I first wish to thank our churchwardens, Cavan, Madge, Michelle and Ron for their service this past year; also the secretaries Ann, Michelle and Jennifer, and treasurers Andy, Ruth and Theresa. There are committees or working groups from both DCCs and the PCC, and people have served on these during the year. Thank you. Lots of people have done lots of jobs willingly and enthusiastically (usually); there are those who have prayed, including those who are housebound and who find this one of the few areas of the life of the church to which they can contribute. There are many people who lead groups, and others who give of their time and energy and also of their financial resources. Thank you most sincerely. All of you probably are included somewhere in that list - we are a group of Christians, committed to serving God and our neighbours and community, to share his love and witness to his salvation given to us through Jesus Christ. We are a body together, all needed and all vital - whether what we do is mundane and routine and sometimes seems no effort to us, or whether it is very costly.
Three members of the electoral roll died this past year - Arthur Chapman (St C) and Barbara Meyerhoff and John Jolly (St A). We miss them and give thanks to God for their part in our churches’ lives. The electoral roll figures have been stated tonight, currently 185 - there are still one or two names to add. Let us be encouraged. Our parish may well now have the second highest number on their electoral roll in Luton. We are not insignificant to the town.
We have enjoyed all kinds of united events during the year since we began as a single parish on 1st June 2006. For a start there is the PCC itself and we have managed as a PCC to have two socials together; and then the shared lunches on Sundays sometimes, the social events organised by one church but where those from the other attend; the joint Advent and Lent courses - and we were able to have four sets of Lent courses this year; our shared Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services (and of course in July on two consecutive weeks we will have united services in the morning to celebrate our respective Patronal Festivals). We have shared skills, help and equipment. And then across the whole parish there has been the delivery to every home of the letter last summer explaining the new legal set up of the parish (and that has borne considerable fruit by way of positive contacts) and also the Christmas card. All that together in 11 months seems pretty good to me.
There are both positives and negatives about the new arrangements. The positives include the opportunity to make new friendships and also to have a wider choice of services to attend on Sundays and midweek. On Sundays there is always at least one communion service but also an alternative and the possibility to attend a non-eucharistic service either earlier or later in the morning, or in the evening. We have seen a growth in the number of younger people, (whatever you mean by younger!) in both churches. And we now have our parish administrator Sara, who has absorbed several people’s voluntary jobs on hall hiring from both districts, and a numerous and ever-increasing range of other tasks.
The negatives come in terms of individual pastoral care from the vicar and the general reduction in staffing levels. Contrast two or three years ago when St Christopher’s had Barry (full-time) and Ferial and Julie (as NSM priests) and Jacky Potton (as Reader), plus St Anne’s having me (fulltime) and Sandra Riley and Sandy Vickers (as was then) as Readers and Vlasta Lišková as part-time pastoral assistant - that is eight bodies, all who could preach and contribute at services. Contrast that to now with just three of us, reduced to two as Julie is on sabbatical leave. And whilst Julie is away, at times Sandra or I are on holiday…so down to one! It leaves too little flexibility on leading services, on relating to people and pastoral issues and taking the occasional offices and midweek services.
However, we have had some help in covering services, and I wish to place on record my thanks to the two Readers, Canon Phillip McDonough from Barton-le-Cley and Dr Robert Johns from Harlington, who have been assisting us at St Anne’s, each taking a service or preaching about once every six weeks. These Readers, along with Sandra Riley and Rev Julie Cox - to whom we all owe considerable thanks - have been the main stays of our public ministry over this year.
A further negative has been the complexities of two similar but not identical parish organisations. St Christopher’s and St Anne’s do not approach everything the same way. For me, there are practical considerations like travelling from one church to the other, and ensuring that the appropriate documentation and details are in the correct building for the right occasion. It is not as easy as it sounds.
The two districts consider some issues differently and do not have identical priorities and policies. Then, there are two sets of buildings to be concerned about, both their regular up-keep, plus more major projects as well. The financial administration is organised slightly differently in both districts, and the three treasurers have had plenty of consultation between themselves to ensure that they work as a team. The DCCs manage things differently, and St Christopher’s has also had to learn my funny ways - though I have never thought I have any - but I am told by Alison that I have plenty! And obviously, but not insignificantly, the building complexes need to be maintained in a safe condition, clean, kept up to certain legal standards, kept secure, have damage quickly repaired. All takes a lot of time and effort. Thank you to those from both churches who are involved in one way or another with these things.
I lead now onto the challengers ahead. We have several of them. I think the challenges are all opportunities. The first is the Growing Together in Christ course that is being put on in our parish from September on Tuesday evenings, eight evenings a term with three half-day workshops on a Saturday. You don’t have to attend them all, and when you look carefully at the programme you may decide you wish to participate in some and not others, but I hope many people will want to commit themselves to come to as many as they can. There will not be two hours of lecture. There will be 30-40 minutes of input by an interesting speaker from somewhere in the diocese, then opportunity for questions - and then refreshments before a final half hour or so of discussion in groups perhaps. Hopefully, it will encourage some people to do just a little extra training after this in order to become part of a Local Ministry Team, one of a very few in the diocese. This extra training might give you the skills and confidence to be a better listener, or to be part of a bereavement visiting team (as St Christopher’s had in the past), or a parish visitor of people at home (not underestimating the informal visiting that already takes place); or visiting people in hospital. It might encourage you to be able to lead worship, or be part of team that does that. It may be some area of youth or children’s work. Lots of people do these things anyway, but these opportunities will enhance your skills. Then one of my dreams is that we might have a parish nurse. There is a national parish nurse organisation both in the UK and USA, which sees its role generally in being available immediately when someone comes out of hospital before the social services and other medical staff get their act together, which is a time when folk often feel very vulnerable.
All these are but a few of the possible areas of expertise and ministry that we could have. Another area of ministry is the following up of visitors to our churches or linking with those on the fringe of the churches’ life.
If the Growing Together in Christ course and the formation of a Local Ministry Team later are seen as two separate but linked challenges, then a third is to review our youth work - both to work out what we are about, what we should be doing and maybe getting some additional help and inspiration from those outside our parish situation.
A fourth challenge is to encourage the younger adults who are coming to church. What have we for them? How relevant are we? And how are we relating to those who come from different countries?
Thinking of our image and how we present ourselves to the general public is yet another important challenge. If our churches are to be centres of spiritual life in our respective local communities, the way we relate to non-church and non-Christian people is important and what they see and understand in that encounter or in a one-off visit to a church service is very important. We need to find ways of engaging with them and also drawing in those who attend the social events.
A further challenge is to maintain the churches’ formal links out in the community. These are there is their own right, but are also ways of sharing the faith with many others. We have the constant challenge of our commitments to other institutions and organisations locally. There is the work of the four schools in the parish, particularly Richmond Hill where there is a monthly assembly; and Wenlock - also with assemblies and sometimes visits to church or lessons at the school itself and the other ways people support through being the staff or the parents’ association - along with our support on the governing body. There is Crawley Green Infants School. About 90 of these children visit St Anne’s at least once a year and where I visit on occasions. There is however currently little contact with Hart Hill Nursery school.
As well as the schools, there is the Royal Naval Association where I am Padre. Three times a year we have the shipmates coming to church, sometimes to large civic services to boot. And then there are things external to the parish, tasks that are challenges in themselves but where the staff need your support. For Julie, it is her work at the hospice; for Sandra as British Legion chaplain, and being the Readers’ Advisor for Luton Deanery, and being on Diocesan Synod. For me, it is being chaplain to the Sea Cadet Corp at Luton Hoo, being on Diocesan Synod, and Bishop’s Council - and all that comes with my responsibilities running the “Porvoo Desk” for the diocese.
Porvoo matters are significant to me and to the diocese as a whole. As many of you are aware, St Anne’s has an informal link with the Church of Norway. Fredrik Ulseth, our main contact person moved parishes within Oslo earlier this year and I was invited to take part in his induction service on February 4th. Whether in the future our contacts will be with his new parish called Lambertseter, or the former one Nordberg - or both, I don’t yet know. And of course from the beginning of this year too the diocese made a formal covenant with diocese of Linköping in Sweden. I’ve been given the task of being the first contact for parishes who wish have a link parish in the diocese there. My role in the diocese will mean that I occasionally go to Linköping for a day or two to help plan various events or visits. Exploring our international links, especially in Europe, will be a challenge - especially as Diocesan Synod agreed in March to ask churches to consider the various general matters concerning Europe, because we cannot simply continue living these days with our island mentality. Christian input and witness in Europe are important. The churches from all the countries of Europe are seeking to work together. The big event this year is the Third European Ecumenical Assembly taking place in Sibiu in Romania in September, with the focus on “The light of Christ shines upon all. Hope for Renewal and Unity in Europe”.
Three final things I want to say:
One: I think in 2008 we should put aside a Saturday for the PCC to go away for the day and ask the question “Where do we go now?” St Anne’s undertook this exercise about nine years ago and it was very helpful to us all in clarifying our aims and objectives and ensuring they came not just from the Vicar but from the church as a whole. Having done that, the following year, we might put another day aside to have a Quiet Day together.
Two: thinking of the parishes in Luton as a whole: most are still struggling with the Deanery Strategy for the future. We here have already had our merger and so the spotlight is now on other churches. We have been asked to produce a representative from the Church Council to represent us at the meetings, but we have not yet found someone to do this. Maybe a former member of one of our DCCs/PCCs might be prepared to do this on our behalf.
Three: I want to refer you to the comments made recently by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his new book “Tokens of Christ”. I do believe that the people who criticise the Archbishop don’t really know much about him. Those who met him in Luton this last year will know he is a spiritually deep, sensitive and aware person. He is criticised for lack of leadership, yet any other person by this time would have forced issues within the Anglican Church internationally and it would have split ages ago. Archbishop Rowan is holy man, and tries to simply confront situations, believing that God through his Spirit is far more able to resolve them than a human using his own might and power. You will have noticed incidentally that the Archbishop has been probably the most outspoken and prophetic archbishop we have had for years when it comes to national matters.
I quote: “We shouldn’t be surprised if Christians are interested in things like politics and have awkward questions to ask and contributions they want to make. There are no limits that are off-limits (for Christians) if God truly is the Creator of this world.” His concern for society: “We seem to be tolerant of all sorts of behaviour, yet are deeply unforgiving. People demand legal redress for human errors or oversights”. He continues: “We shouldn’t be misled by an easy-going atmosphere in manners and morals; under the surface there is a harshness that ought to worry us.” Modern society is described as “an obsessional and addictive age” in which “We are tempted to think that if it is nothing to do with me then it isn’t significant”.
He warns that the public increasingly feels that the political system does not work for them: "We sense ourselves caught up in international economic and political patterns we can’t control and which we don’t believe are for our advantage”. He observes what we know, that society has become “fantastically materialistic”.
I mention all this because these things show why being a Christian these days is so hard and yet so vital. We have gone from the easy life of Christian faith. We are now in the days of stand up and be counted as Christians! So let’s support one other in our faith and witness, and pray for each other, and realise that we have been give new and exciting opportunities in our parish to show the justice, love and compassion of God through Jesus Christ for those who live around us - and to share that good news of Jesus Christ throughout the parish.
I think the words of the Vision for Action prayer are suitable ones to finish with: “Almighty God and heavenly Father, open our eyes to see you at work in our world; grant us wisdom in using our gifts, grace to enliven our churches, and courage to transform our communities. By your Holy Spirit, equip us for the challenge ahead, excite us to follow your vision and empower us in witness and service. To you be the glory through Jesus our Saviour and mighty redeemer. Amen.”