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would like to begin my Two
Penn’orth by quoting Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury:
“There is every reason to be hopeful
about the future of the Church of England, and indeed, all the churches in this
country.
“There are many signs of growth, huge
areas of development, and the church is – more than it has been for the last 60
years – demonstrating how essential it is to hold together our society.”
Wonderful
words of encouragement from our Archbishop!
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s the Open Golf
Championship is about to begin and our Prayer Labyrinth is in its final
preparation stages, I am looking forward to the future already. A church must
continue to move forward or it will cease to exist. And that applies to us here
at St Hildeburgh’s.
With
our new head teacher of Holy Trinity firmly in place, and the former head,
Peter Ham, accepted for readership, it seems quite natural that we should move
to start a ‘messy church.’ For a number of people the term messy church may
conjure up a mind-boggling conception.
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o what is messy
church? Quite simply it is an outreach to local children and their families.
Messy church is a fresh expression of church, it is an opportunity for children
and their parents to learn and play together. Messy church tells the stories of
the Bible in an imaginative way using craft and all things messy. It combines
all those things with worship and a sense of togetherness.
Taking
on this massive new initiative takes a lot of planning, which will include a
meal for children and parents. It is a massive task, but this is a fresh way
for us to express ourselves and reach out to our community, which in the long
run will grow this church.
I
do feel that to achieve this new outreach successfully we will need an enormous
amount of help from within the church and without. This can’t be realised
without your help and prayer. Please pray for this new venture and all who will
help in any way. In
my experience we struggle when we rely on ourselves.
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cripture tells us in 1 Chronicles 16:11: Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his
face continually. Very
easy and direct words to follow but time and time again we forget to turn to
our Saviour and acknowledge his strength and his help. We need to be in
constant contact and feel his presence with us. The Holy Spirit can turn situations
on their head, but we continue to take on tasks relying on ourselves and the
very limited resources we have to achieve our aims.
When
we trust in God and listen to his continual prompting we can achieve our goals
and so much more. In scripture we are reminded of this in Psalm
37:4-6: Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the
light, and your justice as the noonday.
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hope people are as excited as I am,
as we move forward growing the church family. I think the long-term vision of
St Hildeburgh’s, going and working in the community and also being committed to
grow the Kingdom is a wonderful goal. As Proverbs 16:3 tells us: Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans
will be established.
Your friend,
Rev’d Paul
Third Sunday of Trinity : 6 July 2014
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