From the Associate Vicar

Pentecost

This week we celebrate Pentecost – that moment when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church. Jesus had Ascended into heaven and he had told his disciples to wait until the Holy Spirit fell. As it did, God spoke in languages that all understood.

All cultural and religious boundaries were broken and everyone was united to God. This marked the start of the great expansion of the church. In the power of the Spirit, people were healed, empowered and filled with the love of God.

The world was changed by that moment and so can we be changed. This Pentecost, let’s remember our need for the Holy Spirit in our lives and the transformation that comes from saying that simple, ancient and profound prayer – ‘Come Holy Spirit!’

Roland

From the Mission Support Group

'‘I have done what was mine to do, may Christ now teach you what you are to do’

St Francis of Assisi said ‘I have done what was mine to do, may Christ now teach you what you are to do’ That sums up our desire for Mission Sunday. We may all be called to mission but perhaps we are not so sure what that means for each of us. We are organising the mission Sunday services to help us address that challenge. We wanted to explore the five marks of mission that define our mission strategy. We’ll do that by finding out more about each of the five marks of mission and exploring how some of our mission partners have responded. To that end we have lined up what we hope will be some engaging and stimulating presenters at our five stations, one for each of the five marks of mission which are:

1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom.

2. To teach, baptise and nurture new believers.

3. To respond to human need by loving service.

4. To seek to transform unjust structures of society.

5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

We can all get involved in our unique mission call by learning, praying, giving and above all engaging, but we cannot do everything, hence ‘what is mine to do?’. Our prayer is that our time this Sunday will, for all of us in our different ways, be inspiring and helpful to enable us to refine our understanding and engage more fully in our own call and service. That might mean connecting with one of our partners more directly or simply being refreshed to follow your own sense of call.

With love Simon Musgrave (on behalf of the Mission Support Group

From the Wardens

In almost every walk of life, there are patterns & rhythms - starting points & finishing points. The same is most definitely true in church life where we have a whole series of patterns both theologically & practically each with their own significance.

Once a year in our church as in all other parish churches we hold our Annual Parochial Church Meeting and just in case you’ve not picked up on the recent notices, this year’s meeting is in church on Wednesday May 24th at 7.30pm

At that meeting we see church administrative starting points & endings. We will see a changeover of church wardens & we will vote new members onto the PCC as well as hear updates on the church’s financial position.

But perhaps most importantly it’s where together as a church family we will hear from Mark our vicar as he looks ahead & encourages & challenges us all to consider where we might play our part within the church family, as together we seek to reach out into our community to share the love of Jesus over this next year.

Please come & join us on May 24th. Your church & the community need you!

Alison, Richard & Sue.

From the Vicar

“Open to the Spirit” might well be the theme for a quiet day or a description of someone’s spirituality. Certainly, openness to the things of God is something that is a character virtue and an attribute to aspire too as individuals. What if there was a company of people for whom this all resonated as individuals and they all worked together for a common cause under the leading of that same Spirit?

Perhaps I am reflecting too early on a well-worn Pentecostal theme – unity in the Spirit, but this is one of the important values underneath our annual gathering entitled “Behold I set before you an open door….” (Wednesday May 24th 7:30 our APCM).

You will have heard much already and now I repeat my invitation to join us. There are some really exciting open doors for us to walk through together that will be presented, and then summarised on the following Sunday’s if you happen to be away. For many of our paid staff this will be their first annual meeting and for many of us this will be one of the first specific asks for sign up coming from the front(!).

Every community of faith needs to start somewhere and my hope and prayer, is that a united sense of responding will give us all heart that the Lord might even seek to give us more of Himself and His blessings by laying before us greater challenges for faith and obedience. Join us in prayer please for an openness to the Spirit of God and a willingness for God’s people to unite in obedience and loving unity on the evening and in the months ahead.

Yours in Christ’s service,

The Revd Canon Mark Brown