Author: Worth Parish

The Curate Writes…

Pewsheets

In the Home Group that meets at Saxon Road, we have started looking at the Ten Commandments this week.  One of the questions that we were asked to think about was, ‘What kind of legacy in life would you like to be remembered for?’  There was a variety of answers, but our reading from Acts today offers one of the best legacies, attributed to St Barnabas; he was ‘a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith’. Not bad!

As we prepare, Anthony and I, to move on to pastures new, there is an inevitable moment when we both pause and think about what we will leave behind.  One of my mentors wisely said these words to me as I began ministry – ‘Steve, show me a middle-aged vicar and I will show you a building project’. For we all want to leave a legacy behind and when the middle-aged vicar has stopped hoping to change the people by bringing them closer to God, he reverts to wanting to alter the building – much easier to control and change!

So as I sit in my study at St Barnabas’ and think of Worth Parish, I think about the Vision Day and the writing of a plan – and I believe that we are in a position to develop and grow, while loving each other.  The Church is much more than a building, but all of you. Yes, we are sad on one hand, that as the Burstons’, we won’t be hands-on in the mix with you, but at the same time we are excited about what God has been doing, is doing and will do in Worth Parish – we have all been given gifts and how we use them will determine our legacy.

Steve

From the Rector…

Pewsheets

My first reading of today’s passage from Galatians left me a little uneasy about the model of church leadership it presented. Where would we be as a community if everyone – or even just the leaders – decided what needed to be done and then simply went ahead and did it without any consideration of or consultation with others in the leadership team? Or, as St Paul claims, waiting three years before checking- in that it was O.K.? Great, you might think. No committees, no negative comments, just action. But, to be banal, imagine the seating in church being constantly rearranged to the personal taste of whoever feels like moving it! In reality, a balance is needed between the freedom to get on with things and the value of ensuring that activity is directed towards a common purpose. That purpose is giving glory to God and enabling lives to be transformed by an encounter with Jesus Christ. When Paul’s letter is read in context and with an understanding of his life and ministry we quickly see this is the purpose on which he focuses. When he says (as in today’s reading) God has set him apart before he was born, he is expressing his profound sense that in meeting Jesus he is ‘coming home’. He responds with a life of service in which he experiences all manner of hardships, disappointments and persecutions – as did his Saviour – but always directed towards the building up of individuals and communities in faith and witness to the gospel “received … through a revelation of Jesus Christ”. As you offer yourself in response to God’s call, please pray for, and help, the leadership team (clergy and wardens) as they seek to encourage and co-ordinate all those responses and keep them focused on God.

On The Move – Clergy Announcements

Clergy, Special Services
Dear Friends,
Those parishioners who were at the Special Parochial Church Meeting last night will have heard me announce that I shall be moving to a new role in September.  That role is as the Canon Steward at Westminster Abbey and the announcements can be found by following these links:
It has been a wonderfully rich time being a parish priest here in Crawley and I am deeply grateful to all of you who have supported my family and me in so many ways in the past five years.  There will be time over the coming months for me to express that gratitude in person – and I do hope you will be able to come to the ‘farewell’ on 4th September.  That farewell is likely to be for both the Burston and Ball families as, following my departure, Steve will be assigned a new training incumbent.  For 4th September, we are planning a Parish Eucharist at St Nicholas at 10.00 a.m. followed by lunch on the Rectory lawn.
Our move comes at an exciting time for the parish as we work to deliver the vision expressed in our Parish Plan, Growing Through 2016 and 2017.  The energy and commitment that so many of you have already displayed to taking forward that vision of growth in Christ, re-imagining ministry and serving the common good is a huge encouragement to both Steve and me as we focus our efforts on supporting and enabling you to flourish during this time of change and, of course, some uncertainty .
The decisions taken yesterday about seeking an early appointment to the Associate Vicar post, exploring the appointment of a families and children’s worker and the possible revision of parish structures in response to the Crawley Review are all elements that should help to enhance the mission of the church in this time and place – but it is your contribution, individually and collectively, using your God-given gifts, that will be decisive for the future.
Wishing each of you every blessing in that shared endeavour,
Anthony

From the Rector…

Clergy

Several times this week I have had cause to reflect on the glue that binds us together as a parish community.  Also on what difference the Holy Spirit, whose coming we celebrated last Sunday, makes in our lives (individually and collectively).  Looking forward to Trinity Sunday has proved a powerful backdrop to those reflections – reinforcing the experience of God as (or in) relationship.  One of the classic images of the Trinity sees the Holy Spirit as the love the flows between the Father and the Son with such intensity that the three are one.

It has been a real joy to see the enthusiasm with which all those who volunteered to take forward particular aspects of ‘future development’ in our common life that emerged at the recent Vision Day.  A tremendous release of people’s gifts that blesses us all – the effects of which are already being felt.  Yet in the excitement we need to remember that it is a common life – we are all part of a community, in relationship with each other, and that what each does affects the whole.  We have a responsibility to consider how our ideas and actions will impact on others – by tidying away this or changing that, we may inadvertently create difficulties for another group or person.  By the same token those affected have a responsibility for encouraging (offering solutions not just criticism!) those who are volunteering.  How we manage accountability and co-ordination as these ideas (the Spirit?) flow and find expression is one of the things the PCC will be considering in the light of discussion about the Parish Plan on Tuesday. But we can be sure that if we ground our relationships in God’s love, that has been poured into our hearts, we will promote mutual flourishing – reflecting and being bound into the divine relationship.

Lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil

Season of Prayer
A recent book, The Marshmallow Test, by Walter Mischel, distils 40 years of research in the area of self-control.  The author’s now-iconic psychological experiment took young children and placed them in a room with a series of tempting treats such as marshmallows or cookies.  They were told that if they waited and resisted eating the tempting treat until the temarshmallow-testster came back in, they would be rewarded with two treats rather than just one.  As you would expect, the results were mixed and many gave in to the temptation; some in seconds, others were more ingenious (One test had cookies with cream in the middle.  One boy opened up the cookies, licked the cream and carefully placed them back together.  When challenged he informed the tester he hadn’t touched the cookies!  “I don’t remember taking the test!”).
Temptation comes in all shape and sizes.  In today’s world that has never been truer.  We are hit by temptation from every angle – and what might seem to you quite innocent or not even a temptation can be to someone else an all-encompassing obsession.  What is clear is that temptation will come.  We haven’t the space to unpack the concept of “evil” today, but our prayer asks God not lead us into temptation or, as some translations write, “trials”.  The suggestion in the Lord’s Prayer that God might lead us into temptation seems to contradict the Letter of James 1:13  (Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one).  I don’t think there is a contradiction, rather that the prayer recognized that, in this world, temptation is inevitable because things are far from perfect and asks that when temptation comes that God be with us as we face it.
Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson (known as Bill W.).  Bill W. was an alcoholic who had ruined a promising career on Wall Street by his drinking.  He also failed to graduate from Law School because he was too drunk to pick up his diploma.  His drinking damaged his marriage, and he was hospitalized for alcoholism.  Through a church-led movement Bill W. managed to fight his temptation and remain sober.  What he began ended up being the 12 steps programme and it has helped many people with a variety of different addictions.  One of the most important aspects of the programme is the realization that you cannot do it yourself –  you need to attend meetings and you need the help of a Higher Power.
The same is true for us Christians and that is what the Church, at its best, has to offer.  Times of temptation highlight for us our need for community – to be part of a group of believers with whom we can share our lives, where we can give and receive encouragement and support and where we can develop and strengthen our faith.  On our own and isolated, without support from fellow believers, we are far more at risk of succumbing to temptation and then to continuing to indulge in it.  As we’ve said: none of us is free from temptation; it comes in all shapes and sizes and from all quarters!
So on this, the final day of our novena of prayer in which we have joined with countless others up and down the country praying for the re-evangelisation of this nation, we invite you to pray for God’s Church to be this loving and supporting safe place and to for us to know that God is always with us in our times of trials and our hours of need.  Today we also ask for your prayers for the newest community in our parish – that of Forge Wood (from amongst whose residents we have already had our first baptism and marriage enquiry) and for Forge Wood Primary School as it prepares for its first intake of children in September (in temporary accommodation).

The Curate Writes…

Clergy

This week, in between appointments that could not be changed, Anthony and I have been together for last three days, surrounded by all the amazing ideas that people floated at the Vision Day – alongside the nine main priorities that were identified on the day. We have talked, reflected and prayed into these as we have attempted to write a plan that does justice to these ideas and can be implemented by us all.

A phrase I read in the past, that came back to me at this time, was that Churches must do these three things; honour the past, negotiate the change of the present and build for the future. And that is what I believe the plan (that will be revealed in the coming month) seeks to do. But a plan is just a plan.  A plan for a church needs the Holy Spirit, the advocate, helper and counsellor, whose sending we celebrate this Sunday in our readings.

For Peter and the disciples things were changing pretty quickly as fear turned to courage.  They held onto their experience of Jesus’ life as they built for the future. And as our reading from Acts points out, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just fill a few selected leaders, but the Holy Spirit fills us ALL. May we build on the momentum from Everyone is Welcome, the Vision Day and our new plan.