As I write this in January, a month before you will be reading it, sometimes it is difficult to imagine what will happen in the time gap between.
We will have moved further forward with finding a new Incumbent, for sure.
The numbers of people coming to Christmas services was good, not only for Carol Services and Crib services. There was an excellent turn out to meet Bishop Richard, just before Christmas. There are signs of hope for future growth, not least with the families joining in Puppet Praise.
Where we have small PCCs, this will be a reflection of small church attendance. The only way to grow this if for people who have Christ in their hearts, to share the good news of Jesus, for people to want to ‘grow’ and nurture their existing faith. How can we share the good news, if we cannot articulate our faith? One way of doing this is to join a house group or the Lent Course.
All the excellent people in our Benefice who keep our churches open for worship work hard, in small numbers, to do this. They do this because their work is a reflection of their faith, the importance of Jesus Christ in their lives, and as a gift of an enormous amount of time given in service, service to the God we worship. And we thank God for them.
There is always scope to learn more about our faith. We have two Housegroups, and in Lent there will be a ‘one off’ course running over seven weeks (more in the magazine).
If anyone, at any time, would like to explore their faith, have questions to ask, do not hesitate to contact a clergy person or Lay leader. After Easter we will be looking at some of the big questions like ‘where is God in this mess?’ and I am delighted to say that Bishop Richard is our speaker in the June Filling Station.
With every blessing
Revd Caro