Three years ago now the PCC voted unanimously to hold worship on the 5th Sunday in
the Community rather than in one of our churches, to be a witness as congregations
of God’s love, to follow the example of Jesus and go out to meet the community rather
than expecting them to come to us. It was an idea that came from them not the clergy,
so I truly felt for the PCC when last Sunday a congregation of less than 25 (including
the band) met for worship - what our visitor thought I am not sure! The PCC also
asked for a Eucharist in the evening of that day, I would thank the 4 who came to
that and the 4 who came to celebrate St Bride later in the week. What to do? Well
simply the answer is contained in last week’s prayer letter reprinted here. The outreach
worship will continue. I would ask you to pray for it and if at all possible share
in it, it is a vital part of our mission and ministry, a statement from our churches
- all of us - saying to the community we love you, love you so much we want to come
and share with you the God who loves us and we love.
I have a new ‘smart-phone’ the name of which also presupposes that I am smart enough
to work it and discover all of its intricacies and possibilities. There are days
when the whole thing works well, others when I can’t get the keyboard to type what
I want to say, some when I can’t turn the 12:00 noon alarm off! * Times when it is
an excellent instrument of communication and times when it really is not, not that
it is the machine's fault, rather mine, I probably should have read the instruction
manual!
That made me wonder, is that how God feels about me and my communication with Him.
I sometimes get it right, but equally often get it wrong, ‘type’ the wrong message,
ask for the wrong things, don’t ask for anything. Can’t turn off the stream of words
in my prayer, so that He actually gets a chance to reply and respond to what I have
said or thought, for yes prayer is what we think and what we say for God hears all.
But prayer is not a monologue it is a dialogue, a conversation and puts us right
in touch on a one to one basis with Almighty God. Have you ever pondered on that.
How would you feel if Buckingham Palace
