Friday 15 February 2013

February newsletter

From the Vicar

I seem to meet an increasing number of people who insist on telling me that they are as good a person as those who attend public worship week by week, even if they never set foot inside a church building on a regular basis  –  I’m sure they are! They are a growing number who feel they "believe, but do not belong."

There is a wonderful story about a couple leaving church after morning worship and the wife asking her husband if he had noticed a hat worn by a particular person and an awful hairdo which another parishioner was displaying!

The husband replied that he had not really noticed either – his wife said, rather impatiently, "John, I sometimes wonder if you get anything at all out of going to church!"

Luke, early on in his Gospel, tells us that Jesus, when he returned to Galilee, went up to his home town Nazareth and on the Sabbath Day went into the synagogue, as was his custom.

We are called, in our time, to live out the Good News, to keep the Good News alive in the world today, by sharing the life of Christ and so being a living presence of his love wherever we find ourselves. Regular worship for us all, as a community, through word and sacrament are central to the Christian experience.

Jesus grew up in faith attending the synagogue in his home town and the story of the couple leaving church after morning worship reminds us that different people will have different experiences of going to church, depending upon what their expectations are of worship, and of course their participation as members of the Body of Christ.

Michael

To make mistakes is human, to blame them on someone else shows management potential!