Messy Church: The Vicar's Two Penn'orth for July 2014

I

 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!

A

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.

S

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.

S

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.

I

 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

The Vicar's Two Penn'orth for June 2014

For where two or three are gathered

in my name, there am I among them.

Matthew 18:20

L

ooking out from my study, I can see all the preparations going on in readiness for the Open golf champion­ship. It is amazing just how much thought and planning is in play. I have every sympathy with them – it is a huge task.

Here at St Hildeburgh’s we, too, are in the middle of preparation for our Prayer Labyrinth based on the golf course. It has been an incredible journey for the team, who have not only met regularly but spent hours and hours in preparing the floor mat, the tables, the many items that will be used for reflection, the production of images for the overhead projector and in the writing of the booklet. It doesn’t stop there; there is publicity to organise and so much more.

I

have lost count of how many people have been involved from the planning stage to bring us to where we are today. This really has been a team effort and worthy of much praise. It has been great to see so much fun and working together and of course this is what a church should be about.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace. 1 Peter 4:10

O

n another subject I would like to say how great it was to have so many at our last Family Praise service. This is clearly an area of church life we all must support. Our links with Holy Trinity School are strong and also with our Mums & Tots group. Many of the families are finding their way to our Family Praise service and getting to know us better.

We have to work hard to help these new families to settle and continue to be as welcoming as we can. Their voices mean the church is alive and becoming more relevant to local people, the people we are called to serve.

The introduction of the puppets and having the screen has also been a move in the right direction and ensuring the worship is accessible to the children and people of all ages.

T

he church is a family. We might not all like each other’s tastes in music and hymns but, providing we get the balance right, we can all enjoy both learning new songs and also singing old favourites. The future is exciting and I look forward in joining in with what God wants for us.

Let’s thank God for his goodness and pray for his continuing blessing on the parish and all our community.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Philippians 2:1-3

Your friend,

Rev’d Paul

Seventh Sunday of Easter: 1 June 2014