Easter 4 Good Shepherd Sunday 15.5.11

One sign of health and spiritual vitality in our church is the level of charitable giving. Last year our missionary and charitable giving of £4668 was double the 2009 figure of £2272. This total is beyond the money raised for Christian Aid, as in this important week, and the Children’s Society at Christmas.

Later in May our charitable giving focus is to be the Guyana Diocesan Association and once again and I am pleased to give some feedback on Anne and my visit over the last two weeks.

We enjoyed our trip and did a good deal for the church. We spent a week on the coast and a week in the interior. No serious mishaps save having my shaving gel eaten by a racoon in the night and having to rescue the archdeacon when he fell in a trench at a friend’s farm when the bridge broke. There was a forty foot snake in the trench – we got him out!

Guyana’s an exciting place and I’m pleased to say the church is on the up once more. St Giles is being made partner to its developing mission thanks to the new bishop Cornell Jerome Moss who made use of both of us to do some training whilst on leave in the beautiful land where we were married 23 years ago. The letter he gave us on our departure

I was encouraged to see the level of faithfulness in men I trained for the priesthood 20 years ago. With that I was impressed by the hunger for God especially at an evangelistic service of healing where I spent over an hour hearing confessions as the local clergy laid on hands assisted by Anne and other laity.

Another encouragement was Bishop Cornell himself who will be back with us on 3 July. He is proving a good shepherd and, to quote the Gospel, the Anglican sheep are following him.

One thing that impresses about the churches in Guyana is that they are full of young people. Youth are the clue to revitalising the ordained ministry, which is the major challenge in the Diocese of Guyana. Many parishes are short of a resident priest. Within a year Bishop Cornell has identified 5 ordination candidates and the UK based Guyana Diocesan Association will be paying for their training next year at Codrington College in Barbados so please be generous in your charitable gift in two weeks time.

I addressed the annual Diocesan Synod promising this support and met the five men who are well worthy of our backing. I also handed over £400 raised by St Giles School to purchase a computer for the Anglican school opening in September which will serve to link our pupils next door to one of the poorest communities in the Caribbean.

Bishop Cornell has appealed to all Anglicans to tithe, which means to give 10 per cent of disposable income to the church. There is already a good response to this challenge. The Diocese is determined to stand on its own feet so that our gifts will be less important in years to come.

What impressed me was the awakening of new pride in being Anglican that is coming about in Guyana alongside a new honesty and transparency about the money and ministry needs.

So is there a message to bring back to St Giles on this Good Shepherd Sunday?

Indeed there is! That we are helping make a difference on the other side of the world and can continue to do so through the 29 May collection. That what we do at this altar associates us with the Anglican communion as part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church; that bishops and priests who shepherd their people in a Christ-like fashion get a following; and last but not least that the Christian good news is something that opens hearts in penitence and brings healing - I felt the readiness to seek God over there incredibly refreshing;

As Our Lord makes plain at the end of today's Gospel: 'I have come that they may have life and have it to the full'.