Worth a listen?

A wise and experienced colleague elsewhere thinks that offering a ‘state of the nation’ kind of address at a church’s Annual Meeting is a waste of breath. Even if it’s worth a listen, no one does! I have sympathy with that view, but perhaps because I have been Vicar of St Aldhelm’s for less than two years I have for now persisted in offering reflections on how I think things are going.

Jesus, in today’s Gospel reading, assures us: My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

 

Since my address to last year’s Annual Church Meeting some aspects of our life have developed.

• This time last year we were only just emerging from a time in which I was the only minister. Since then we have developed a team comprising Bryony as Associate Priest, Tim as a priest soon to be licensed, Carole and Rona as Licensed Lay Ministers and our Pastoral Team has been enlarged by Jackie Ree and Tim Mitchell. We have also trained and authorised more chalice assistants, and assistants at the Sunday 8am Mass. Being leader of a team such as this is a new but wonderful adventure for me and inevitably I will learn by making mistakes that others have to help correct, but the upshot is a church with an enhanced and multi-talented ministry. Thank you to all of them. My hope is that in due course we will be allocated a curate but the indications are that that won’t be before 2021.

• Our music for worship was at a crossroads this time last year. Since then, under the direction of a new, enthusiastic and skilled organist, our choir has gone onto a whole new level and our singing generally has improved. I said last year that our hymnody should remain broadly traditional but with an increased use of other resources and the best of modern hymns and choruses. That remains our aim, I think, but significant steps have been taken in the right direction.
• The Sunday School that had, sadly but understandably, ceased has now re-emerged as a monthly Sunday Club. Thank you to Rona and to those who help her in its leadership.
• Our first Sunday of the month has evolved: its All Age Eucharist has proved attractive, as the name would lead us to hope, to young and old. Thank you to the team that meets to plan those services.
• The idea, mentioned last year, of midweek music recitals has been realised and we are now coming to the close of a second very successful season. Those recitals have demonstrated both this building’s marvellous atmosphere and acoustics and also our church community’s welcome and hospitality. Thank you to Ray and Lyn and to all the team who make this wonderful ministry possible.

• Our financial position has undergone a remarkable change, from crippling insolvency in 2017 to responsibility and even a modest surplus today, thanks in large part to a campaign of information and stewardship undertaken last May. Thank you to Lloyd especially and to the members of the team that led that campaign, and thank you all for your generous response. I think this process of financial responsibility and generous giving by all of us will continue, if we continue to focus not on money or on our lack of it but focus instead on God’s generosity and our undeserved wealth of blessings.
• We talked of opening our church throughout each day at this meeting last year. Fr Stephen’s death was the catalyst to it happening when we unlocked the building to enable anyone to come and pray and add to a book of condolence. So our thanks to Stephen RIP for prompting something that seemed difficult or impossible to envisage but which has proven to be transformative for our local community and for our life together. I also thank all those – many of them strangers and unknown – who call in to pray. Last week, for only the second time, the donations box was pilfered, although because Jane had emptied it that morning I am confident there would have been little or no money to steal. I still think we should introduce further security measures but all the research indicates that the safest church is one that is open and frequently visited. So I put this challenge to you all: try to find some occasion – perhaps when shopping, or walking the dog, or cycling, or as an end in itself – to call by here regularly. If a dozen or more church members look in each day, to pray or light a candle or attend daily prayer or snooze on a sofa or simply check that all’s well we would have a building that is secure and, much more important, tingling with prayer and the sense of God’s presence.
• Our building has undergone a Quinquennial Inspection since last year. It includes all the recommendations made 5 years earlier (unsurprisingly) and adds a few more (fortunately not major ones.) I think we can all recognise, with some embarrassment but not too much breast-beating, that we have neglected this awesome building in recent years. There has of course been little or no money to do otherwise. I believe this is now changing and I hope we can make the next few years a time of renaissance for this place. We all know that the church is more than its building. We all agree that people matter more than bricks and mortar. Nonetheless, Christians should care for their place of worship just as seriously as they care for their own homes. It is after all God’s house and a holy place. The same applies to its surroundings (as we might care for our gardens) and I am grateful to those who have made extra efforts recently to clear the overgrowth and let the light in on our building. We do not attract visitors if we are hidden and if we appear not to care.
• There have been parish pilgrimages to Hilfield, St Aldhelm’s Chapel in Purbeck and to Montserrat. These change and deepen not just individuals’ own faith but relationships with each other and with God.

• The Church Council has met more frequently and regularly than for many years. I am sure that a healthy church requires a committed, honest and theologically interested PCC. Recently we undertook some quite encouraging discussion that will, informed by wider consultation in the church, we hope lead to our endorsing a simple and agreed vision from which some of our priorities and plans will emerge. I have spoken to the Bishop of Salisbury about my impression that while St Aldhelm’s is brim full with good people and good work there has been and remains a slightly disconnected feeling, as if we can’t quite see how all the various initiatives and groups cohere as one church, one body. Although that is in my view a real problem, and I think we have seen evidence of that, I also am sure that when we do manage to really work and pray together and bring all our diversity and differences into one fellowship, it is going to be awesome. I hope in my ministry here over the next years I can contribute at least a little to that process. If so, then in 9 or so years you and the next, younger priest will really have a ball.
• Sometimes something wonderful happens that you never could have foreseen or expected. The ministry to Spanish-speakers, and especially the local Venezuelan community, is one such blessing. It uses a gift, and enthusiasm, that I have and at the same time it blesses this church, bringing a whole new community and culture, with their enthusiasm and music, through our doors. The next Eucharist in Spanish is this evening and will for the first time include a baptism. Provision is made for those who do not speak Spanish and the atmosphere of warmth, celebration, prayer and love needs no translation!

• Links with our school remain very strong and, if anything, closer than before. Meanwhile, our Busy Bodies pre-school is thriving, thanks to Sue’s leadership, the staff’s commitment and the Committee’s support. Busy Bodies is a star in this church’s crown. Bishop Aldhelm’s School understandably is seeking to develop a pre-school on its site. I and the Busy Bodies’ team will support that, confident that what we offer here will continue to be both popular and of significant help to the broad social mix of families we serve.

 

I have here shared a few snapshots of a church that is developing in, I feel, good and positive ways. The process however has not been stress free. At times the past year has been personally challenging and even exhausting. I do not mind reasonable criticism. Often it is deserved and always it can help clear the air. There has been some criticism that is unfair and deeply hurtful, of course. But worst is that which I cannot really address. Suffice to say this: in any church (or any other human community) complaining to others about the leader is very easy and pleasant to do, like sitting in a comfy chair. But encouragement, and praise, and discussing differences in an honest and open way: all this takes much more effort, like getting out of the chair and doing the chores. Any church must always be making that transition, from being a comfortable club for complaining to becoming a less comfortable but much healthier community of encouragement. I think St Aldhelm’s is a good way along that road and, like I said before, as we get even closer to it this church will be truly awesome.

 

It will only happen if God’s in charge. Our job is in one sense simple: not to get in his way too much. But that kind of simple doesn’t come without a lot of prayer, forgiveness and fellowship. May God bless us as we make that our journey, our pilgrimage, in the year ahead.