may go a little way to filling the gap left as Andy Bowden leaves us to train for ordination. We shall be saying tearful farewells to Andy on 6th September and wishing him well as he heads for Oxford.
Two new sermon series start this month. In the mornings we shall be looking at the disturbing words of Jesus that we know as the beatitudes, where he speaks of how the poor in spirit, the meek and the merciful know God’s blessing. There could hardly be a greater contrast with many of today’s values. And in the evening services we look at the life of Jacob, later called Israel, one of the great Old Testament patriarchs. We shall find him a complicated character, struggling at many times in life, but discovering the faithfulness of God in the midst of an eventful life.
The autumn would be a good time for those who might like to explore a new part of church life. I would be delighted to point people towards one of our homegroups, which provide opportunities for study, prayer and fellowship, and which this term look at the letter to the Ephesians. I shall be taking a Christianity Explored course, a straightforward introduction to the Christian faith from Mark’s gospel, and Andrew is leading our ‘Theology to Go’ course on Monday evenings. And then there’s God@Work for those in the city centre on Thursday lunchtimes, Noah’s Ark if you have small children, ‘Who Let The Dads Out’ on Saturday mornings for Dads, and ‘In Stitches’ should you have a propensity for needlework…not to mention the Mothers Union, lunchclub, TNT… Why not discover a new activity?!
When Jesus calls his disciples it is that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and have authority to drive out demons (Mark 3:14-15). He then prepares them by his teaching and example until, in Mark 6, they are sent out in his service. To be with Jesus, to be taught, and to be sent out are all part of Christian discipleship. May this autumn be a time when as a church we grow in love, in understanding and in service to the One who gave everything for us.
Nick McKinnel
Letter from the Rector – June 2009
May 28, 2009 by Andrew
I am sure that most readers are aware that this year the Diocese of Exeter celebrates its 1100th anniversary. That is, it is 1100 years since Eadwulf set out from Sherborne to form a new diocese based at Crediton. (The move to Exeter followed in 1050). Our own designation as a ‘minster’ has been part of the celebrations (a special service will be held on 29th November) and a book has been published to mark the occasion, ‘The Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon’s Churches,’ which has a description and photograph of each one of the 618 Church of England churches in Devon. Copies can be ordered from the church shop.
Two events in June give us all a particular opportunity to join in the wider celebrations. The first is the visit of the Bishop of Exeter to Sutton Deanery (the part of Plymouth we are in) for 10th-14th June. All three of the bishops in the diocese are taking part in such visits under the title ‘Bishops in Mission’ and during his time with us Bishop Michael will be speaking with civic and business leaders, meeting old and young, eating curries, hog roasts and barbecues, and patrolling with Street Pastors. We shall be hosting him at a visitation to the archdeaconry on the Wednesday evening and he will also be taking a deanery confirmation service at St. Andrew’s on the Sunday night.
A particular feature of all the ‘Bishops in Mission’ visits is an emphasis on encouraging Christians to think about our own contribution to the church’s ministry. With less clergy now available in parishes (the number of paid parochial clergy is half what it was when I arrived in the diocese 22 years ago), we are rightly having to rediscover the Biblical emphasis on the church as the body of Christ, each contributing our God-given gifts to building up that body. The Bishop will be holding a Vocations Tea at 4pm on Sunday 14th June in the Lower Abbey Hall for any interested in thinking whether God might be calling them to some of the recognised forms of Christian ministry.
The other main anniversary celebration this month is on the weekend of 26th and 27th June when there are a series of gatherings, services and seminars centred on Exeter Cathedral. On the Friday night a youth event promises ‘the Cathedral as you’ve never seen it before’ with live bands, skate park, inflatables, worship and the Archbishop of Canterbury ‘popping in for a chat and to lead prayers’. On the Saturday all are welcome at a Celebration Eucharist on the Cathedral Green (11.30am) at which the Archbishop will preach, and a number of seminars are to be held in the afternoon which we are encouraged to book for in advance (www.devon1100.org). An open air Songs of Praise rounds off the day at 5.15pm.
Both these diocesan celebrations appropriately follow on from the Sunday when we recall the Day of Pentecost (31st May) and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus in a new and life-changing way. As we look back in gratitude to those who brought the gospel to this part of the world, let us pray that God’s Spirit would continue his gracious work of building up his church here, that like the first Christians we may devote ourselves ‘to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers’ (Acts 2:42).
Nick McKinnel
Letter from the Rector, April 2009
April 6, 2009 by Andrew
The announcement by the Bishop of Exeter that he had declared St. Andrew’s “a Minster” received widespread local publicity and the inevitable enquiry into quite what a minster is. My ‘Dictionary of the Christian Church’ cites the monastic foundations of the title from the seventh century, while Wikipedia (which I notice has already added St. Andrew’s to its Minster entry) highlights the mission focus of the original minsters in evangelising their surrounding areas before the introduction of the parish system. I just tell people that a minster is a bit like a cathedral – but better!
There has also been some interest in how we should use the title. The name Minster is invariably attached to a location (eg York Minster, Wimborne Minster). So we could just be Plymouth Minster, except that no-one I have spoken to wants to lose the St. Andrew’s designation. Alternatively we could describe ourselves as St. Andrew’s Church: Plymouth Minster, or maybe simply as The Minster Church of St. Andrew.
Rather more important than the name is what we make of this new title. I have said on a few occasions that it is something we shall have to “grow into”, and it was a helpful co-incidence that on the Sunday morning after the Bishop’s announcement, we were looking at the prayer of Jesus for his church recorded in John chapter 17.
In that prayer, sometimes called the ‘high priestly prayer’, there is a great concern for truth to lie at the heart of the church’s being and message. “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (v17). It is the challenge to listen to God in the scriptures so that his truth can shape and change us and our world. Jesus prays too for the holiness of the church, that we would be kept not just from error but from evil. “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (v15). Here is the call for what one writer calls a “holy worldliness”, the root of that saying about being in the world but not of it.
From that truth and holiness flows mission, for the church is sanctified by the truth for a task – in the world but not of the world, for the world. “As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (v18), his own incarnation becoming a model for our own mission. And his prayer concludes with the unity of the church, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (v21). Here is to be a community through whose love and common purpose the world would “know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (v23).
Here is the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church” which Jesus prays would be his legacy on earth. At the church’s annual meeting (22 April) I hope we can explore in practical terms our minster status and how we can more truly reflect that life which is at the heart of this great chapter.
Nick McKinnel
Letter from the Rector, February 2009
January 26, 2009 by Andrew
It has been a sober start to the new year for our church family. The sudden death of John Knight after the Lord Mayor’s Carol Service was a great shock to us all and warm tributes to John, who was our organist for 28 years, appear later in this edition of the Fisherman. We have also held funerals in recent weeks for other long-standing members of the congregation: Dr Jennie Tisdall who was greatly loved and respected by many; Robin Lumley-Harvatt, a great character in the St. Katherine’s congregation; and Len Brimacombe, whose 96 years were spent within the life of St. Andrew’s. There are those who are severely ill in hospital, and the new year has brought worrying diagnoses for two or three other members of our church family.
We have also hosted in January the funerals of two Plymouth servicemen killed in Afghanistan, Sjt Chris Reed who was to have been married here in September and Travis Mackin of 45 Commando. The church was full on both occasions of young people and military personnel deeply saddened by the loss of friends and colleagues at such a young age.
So this is a good time to remember that the Christian faith was founded on the triumph of life over death in the resurrection of Jesus. The New Testament resounds with hope, with the confidence that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The reality of heaven is not speculation or wishful thinking but the considered teaching of the New Testament and the true significance of the events we shall celebrate at Easter.
This humble confidence in the face of the death has always been a mark of Christian believers since days when the early church “outlived, out-thought and out-died” the pagan world of their day. We all know the pain and separation death brings, and the depth of grief that follows the loss of a loved one. But, in Paul’s phrase, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess 4:13). In fact he could even write, “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
In contrast to the despair of much of society, the Christian hope gives us an underlying assurance in the loving purposes of God even in the face of this last enemy. We are to believe our beliefs. A Christmas note from a close friend diagnosed with cancer wrote to us, “The consultant estimates that I have one or two years to live (although obviously all such estimates may be wildly wrong). I assured him that I see this as a sentence of life and not of death, as a beginning and not an end.”
Nick McKinnel
Letter from the Rector, December 2008
December 8, 2008 by Andrew
There seems this year to be a degree of anxiety as we approach Christmas and the new year. Perhaps that is not surprising with the daily media reports of financial doom and gloom. House prices falling, mortgages are hard to get, people are beginning to lose their jobs, there are worrying levels of personal and national debt. For many families there are real and justifiable worries about how to afford not just Christmas but many of those things we take for granted.
So now is a good time to recall a phrase which Luke recalls four times on the lips of angels in his telling of the Christmas story: “Fear not”. The first time is when the angel of the Lord appears to the aged priest Zechariah to tell him that he is to be the father of John the Baptist. “Fear not, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.” Then Mary, chosen as the one to bear God’s son, was greatly troubled. “Fear not,” says the angel Gabriel.
The same words were said to Joseph when he learnt of Mary’s pregnancy: “Fear not, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”. And then, when the baby was born, the angels came to the shepherds in the fields and said, “Fear not, for behold I bring glad tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.”
This “Fear not” does not of course mean that there are no concerns. Fear is part of the human condition, fear not just for our finances but fears for health or family members or what the future may hold. The angels are not inviting us to be escapist or unrealistic, to hide our fears under tinsel or drown them in rum and coke. But they are saying that we can live in the real world and there is no need to fear – because Christ is come, because “unto us is born a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.”
I like the story of the little boy who shouted from his bedroom, “Dad, it’s dark up here and I’m scared.” His father shouted back, “Don’t be afraid. God is with you.” After a few seconds pause, the boy yelled again: “Get up here, Dad – I need someone with skin on!” The coming of God in human flesh, the birth of Jesus, tells us that the human race is not alone on a dying planet, that God is not a remote, impersonal deity, that the heavens are not made of brass. He is on our side, not just cheering from the stands but on the pitch alongside us able to transform fear to trust.
That is great news to tell this Christmas. These glad tidings of great joy are for “all the people” says the angel (Luke 2:10). So at home, at church, at work, let’s not moan about the expense and effort of the Christmas season but celebrate the coming of God into our world. Thousands of people will pass through our church doors to the thirty or so carol services we are hosting. Neighbours will be pleased to be invited to special Christmas events. And at the heart of all we proclaim are the words, “Fear not,” spoken not just at the birth of Jesus but also by his empty tomb. “Fear not. He is not here, he is risen.” It takes us from Christmas to Easter and the defeat of the greatest fear of all, that of death itself. If we don’t tell people, no-one else will!
Nick McKinnel
November 2008 letter
November 2, 2008 by Andrew
On 16th September 1893, 100,000 people came to a starting line that stretched for miles across the Oklahoma plains. They were waiting for 12 noon and a signal to start them on one of the most remarkable races in human history. All of them hoped to gain one of the 42,000 plots of land made available by the US Federal Government. Many would be disappointed, left behind by the fastest and fittest, but the prize of 160 acres of virgin farmland, cheap and ready to be settled, was worth the risk to those looking for new life on the plains of Oklahoma.
When the cannon sounded, everything was dust and noise. Horses, mules and wagons roared off, rushing headlong into the plains. For some, hopes disappeared almost immediately amid lame horses, broken wagon wheels, collapsed axles, possessions strewn all over the ground. Accident and injury claimed others along the way. But for those able to ‘stake a claim’ by driving their wooden peg into the ground it was a great day and dreams of a new life began to become a reality.
In order for this frontier life to be a success, two achievements were needed. The first was speed, to get ahead and secure a plot of land. The other was survival, getting through the first harvest. The first, you could say, required the skills and training of an athlete and soldier, the second those of the builder and farmer.
A church that is wanting to be at a frontier for the gospel will, as Mike Breen points out, need both pioneers and settlers. Pioneers are good at getting us to the frontiers; settlers are good at keeping us there. Pioneers are committed to change, flexibility and speed of operation. Settlers emphasise order, consistency and stability. Both groups have strengths; both groups have weaknesses. All of us are on the spectrum between one and the other, not actually in a fixed way but moving according to our insights or stage of life. Both groups need each other to maintain a healthy, growing, stable church community. Each needs to value, respect and welcome the other.
There may be a connection between whether we are pioneers or settlers and what kind of ministry we are called to fulfil within the church. Paul speaks of the fivefold ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers, (Ephesians 4:7-11)
all of which are given to build up the body of Christ into a unity of faith and maturity in Christ. Perhaps apostles (by which today we may mean missionaries, those who are sent) and prophets are nearer the pioneer end of the spectrum, pastors and teachers nearer to the settler end, but all are needed. A church like ours needs all of us, pioneer or settler, to exercise our gifts and play our part in the frontier life if the Kingdom of God, not with a ‘volunteer’ mentality but as those joyfully committed to God’s service.
Nick McKinnel
October 2008 letter
October 3, 2008 by Andrew
Together with the other clergy of the Diocese of Exeter, John, Dan, Andrew and I spent a few sunny days last month in Falmouth at the Diocesan Clergy Conference which is held every three or four years to gather us together from the four corners of Devon. The theme was ‘Reflecting God’s Glory’, and we gave thought to this in the lectures, Bible studies and services.
So here are three observations from our time together.
1. These are not easy times for the church. The wider tensions in the Anglican communion over sexuality and women in the episcopacy have been well documented. There are also problems with finance and clergy numbers which of course have the knock-on effects of stress, limited resources and difficult decisions about priorities. There is a real concern to tackle this, not least by encouraging the sort of lay ministries (readers, youth and pastoral workers etc.) with which we are familiar at St Andrew’s, but there is no doubt that church life will be very different in 30 or 40 years time from that which we know today. Perhaps that is a good thing; after all society too will be very different. But change is often unsettling and the challenge is to be faithful to the gospel while contemporary in our expression of it.
2. Going for growth. This was very much the theme of the Bishop of Exeter’s address. To look at the Acts of the Apostles, as we did in our evening services over the summer, is to see a church praying, preaching and living for Christ in a way that ‘turned the world upside down’. And while individuals may encounter Christ in all sorts of ways, the local church is the key (and normal) place where the Christian faith is proclaimed. Our ‘Deeper’ weekend is one initiative to set forth the gospel to friends and neighbours. Week by week we try to make all that we do as accessible as possible to those unfamiliar with the church. We rightly target our resources towards young people and young families, and soon will have the facilities of the servery to offer greater hospitality to the community. All this requires long-term commitment, but also a degree of imagination as we try not to “always do the same old things” but put ourselves into the shoes of others to see what would be most helpful to them.
3. The glory of God. To fit the conference theme, the writer and broadcaster Elaine Storkey gave three Bible readings on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapters 3-5. They speak of the glory of the new covenant brought by Jesus, and how “we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the lord, who is the Spirit.” The whole Christian faith springs from the grace of God which we find in the death and resurrection of Jesus. For that reason “we do not lose heart”; in fact more than that, we look for the eternal glory which puts any present difficulties in perspective. The apostle Paul knew better than most the realities of serving Christ, the present cost and the future glory, and we too have the demanding commission to be ambassadors for Christ through whom God makes his appeal.
Whatever the local and wider difficulties of church life, we are to keep our eyes on the glory of God which we see in a dying figure on the cross and in the glorious hope of heaven. Then, far from losing heart, we can get on with that life-changing message of reconciliation which grows God’s kingdom.
Nick McKinnel
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!