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 For many in our society the Christian faith seems obscure or outdated.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

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

Earlier this week, The Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Reading spoke about the need for the Church to be truly welcoming: “Even today I meet people who think you have to be highly educated or suited and booted to be a person who goes to church. That’s so frustrating. How did it come to this, that we have become known as just the Marks and Spencer option when in our heart of hearts we know that Jesus would just as likely be in the queue at Asda or Aldi? Jesus got us started with church simply. Like this: sitting us down in groups on the grass and telling simple stories. Not simplistic. But certainly not complicated. All his first disciples were down-to-earth people who wanted to know what life was all about.”

Churches in Plymouth are no exception and are keen to be welcoming to whomever may come. Both St. Andrew’s Church and Plymouth Christian Centre taking part. Geoff Lee, Lead Pastor at Plymouth Christian Centre in Cattedown said “It’s amazing how many people in Plymouth used to go the church. We’re just happy to be able to open our doors once again to any who wish to come back.”

People may stop coming to church for all sorts of reasons, sometimes as simple as moving house and getting out of the habit. Often, all they need is an invitation to come back and Back to Church Sunday offers the perfect opportunity to return. Speaking of this initiative, Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury added “The Church’s responsibility to welcome all comers isn’t, of course, restricted to one Sunday in the year! But this Sunday in particular prompts us to do a better job of saying to people that we are truly glad to see newcomers and they always have a right to be part of the family.”

Anyone wanting to give church another try this weekend is sure of a warm welcome at any of the following services.

St. Andrew’s Church, Royal Parade:
9.30am Communion, 11.00am Family Service, 6.30pm Informal Service

Plymouth Christian Centre, Cattedown Roundabout:
9:15am Service, 11.00am Family Service, 7.00pm Service with Cafe afterwards.

Mutley Baptist Church, Mutley Plain:
9.00am Morning Worship, 10.30am Family Service, 6.30pm Informal Service

Methodist Central Hall, Eastlake St. (behind Drake Circus Mall):
11.00am Worship, 7.00pm Sunday Night at the Hall.

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

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

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

The title has only been granted to a handful of other churches across the country – and it will be the only Minister in the Diocese of Exeter.

The change in status recognises the importance of Plymouth as a city and the historic role of St Andrew’s as a place of worship.

The Rt Revd Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter said: ‘This is an historic step for St Andrews and is intended to be one way of celebrating the significance of the city of Plymouth in the life of our diocese.

‘In recognising the historic role of St. Andrew’s as a place of celebration, worship and mission for the city, we are also recognising the importance of the city in the South West and its historic contribution to our national life.’

The announcement follows a petition by Plymouth City Council which noted the ‘remarkable inspiration’ of the church’s famous Resurgam motto during the last war and resolved ‘to request the Bishop of Exeter to grant our historic Civic Church of St. Andrew the style and title of Minster, in recognition of the very great esteem in which this Church and its record of service is held by the City of Plymouth.’

A special service to mark the granting of Minster status will be held at St. Andrew’s on 29 November.

The title of ‘Minster’ dates back to monastic times when it was used to describe a major centre of Christian mission. In recent years this medieval designation has been re-introduced and bestowed on a handful of parish churches in urban areas – including Sunderland, Doncaster, Stoke-on-Trent and Newport – to acknowledge their wide responsibilities for their communities. 

The Rector of St. Andrew’s, Prebendary Nick McKinnel, said: ‘We are delighted at the encouragement this gives us in our mission. We shall enjoy thinking in fresh and creative ways about our responsibilities for Christian witness and service.’

There has been a church on the site of St. Andrew’s since Saxon times and the first named vicar is recorded in 1087. Over the centuries the church has been associated with such notable figures as Catherine of Aragon, Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, the Pilgrim Fathers, Captain Bligh of the Bounty and Sir Francis Chichester. In 1941 the church was burnt out in the Blitz and a wooden board bearing the word RESURGAM (I will rise again) was placed over the North door reflecting Christian hope in dark days. Today the six John Piper windows bring light and colour to the restored building.

Speaking in a radio broadcast in 1946, politician and solicitor Isaac Foot spoke of St. Andrew’s as Plymouth’s ‘most treasured possession’. ‘St. Andrew’s is at the very heart of the city. Plymouth and St. Andrew’s have, in a sense, grown up together and the church is regarded as the common inheritance of the people irrespective of their religious persuasion,’ he said.

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