Jesus Christ loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made
us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father. Revelation 1:5b
A welcoming Lord – a welcoming people – a welcoming church
God loves and welcomes us
sinners at great cost to himself. That
welcome is good news we can’t keep to ourselves. It shapes our lives, our
fellowship and our building.
The Feast of Christ the King
2015 is an end and a beginning. It ends the Church’s year with a flourish and
points to a new phase in the life of St Giles.
In response to the diocesan invitation for
parishes to seek a mission focus for 2016 St Giles PCC has decided to revisit
building an annex on Church with lavatories to improve access to our
worshipping community. This follows consultation with villagers, including
Friends of Horsted Keynes Church. The annex project will be promoted as part of
a welcoming church focus from Advent 2015 allied to the Bishop of Chichester’s
Year of Mercy.
I’ve just read out what we sent to the Archdeacon
and this morning’s about getting us on board with the PCC plan that I’m
addressing under three headings: A welcoming Lord – a welcoming people – a welcoming church
Thoughts on each heading
starting with A welcoming Lord
Jesus Christ loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood we heard. Bishop Martin in announcing the Diocese joining
with the Roman Catholic Diocese in keeping the Year of Mercy invited by Pope
Francis quotes Church Father Ignatius of Antioch saying ‘Jesus is the door to
the Father’s mercy’. The coming church year has an invitation for us to catch
fresh glimpses of Jesus who loves us and
freed us from our sins by his blood. Jesus who is ‘door to the Father’s
mercy’
A welcoming Lord – a welcoming people – a welcoming church
Secondly this coming year
we’ll be looking at how we as a
congregation can reimagine our
ministry and make more contribution
to the common good. Once again Bishop Martin: Fundamental to re-imagining ministry is the recognition that all
Christians by virtue of our baptism have a share in the ministry of Christ as
we are called into the life in Christ and empowered with gifts by the Holy
Spirit. The question for us is how can
we bring God’s compassion and mercy to bear upon the different contexts and
situations that we find ourselves?
Whether in the supermarket or on the railway station, at work or walking
the dog, in all the different places we find ourselves over the course of the
week there are abundant opportunities if we are alive to them to be conduits
for God’s grace and mercy.
The sense of being used by
God is at the heart of what the Year of Mercy might be about,
especially when we consider prayer, action and fund raising towards the migrant
crisis, also addressed by Bishop Martin in conjunction with building
understanding in the world: Being
compassionate and merciful is about breaking down the barriers of mistrust and
suspicion that can exist between us. It
is about emerging from our well defended opinion and views and engaging with
generosity with the view- points and perspectives of others. Paris cries
out for that more surely than it does for military action even if we can’t
fully discount the latter.
A welcoming Lord – a welcoming people – a welcoming church
Thinking about the third heading now, what we glimpse
of the Lord Jesus, and how we as his people get energised in ministry, has
implications for our use and development of our church building.
The PCC’s decision to
revisit building an
annex on Church with lavatories to improve access to our worshipping community was
made days before I attended the clergy meeting at which the Bishop announced
the Year of Mercy. As I left I told him we’d have to rebrand the annex as
building the throne of mercy!
Over the last 7 years as parish priest I’ve dealt
with many seeking such mercy on this hill with the help of the School Head or
the Rector’s tree! Last Sunday was an instance. Someone who’d driven a long way
to the baptism arrived desperate and we had to find the school key as quick as
we could for her. Over my 7 years we've held two congregational vision days
both of which placed the provision of toilets at St Giles high on our wish
list. Along with parking and heating these are seen as basic to being a
welcoming church for however welcoming people see the Lord and however friendly
they see his people a church without a toilet is profoundly unwelcoming in the
21st century. The coming year will see progress towards shaping up
and financing the north annex project through a steering group led by Martin
Govas.
A welcoming Lord – a welcoming people – a welcoming church
That’s what we’re looking for at St Giles
especially in the coming year.We want the welcoming church project to open
doors for people into this congregation and into the church across Sussex. The
Bishop writes: This opening of the doors of our hearts and minds is key for our growth
in recognising the mercy and compassion of God.
This will be celebrated in a practical way. The start of the Year of Mercy will be marked
by the opening of a door, which is not usually used, in Chichester Cathedral. This will happen on 6 December at 3.30pm in
the context of Cathedral Evensong.
There will be opportunity to
link what’s launched today to the Cathedral through a visit there during the
coming year with entry through then mercy door.
Today we look to that mercy
from Jesus Christ who loves us and freed us from our sins by his
blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father. To him
be glory and eternal dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
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