Current and past activity

I am Team Rector for Wickford and Runwell in the Diocese of Chelmsford and Area Dean for Basildon. My current and past activities all fit within the HeartEdge 4 Cs mission model.

Our three churches and halls in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry are hubs for the community in Wickford and Runwell. Between them activities and groups supported include: Coffee Mornings; Councillor Surgery; Art and Heritage Exhibitions; Floral Art; Gamblers Anonymous; Huff & Puff; Lace Makers; Ladygate Scribblers; Martial Arts; Meet & Make; Mothers Union; Parent & Toddlers Group; Parent’s 1st Group; Phlebotomy Clinics; Singing Group; Tai Chi; U3A; Unveiled arts and performance evening; Warfarin Clinic; WI Craft Group; Wickford Chapter; Wickford Lodge; Wickford Women’s Institute; Yoga. These groups and activities provide a wide range of social, leisure and educational opportunities for the local community, as well as providing warm spaces that enable those attending to save on heating in their homes while attending. In addition, local schools visit our buildings for a range of educational opportunities. 

Our Unveiled arts and performance evening plus our art and heritage exhibition programme deliver new cultural offers in Wickford. These seek to bring high quality art and performance to Wickford while also encouraging local talent by providing new platforms for local performers and artists. We take part in Bas-Arts Index and Wickford Voices (Creative Basildon) and use heritage displays provided by Basildon Heritage. We have worked with local arts organisations such as Runwell Art Club and Next Step Creative, while also utilising local artists and performers such as Jackie Burns (Space Artist), Dave Crawford (Musician), Eva Romanakova (Singer), John Paul Barrett (Artist) and Steven Turner (Dancer). We have supported the possible development of a Wickford Business Improvement District (BID), including joining the Town Team.

We are making use of the HeartEdge 4 Cs which has enabled a focus on cultural programming that has brought new contacts with the community and which is generating additional opportunities for grant funding. One church in the team is being developed as a cultural and heritage hub for the town, while others are expanding their focus on contemplative spiritualities and traditional parish activities. Within these initiatives, a new enquirers course has been introduced and a monthly discussion group for young people.

The Basildon Deanery is a group of Church of England churches in the Basildon, Billericay and Wickford areas. Our 19 churches are grouped in 10 parishes and have great community activities, enjoyable cultural events and artefacts, beautiful environments, and fascinating heritage. In the Basildon Deanery we have used Mission Opportunities Fund grants to set up a Deanery website (https://basildondeanery.co.uk/) and to work with mission consultants/coaches.  

My creative writing has been published by Amethyst Review, International Times, Strait, and Stride Magazine. I write regularly on the Arts for national arts and church media and my journalism has been published by: AM; Art+Christianity Journal; Artlyst; ARTS Journal; ArtServe Magazine; ArtWay; Church Times; Epiphany; Expository Times; Faith in Business Quarterly, Franciscan Magazine; Gods' Collections; Ilford Recorder; Image Journal; International Times; Journal of Theological Studies; Muslim Weekly; National Churches Trust; New Start; Seen and Unseen Magazine; Strait; Stride Magazine; Transpositions; and Visual Commentary on Scripture. 

My publications include: ‘The Secret Chord’ (Lulu, 2012, with Peter Banks); ‘Finding Abundance in Scarcity’ (Canterbury Press, 2021, ed. Samuel Wells); ‘Liturgy on the Edge’ (Canterbury Press, 2018, ed. Samuel Wells); ‘Living with other faiths’ (Contextual Theology Centre, 2006 / Greater London Presence & Engagement Network, 2009); ‘Christians in the workplace’ (Diocese of Chelmsford, 2007, with C. Ball, P. Ritchie and P. Trathen); and ‘Despair and Hope in the City’ (Alistair Shornach, 1990, with Philip Evens). I have poems that have been included in two anthologies: 'Thin Places and Sacred Spaces' (2024); and 'All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich' (2023).

My previous roles in the Church of England have been as: Associate Vicar for HeartEdge at St Martin-in-the-Fields (including three years as p/t Priest-in-charge at St Stephen Walbrook), Vicar of St John’s Seven Kings, and Curate at St Margaret’s Barking.

At St Martin-in-the-Fields I led the development of HeartEdge from its launch in 2017 to become a growing international and ecumenical movement of churches, organisations and individuals from Australia, Canada, England, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, USA, and Wales. The movement includes Baptist, Church of England, Church of Scotland, Episcopal, Independent, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Protestant Church of the Netherlands, Remonstrant, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army, United Reformed, and Uniting Church.

Initiated by the congregation at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 2017, HeartEdge is a movement for renewal, fuelled by people and churches sharing their assets, experience, resource and need. As an ecumenical network, HeartEdge brings together people to share ideas and experience, do theology and develop their church and community. HeartEdge is about churches developing four Cs: Commerce - Generating finance via enterprise, creatively extending mission. Culture - Art, music, performance re-imagining the Christian narrative for the present. Congregation - Inclusive liturgy, worship and common life. Compassion - Empowering congregations to address social need. 

I also had three main areas of responsibility in relation to the congregation at St Martin’s. First, I created an artists’ and craftspeoples’ group involving participants of all abilities which organises art workshops, a monthly drawing group, exhibition space in the Crypt, annual exhibitions, and a lecture series. Second, I was the clergy lead for the Disability Advisory Group, Disability Cross-Site Working Group, and annual conference on disability and church organised in partnership with Inclusive Church. Among other outcomes the support and facilitation I have provided enabled delivery of a full organisational Access Audit, six conferences, and two publications. Third, I was clergy lead with the Global Neighbours Committee which, as a sub-committee of the PCC, enabled St Martin’s to support their neighbours around the world by contributing to the funding of projects, through prayer, raising awareness and other activities. In this period I also led on their partnership with St Mary’s Cathedral Johannesburg. For three years I was also Chair of Westminster Churches Together.

I supported a curate as a team member at St Martin’s and undertook the setting up and preparation for a second curate who began after I had left. I was also a Post Ordination Training Tutor for Two Cities & Stepney – attending and contributing to POT (IME4-7) meetings in order to provide continuity of pastoral care and contribute to teaching. I also became an Associate Tutor for St Augustine’s College of Theology, teaching a module on The Arts, Culture and Christian Ministry and Mission.

At St Stephen Walbrook I created in ‘Start:Stop’ – reflections for those on their way to work - a mission model that worked in its context (creating a new sustainable congregation and drawing new people into the wider life of the church) and is replicable. I demonstrated the viability of a new Monday lunchtime service, now being taken forward as Choral Classics. I set and demonstrated the value (in terms of visitor footfall and deepening spirituality) of ongoing arts programming in a City church context. I revived the relationship between the church and Mansion House and introduced a new annual service to the City which was enthusiastically embraced by the Livery Companies and Ward Clubs. I also addressed the issues which were holding back the missional development of the church - and put viable, high-quality alternatives in place, often using the partnership with St Martin’s to do so. I was a training incumbent to one curate at St Stephen Walbrook.

St John’s Seven Kings aimed to grow together as a community of God's people, filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus Christ's example and teaching. I sought to lead us as a community (including a team of reader emeritus and authorized local preacher) in that aim and enable us to live it out through worship, love, inclusivity, growth, service, witness, healing and prophecy. 

I sought to do so, in particular, by: addressing financial issues through stewardship and hall usage; an ongoing programme of building maintenance; community engagement through community campaigns and groups (including the chairing of Seven Kings & Newbury Park Resident's Association and the Management Committee of Downshall Pre-School Playgroup, plus serving as a Community Governor at Downshall Primary School); further development of the St John’s Centre as a community hub; development of a community garden; schools ministry; development of a Ministry Leadership Team; use of a variety of styles of service; establishment of a youth club; delivery of a Sunday School and annual Holiday Club; clustering with three neighbouring Anglican churches; establishment of a local Scriptural Reasoning group; establishment of a social enterprise project (Seven Kings & Newbury Park Sophia Hub); and publicizing of our engagement with the Arts (including the creation of a local Art Trail) and the wider community. 

I began the development of these initiatives with a review of the existing Mission Statement for St John's and we reviewed progress by means of a worship survey, a mystery worshipper, and ongoing discussions in Ministry Leadership Team meetings. From 2008 I was a training incumbent contributing to the training of two curates.

I had wide ranging and varied experience during my title post, including a 15 month interregnum when I was the sole priest in the ministry team based at St Margaret’s Barking. In addition, to pastoral, preaching and teaching ministries, the occasional offices and leading worship, I set up and chaired the Faith Forum for Barking & Dagenham, organized an ecumenical programme of SOULINTHECITY initiatives across the borough, set up and supported a support initiative for self-harmers, organized the delivery of ESOL courses from the St Margaret’s Centre, and organized church involvement in a range of borough-led Arts projects.

My ministry has involved a focus on the following:

• The Arts i.e. organisation of concerts, performances, events, exhibitions and study days in each Parish and through commission4mission; oversight of contemporary Church Art commissions in each Parish and through commission4mission; delivery of Arts-related courses in parishes, through commission4mission and as part of Diocesan Lent and Eastertide programmes; painting/creative writing; arts-related journalism with a national profile, and publication of ‘The Secret Chord’. For my sabbatical I visited significant sites connected to the renewal of religious art in Europe during the twentieth century in order to reflect on the significance of these sites both for art history and good practice for commissioning.
• Inter-faith engagement i.e. managed a project which introduced a Faith Communities Toolkit to three Jobcentre Plus regions and piloted new approaches to Jobcentres working in partnership with their local faith communities, including design and quality assurance of a comprehensive Information Pack (the Faith Communities Toolkit) and delivery of training in the use of this Toolkit; set up and chaired the Barking & Dagenham Faith Forum including: agreement of aim, objectives and statement of commitment; preparation of constitution; planning of Launch Event; chairing of Organising Committee; development of Faith Forum programme; and fundraising; planned, publicized and run, through Faith in London's Economy (FiLE), seminars on Ethics in a Global Economy and Re-negotiating ‘value’, using speakers such as Saif Ahmad, Jay Lakhani, Dr. Edmund Newell, Mannie Sher and Baroness Uddin; undertaking of consultancy work for Faith Regen Foundation; development of the Living with other Faiths Resource pack; involvement in Greater London Presence & Engagement Network (PEN) and Chelmsford Diocese Presence & Engagement Group; development of a local Scriptural Reasoning group and of Seven Kings Sophia Hub. 
• Training i.e. as a trained Trainer I have: taught a module on The Arts, Culture and Christian Ministry and Mission for St Augustine’s College of Theology; delivered the Living God’s Future Now online programme of workshops for HeartEdge; written and delivered ‘Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story’ sessions and courses through St Martin’s and HeartEdge; designed and delivered the ‘Living with other faiths’ congregational resource pack for CTC (later revised for Greater London PEN), including delivery of training for individual parishes, as part of the Diocese of Chelmsford’s Lent & Eastertide programme, and as a unit in Stepney Area Reader’s Training; designed and delivered (with others) the Christians in the Workplace resource pack for the Diocese of Chelmsford, including delivery of training using its materials for individual parishes, as part of the Diocese of Chelmsford’s Lent & Eastertide programme, with St Mellitus College students and SSM curates in the Diocese; designed and delivered (with others) ‘The Big Picture’, ‘Living the Story’ and ‘Christian Art – fallacy or fusion?’ series of courses on faith and popular culture for the Diocese of Chelmsford’s Lent & Eastertide programme; delivery of Lent Courses; leadership of home groups; POT Tutor for Two Cities and Stepney Areas; and contributions as a speaker to a wide variety of conferences, seminars and workshops.
• Workplace ministry i.e. Weekly email to work-based email group; Christians in the Workplace courses; development of Christians in the Workplace Parish Resource pack; planned, publicized and run, through FiLE, seminars on Ethics in a Global Economy and Re-negotiating ‘value’; set up 'Start:Stop' at St Stephen Walbrook and 'Contemplative Commuters' in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry.

I have been: Trustee and Chair of Trustees for the Voice of the People Trust; Trustee and Elder of the New Life Church Centre, Dagenham (originally Grieg Hall Evangelical Church); Consultant, then Director of FRF; Consultant for MADE in Europe; Chair of Trustees for Downshall Pre-School Playgroup; Community Governor for Downshall Primary School; Chair of Seven Kings & Newbury Park Resident’s Association; Secretary of commission4mission; and Director of Sophia Hubs Limited. I am currently a Director of FRF and a Local Advisory Board member for Wickford Church of England School. 

Prior to ordination I worked in the Employment Service/Jobcentre Plus for 18 years and held a range of policy and operational posts primarily at management levels including: policy development work on New Deal 50+ and New Deal for Disabled People which included researching US approaches to Welfare to Work and organizing a national consultation event; managing a team of 14 delivering an assessment and rehabilitation service for disabled people; setting up a pilot Personal Adviser service and leading a consortium bidding to deliver a Job Retention service; and managing a project which introduced a Faith Communities Toolkit to three Jobcentre Plus regions and piloted new approaches to Jobcentres working in partnership with their local faith communities. During this time, I trained as a trainer. 

I have BA (Hons) degrees in Modern English Studies and Contextual Theology. In a gap year after Further Education, I led a British Youth for Christ voluntary youth work team which organized a mission, holiday club, Youth Services and took assemblies/lessons in schools. 

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Delirious? - Find Me In The River.

Being a disciple - learning styles and lifelong learning

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Mary’s Runwell and St Catherine’s Wickford:

I wonder whether you have ever identified the learning style that suits you best. If not, today’s an opportunity to think that through. Which of these learning styles fits you best?

o Activist – You like the opportunity to generate a lot of ideas and to think on your feet. You like to start things off, have a go and try things out. You're open minded and enthusiastic about new ideas but tend to get bored with the details of implementation. You tend to act first and consider the implications afterwards. You love bouncing ideas off other people and solving problems as part of a team but you also enjoy the limelight! You learn best when you're involved in new experiences, problems and opportunities; when you're working with others and by being thrown in the deep end.

o Reflector – You like to think about details carefully before taking action and you take a thoughtful approach. You enjoy being prepared and the chance to research and evaluate something. You welcome opportunities to rethink and reflect on what you've learned and to consider a situation from different perspectives. You like to make decisions in your own time, you keep a low profile and enjoy observing others and hearing their opinions before offering your own. You learn best by reviewing what's happened and mulling over what you've learned and when you have time to complete tasks without tight deadlines.

o Theorist – You are logical and objective and take a step by step approach to problem solving. You pay attention to the details and can be a perfectionist. You are good at translating what you see around you into theories and you're good at fitting things into an overall understanding. You're detached and analytical, rather than subjective or emotional in your thinking and you like to feel intellectually stretched. You learn best in complex situations where you have to rely on skills and knowledge and when you can question and probe the ideas behind things.

o Pragmatist – You like to see how things work out in practice and you enjoy experimenting. You're a down-to-earth problem solver and you like concepts that can be readily applied to your everyday life. You can get impatient with lengthy conceptual discussions which you regard as impractical because you like to see the relevance of your work and to see a practical advantage from using what you've learned. You learn best when there is an obvious link between the topic and job and when you have the chance to feedback on ideas. You love being shown techniques with obvious advantages (e.g. saving time or money) or when you are shown something you can copy (like a proven technique).

We all have a preference for one or the other of these and learn most easily when learning experiences fit with our preferred style but, in order, to become more rounded people its also good to step out of our comfort zones and stretch ourselves by using the other learning styles as well.

You’ve thought briefly about those different styles in relation to yourself and probably other people too, so now let’s think about them in relation to Jesus and the disciples. When Jesus called his first disciples and they dropped their nets to follow him, the disciples were in Activist mode: acting first and considering the implications afterwards; being thrown in the deep end and trying things out.

But then they spent most of their time doing what disciples of rabbi’s always did, sitting at the rabbi’s feet and listening to the rabbi’s teaching. Then they were in Theorist mode: paying attention; fitting things into an overall understanding; intellectually stretched; questioning and probing the ideas behind things.

Now, in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 6. 1-13), we see them going into Pragmatist mode by being asked to copy what they have been shown. Jesus sends them out two by two to have a go at doing what he has been doing: teaching and healing. Now they have to see how things work out in practice, apply the techniques that Jesus has taught them and solve problems in practice; like the problem of how to respond when they are rejected.

Later, when they return (and we read about this in Luke rather than Mark) they go into Reflector mode by reviewing with Jesus what happened while they were travelling preachers and healers and mulling over what they had learnt. They come back in great joy having had some great experiences and Jesus then puts what they have seen and done into the context of God’s plan for the world.

So, we can see the way in which the disciples benefited from different learning experiences and different learning styles at different times in their development.

When he gave his disciples the Great Commission just before his Ascension, Jesus said that they were to go and make disciples. What he was saying then is that all of us who follow Jesus are to be disciples and disciples are those who sit at the feet of the rabbi (in our case, Jesus) and learn from him. Just as Jesus took his disciples through a cycle of learning, so he wants to do the same with us. As part of that learning, the disciples were given roles and responsibilities and became leaders in the church but they never ceased to be disciples and always had more to learn.

It is the same for us. It is a little like the process of being ordained first as a deacon and then as a priest. Simply put, a deacon is a servant. Clergy are ordained first as a deacon to remind us that we are servants of Christ and his church first and foremost. When we are ordained as priest, we don’t then stop being a deacon and it doesn’t matter whether we then go on to further ordinations, for example as a bishop, we remain a deacon, a servant, throughout.

It is the same for us, whether we are a Licenced Lay Minister or Church Warden or Homegroup leader or Hall Bookings Manager or Choir Director or whatever role we might play in our church or our workplaces, as Manager or Secretary or Director or some other role. Whatever role or responsibility we have we are first and foremost a disciple, a learner, and, as a result, our learning should be lifelong and not only during particular periods of education.

We need to be reminded of that regularly because we all face the temptation to think that we have arrived – maybe as Christians, maybe in the role we carry out – when in fact we all have more to learn all the time. Not least, because we are learning from the perfection of Jesus himself and we always fall short of that perfection and therefore always have more to learn.

When we understand ourselves to be disciples, learners, first and foremost then it changes our attitude towards the roles we play. If we know that there is always something more we can learn then we pay attention to others and what they are doing rather than focusing on ourselves, we have a basic curiosity that makes us ask why are you doing that that way, instead of saying “it’s my way or the highway,” we have an underlying humility that recognises that I may have much to learn from your way.

Where are we in relation to these kinds of attitudes? Where are we in our learning cycle with Jesus? Where do we need to be stretched and challenged in our lives and learning styles? Are we inspired by the experience of having someone who is actively learning among us to be active learners ourselves?

What are you learning from Jesus at the moment? How is your faith changing and developing your life at the moment? How is your ministry growing in your home, in this church, in our community and in your workplace? These are the questions we need to ask if we are to be those who sit at the feet of Jesus in order to learn from his teaching and practice. These are the questions we need to ask and to answer if we are to be disciples. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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U2 - Atomin City.

Ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out

Here's the sermon I preached at St Andrew’s Wickford during yesterday's midweek Eucharist:

Mark’s Gospel begins a little like an action movie. Before we have completed the first chapter John the Baptist has preached, Jesus has been baptised, tempted in the desert, called the disciples, and healed a man in the synagogue. The pace of action is breathtaking. Read it at home and see for yourself!

So we are still in the first chapter with today’s Gospel reading (Mark 1. 29-39) and, although that is the case, we have here ten verses that show us the pattern of Jesus’ whole ministry. This is what Mark is so good at doing. He doesn’t just tell us the story straight; this happened then that happened. Instead he tells stories that sum up what the whole of Jesus’ mission and ministry were about, so that we can follow in Jesus’ footsteps by doing the same.

The first pattern that we see in this story is the balance been ministry and spirituality. The first few verses of the story describe an intense period of ministry. Jesus returns from the synagogue where he has just healed a man to find that Simon’s mother-in-law is unwell. He heals her and then spends the evening healing many “who were sick with all kinds of diseases and drove out many demons.” We know how busy and exhausted we can often feel through the ministry we do in our workplaces, homes, community and here at St John’s. We can imagine how Jesus would have felt following his day of ministry.

In the morning, everyone is again looking for Jesus but he is nowhere to be found. Long before daylight he had got up, left the town and gone to a lonely place where he could pray. In order to pray effectively and well to needed to get away from the demands of ministry and away from his disciples. He needed to be alone with God in order to recharge his batteries for further ministry to come and this is Jesus’ pattern throughout his ministry; active mission together with others combined with withdrawal for individual prayer and recuperation.

This needs to be our pattern too. The busyness of ministry here and in our weekday lives cannot be sustained if it is not fed by regular times of withdrawal for prayer and recuperation. The two are clearly separated in Jesus’ live and ministry and he is prepared to disappoint people, as in this story, in order to ensure that he has the times of prayer and recuperation that he needs in our to sustain his active ministry.

The second pattern that we find in this story is that of ministry and moving on. Jesus has this time of active ministry with the people at Capernaum and then he moves on to preach in the other villages around this town and indeed across the whole of Galilee. The people don’t want him to go. The disciples tell Jesus that everyone is looking for him. They want more of what he has already given them. But he refuses them and moves on to preach to others.

There are two aspects to the pattern of Jesus’ ministry here. First, is his concern for all to hear. That is why he has come, he says, that he should bring God’s message to all. We need that same motivation. The message of salvation cannot stay wrapped up inside this building or our congregation but must go out from here. That also needs to happen for our own growth and development. We grow as Christians not by staying where we are and being ministered to but by getting up and following in Jesus’ footsteps ourselves; by becoming active ministers of the Gospel ourselves.

That is why Jesus constantly challenges his hearers to take up their cross and follow him. It is not that he wants to condemn all of us to suffering and a hard life instead he wants us to become people who learn how to give more than we receive. If all that we do as Christians is receive then our faith is ultimately a selfish one that is about what we can gain for ourselves. But what Jesus models for us is a way of life based on giving not getting and it is as we follow in his footsteps by giving that we grow and mature as Christians not the other way around. When we get up and go, we are putting our faith into action and genuinely trusting God. In that way, our faith is stretched and strengthened and grows.

William Temple, who was probably the greatest twentieth century Archbishop of Canterbury, famously said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” What he meant is that the Church is not about us members getting our needs and wants satisfied; it is instead about equipping and motivating us, the members, to bless others in the love of Christ. That is what Jesus sought to achieve by moving from town to town, village to village and challenging his disciples to travel with him. 

We need to mirror these patterns of ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out in our lives and our Church. We must be a society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. As we follow Christ, we cannot simply be about getting our needs and wants satisfied but need to be about being equipped by God through times of prayer and recuperation to be signs of Christ outside of this building, outside of our congregation, out where it makes a difference, out in our community and workplaces.

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Steve Bell & Malcolm Guite - Epiphany on the Jordan.

Ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out

Here's the reflection I shared during today's Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Mark’s Gospel begins a little like an action movie. Before we have completed the first chapter John the Baptist has preached, Jesus has been baptised, tempted in the desert, called the disciples, and healed a man in the synagogue. The pace of action is breathtaking. Read it at home and see for yourself!

So we are still in the first chapter with today’s Gospel reading (Mark 1. 29-39) and, although that is the case, we have here ten verses that show us the pattern of Jesus’ whole ministry. This is what Mark is so good at doing. He doesn’t just tell us the story straight; this happened, then that happened. Instead he tells stories that sum up what the whole of Jesus’ mission and ministry were about, so that we can follow in Jesus’ footsteps by doing the same.

The first pattern that we see in this story is the balance been ministry and spirituality. The first few verses of the story describe an intense period of ministry. Jesus returns from the synagogue where he has just healed a man to find that Simon’s mother-in-law is unwell. He heals her and then spends the evening healing many “who were sick with all kinds of diseases and drove out many demons.” We know how busy and exhausted we can often feel through the ministry we do in our workplaces, homes, community and here at St Martin’s. We can imagine how Jesus would have felt following his day of ministry.

In the morning, everyone is again looking for Jesus but he is nowhere to be found. Long before daylight he had got up, left the town and gone to a lonely place where he could pray. In order to pray effectively and well to needed to get away from the demands of ministry and away from his disciples. He needed to be alone with God in order to recharge his batteries for further ministry to come and this is Jesus’ pattern throughout his ministry; active mission together with others, combined with withdrawal for individual prayer and recuperation.

This needs to be our pattern too. The busyness of ministry here at St Martin’s and in our weekday lives cannot be sustained if it is not fed by regular times of withdrawal for prayer and recuperation. The two are clearly separated in Jesus’ live and ministry and he is prepared to disappoint people, as in this story, in order to ensure that he has the times of prayer and recuperation that he needs in our to sustain his active ministry. This is why prayer and spirituality is prioritised here at St Martin’s.

The second pattern that we find in this story is that of ministry and moving on. Jesus has this time of active ministry with the people at Capernaum and then he moves on to preach in the other villages around this town and indeed across the whole of Galilee. The people don’t want him to go. The disciples tell Jesus that everyone is looking for him. They want more of what he has already given them. But he refuses them and moves on to preach to others.

There are two aspects to the pattern of Jesus’ ministry here. First, is his concern for all to hear. That is why he has come, he says, that he should bring God’s message to all. We need that same motivation. The message of salvation cannot stay wrapped up inside this building or our congregation, but must go out from here.

That also needs to happen for our own growth and development. We grow as Christians not by staying where we are and being ministered to but by getting up and following in Jesus’ footsteps ourselves; by becoming active ministers of the Gospel ourselves. That is why Jesus constantly challenges his hearers to take up their cross and follow him. It is not that he wants to condemn all of us to suffering and a hard life instead he wants us to become people who learn how to give more than we receive.

If all that we do as Christians is receive then our faith is ultimately a selfish one that is about what we can gain for ourselves. But what Jesus models for us is a way of life based on giving not getting and it is as we follow in his footsteps by giving that we grow and mature as Christians not the other way around. When we get up and go, we are putting our faith into action and genuinely trusting God. In that way, our faith is stretched and strengthened and grows.

William Temple, who was probably the greatest twentieth century Archbishop of Canterbury, famously said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” What he meant is that the Church is not about us members getting our needs and wants satisfied; it is instead about equipping and motivating us, the members, to bless others in the love of Christ. That is what Jesus sought to achieve by moving from town to town, village to village and challenging his disciples to travel with him.

We need to mirror these patterns of ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out in our lives and our Church. St Martin’s is a society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. As we follow Christ, we cannot simply be about getting our needs and wants satisfied but need to be about being equipped by God through times of prayer and recuperation to be signs of Christ outside of this building, outside of our congregation, out where it makes a difference, out in our communities and workplaces. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Morten Lauridsen - O Magnum Mysterium.

Artlyst: St James Piccadilly - a series of innovative and provocative art installations

For my latest article for Artlyst I visited St James Piccadilly and saw work by Clinton Chaloner, Arabella Dorman and Emily Young:

'St James Piccadilly is one of the best loved churches in London. The congregation describe themselves as seeking to be inclusive, welcoming and adventurous, while their Rector, Revd Lucy Winkett, Chaplain to the Royal Academy of Arts, suggests that the ‘ungovernable and wholly independent spiritual reality that Christians call God, the generative presence that underpins the universe is the same spirit that inspires and invigorates the artist inside all of us who will not be told what to do or what to believe and who treasures our most precious human characteristic; imagination.’

As a result, it is no surprise to find the Arts as a significant contributor to the ministry which is undertaken in and from St James’ or to find that it has been the location for a series of innovative and provocative art installations, often during the major Christian festivals. I visited recently to see their latest installation, Suspension by Arabella Dorman, but their commitment to visual art is such that it was also possible to see the rawest set of nativity figures I have ever viewed and eight massive masterfully mysterious stone heads by Emily Young.'

My other Artlyst articles are:

• Can Art Transform Society?
• Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
• Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
• The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
• Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
• Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
• Polish Art In Britain Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
• Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields;
• Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar;
• Refugee Artists Learning from The Lives Of Others;
• The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg;
• The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement;
• Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition;
• Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation;
• The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields; and
• Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?

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Luke Sital Singh - 21st Century Heartbeat.

Ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out

Here is my reflection from today's Choral Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

There are two patterns to the ministry of Jesus in these verses (Luke 4. 38 - 44) and we will do well to take note of them in relation to our own lives and ministries.

The first pattern that we see in this story is the balance been ministry and spirituality. The first few verses of the story describe an intense period of ministry. Jesus returns from the synagogue where he has just healed a man to find that Simon’s mother-in-law is unwell. He heals her and then spends the evening healing and delivering many others. We know how busy and exhausted we can often feel through the ministry we do in our workplaces, homes, community and here at St Martin’s. We can imagine how Jesus would have felt following his day of ministry.

In the morning, everyone is again looking for Jesus but he is nowhere to be found. Long before daylight he had got up, left the town and gone to a lonely place where he could pray. In order to pray effectively and well to needed to get away from the demands of ministry and away from his disciples. He needed to be alone with God in order to recharge his batteries for further ministry and that was Jesus’ pattern throughout his ministry; active mission combined with withdrawal for prayer and recuperation.

This needs to be our pattern too. The busyness of ministry here at St Martin’s and in our weekday lives cannot be sustained if it is not fed by regular times of withdrawal for prayer and recuperation. The two are clearly separated in Jesus’ live and ministry and he is prepared to disappoint people, as in this story, in order to ensure that he has the times of prayer and recuperation that he needs in our to sustain his active ministry. This is why we prioritise prayer and spirituality here at St Martin’s, with our range of services, times of contemplative prayer, opportunities for compassionate action, and annual retreats. It is why we have introduced a time of prayer ministry after the 10.00am service on Sundays. It is also one of the reasons why those of us in the staff team may not always be around in the building, because we too need that time and space for prayer and recuperation.

The second pattern that we find in this story is that of ministry and moving on. Jesus has this time of active ministry in Capernaum and then he moves on to preach in the other villages around this town and indeed across the whole of Galilee. The people don’t want him to go. The disciples tell Jesus that everyone is looking for him. They want more of what he has already given them. But he refuses them and moves on to preach to others.

There are two aspects to the pattern of Jesus’ ministry here. First, is his concern for all to hear. That is why he has come, he says, that he should bring God’s message to all. We need that same motivation. The message of salvation cannot stay wrapped up inside this building or our congregation but must go out from here. That is the why St Martin’s has always been a place that has created new initiatives. These initiatives show that Christians have something to say and something to contribute to the concerns that people have and, ultimately, that what we have to say and show is the love of God for all. It is vital that the message and the love of God does not stay cooped up in here but is expressed out there in our community.

That also needs to happen for our own growth and development. We grow as Christians not by staying where we are and being ministered to but by getting up and following in Jesus’ footsteps ourselves; by becoming active ministers of the Gospel ourselves. That is why Jesus constantly challenges his hearers to take up their cross and follow him. William Temple famously said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” What he meant is that the Church is not about us members getting our needs and wants satisfied; it is instead about equipping and motivating us, the members, to bless others in the love of Christ. That is what Jesus sought to achieve by moving from town to town, village to village and challenging his disciples to travel with him.

We need to mirror these patterns of ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out in our lives and our Church. That is why St Martin’s seeks to be a society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. As we follow Christ, we cannot simply be about getting our needs and wants satisfied but need to be about being equipped by God through times of prayer and recuperation to be signs of Christ outside of this building, outside of our congregation, out where it makes a difference, out in our community and workplaces.

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Taize - Wait For The Lord.

Step up to the plate

Here is my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

The expression “step up to the plate” refers to “voluntarily assuming responsibility for something.” However, when someone seems to have a particular role or responsibility covered, it is then difficult for others to see the part that they could play or to think there is a need to play their part. That is, in part, what Jesus is addressing with his disciples in his farewell discourse (John 15. 26&27, 16. 1-4).

In the farewell discourses and also in many of his parables, Jesus was preparing his disciples for the point when he would leave them. That point was reached with his Ascension. Among the parables Jesus told to prepare his disciples was the Parable of the Talents, where the Master in the story is absent for much of the time. By telling stories where the central character was absent or left, Jesus was saying that he would be leaving and that, when he did so, he was going to entrust them with the responsibility of continuing his mission and ministry.

This was and is an awesome responsibility and we can readily understand why, for example, the third worker in the Parable of the Talents is depicted as being paralysed by fear at the prospect of the Master’s absence. However, it also shows the value that Jesus saw in his disciples and sees in us. It is amazing but true that God believes in us enough to entrust us with working towards the coming of his kingdom, on earth as in heaven.

The question, then, was whether Jesus’ first disciples (and by implication, all who follow, including ourselves) will step up to the plate and assume responsibility. When the one that was thought of as being in charge and responsible was no longer with the disciples physically, they were made aware of their own responsibilities. Jesus is recorded as saying in our Gospel reading that there were things he did not say to his disciples at the beginning because he was with them at that stage. It was only at the point that Jesus was to leave that it became essential that they heard those things. It was only at that point that they could hear those things.

What Jesus was saying was a version of the popular statement that no one is indispensable, even him. “The graveyards are full of indispensable men,” is another similar saying, popularly attributed to Charles de Gaulle. The reality for Jesus, as the incarnate Son of God, was that he could not personally share his message and love across the known world or throughout history without disciples committed to following him and sharing him with others.

Therefore, at the Ascension, Jesus was like an Olympic torchbearer passing his light on to his disciples and calling them to bear his light. This could only happen as those following him acted as his hands and feet, his eyes, ears and mouth, his body wherever they are. That is essentially the challenge of the Ascension for us, but this challenge is combined with the promise that Jesus will send his Spirit to us to empower and equip us to be his people.

For this reason, the Ascension and Pentecost are intimately linked. The Ascension provides the challenge – “Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples” (Matthew 28. 19) – and Pentecost provides the means - “when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In this way we are been given the resources needed to fulfil our responsibility. Similarly, in the Parable of the Talents, the Master gave out resources (the ‘talents’) alongside responsibilities. In the same way, after the Ascension, the Holy Spirit came to empower Jesus’ disciples.

Do we recognise that each of us has much that we can give; that we are all people with talents and possessions however lacking in confidence and means we may sometimes be? We all have something we can offer, so how can we, through our lives and work, benefit and develop the world for which God has given humanity responsibility? What resources - in terms of abilities, job, income and possessions - has God given to us in order to fulfil our responsibility to bear his light in this dark world? Through his Ascension, Jesus challenges us as to whether we will be faithful or unfaithful servants? How will we respond? If we accept the responsibility we have been given, we can then pray for quiet courage to match this hour. We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age; but we can ask that its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us, its injustices anger us, its possibilities inspire us and its vigour renew us for the sake of Christ’s kingdom come, on earth as in his heaven.

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Charles Wesley - Hail The Day That Sees Him Rise.

HeartEdge Start:Stop Seminar

Learn about the genesis of Start:Stop (10-minute work-based reflections for people on their way to work) together with Revd Jonathan Evens, Associate Vicar Partnership, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Priest-in-charge, St Stephen Walbrook.

An opportunity to discuss:
• growing a new congregation;
• engaging with working people;
• ministering in the workplace;
• communicating with busy people.

Free to HeartEdge members, £10 for others. Register with Revd Jonathan Evens at jonathan.evens@smitf.org or 020 7766 1127.

For more information, see
http://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/church/worship/partnerships/.

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Duke Special - Something Might Happen.

Ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out

Here is my sermon from yesterday's lunchtime Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Mark’s Gospel begins a little like an action movie. Before we have completed the first chapter John the Baptist has preached, Jesus has been baptised, tempted in the desert, called the disciples, and healed a man in the synagogue. The pace of action is breathtaking. Read it at home and see for yourself! We are still in the first chapter with today’s Gospel reading (Mark 1. 29 - 39) and, although that is the case, have here ten verses that show us the pattern of Jesus’ whole ministry. Mark tells us stories that sum up what the whole of Jesus’ mission and ministry were about, so that we can follow in Jesus’ footsteps by doing the same.

The first pattern that we see in this story is the balance been ministry and spirituality. Mark describes an intense period of ministry. Jesus returns from the synagogue where he has just healed a man to find that Simon’s mother-in-law is unwell. He heals her and then spends the evening healing many “who were sick with all kinds of diseases and drove out many demons.” We know how busy and exhausted we can feel through the ministry we do in our workplaces, homes, community, and here at St Martin’s. We can imagine how Jesus would have felt following this ministry.

In the morning, everyone is again looking for Jesus but he is nowhere to be found. Long before daylight he had got up, left the town and gone to a lonely place where he could pray. In order to pray effectively and well to needed to get away from the demands of ministry and away from his disciples. He needed to be alone with God in order to recharge his batteries for further ministry to come and this is his pattern throughout his ministry; active mission together with others combined with withdrawal for individual prayer and recuperation. It needs to be our pattern too.

The busyness of ministry here at St Martin’s and in our weekday lives cannot be sustained if it is not fed by regular times of withdrawal for prayer and recuperation. The two are clearly separated in Jesus’ life and ministry and he is prepared to disappoint people, as in this story, in order to ensure that he has the times of prayer and recuperation that he needs in our to sustain his active ministry. This is why prayer and spirituality is prioritised here at St Martin’s, as can be seen with our current adverts for the Silent Retreat and Lent Course; but also in many other ways.

The second pattern that we find in this story is that of ministry and moving on. Jesus has this time of active ministry with the people at Capernaum and then he moves on to preach in the other villages across the whole of Galilee. The people don’t want him to go. The disciples tell Jesus that everyone is looking for him. They want more of what he has already given them. But he refuses them and moves on to preach to others. There are two aspects to the pattern of Jesus’ ministry here. First, is his concern for all to hear. That is why he has come, he says, that he should bring God’s message to all. We need that same motivation. The message of salvation cannot stay wrapped up inside this building or our congregation but must go out from here. That is the motivation behind the HeartEdge network of churches we are currently building and other partnership and mission activities with which we are involved.

This also needs to happen for our own growth and development. We grow as Christians not by staying where we are and being ministered to but by getting up and following in Jesus’ footsteps ourselves; by becoming active ministers of the Gospel ourselves. That is why Jesus constantly challenges his hearers to take up their cross and follow him. It is not that he wants to condemn all of us to suffering and a hard life instead he wants us to become people who learn how to give more than we receive.

William Temple famously said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” What he meant is that the Church is not about us members getting our needs and wants satisfied; it is instead about equipping and motivating us, the members, to bless others in the love of Christ. That is what Jesus sought to achieve by moving from town to town, village to village and challenging his disciples to go with him.

We need to mirror these patterns of ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out in our lives and our Church. St Martin’s is a society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. As we follow Christ, we cannot simply be about getting our needs and wants satisfied but need to be about being equipped by God through times of prayer and recuperation to be signs of Christ outside of this building, outside of our congregation, out where it makes a difference, out in our community and workplaces.

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John Dunstable - Quam Pulchra Es.

HeartEdge

‘At the Heart – on the Edge’ is a day exploring mission by sharing ideas, uncovering solutions and finding support. Starting at 10.30am (coffee from 10am) on 8 February 2017 at St Stephen, Walbrook, London we’ll finish at 3.30pm. The conference will launch HeartEdge, a new network for churches growing practices and patterns of sustainable mission, initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Hosted by Revd Dr Sam Wells, our focus on 8 February is on:

• Congregation – approaches to liturgy, worship and day-to-day communal life
• Commerce – activities generating finance and developing social enterprise
• Charity – addressing social needs while retaining congregational participation
• Culture – art, music and ideas to re-imagine the Christian narrative for the present moment

Interested? Sign up for this launch event and attend what we plan to be an inspiring and practical first conference here >> https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/at-the-heart-on-the-edge-heartedge-conference-2017-tickets-29792821130.

On the high street or in the market place, churches these days make for unusual spaces. Often busy – from community projects and the arts, to hospitality and social enterprise – they frequently engage a wide mix of people including those more used to feeling marginalised and excluded. And if the church hasn't got there yet, it’s probably an aspiration the congregation are working towards.

We think this unusual blend of creative, commercial and community activity that works to include all kinds of people makes many churches essential places in a neighbourhood. It means being at the heart of a community while encountering God among those on the edge.

HeartEdge:

• A network of churches initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields
• For those working at the heart of culture, community and commerce
• With those at the margins and on the edge
• Building association, learning, development and resource

HeartEdge supports churches in blending their mission around four key areas:

1. Congregation – Inclusive approaches to liturgy, worship and day-to-day communal life
2. Community – models of outreach serving local need and addressing social justice
3. Culture – art, music and ideas to re-imagine the Christian narrative for the present moment
4. Commerce – Commercial activities that generate finance, creatively extending and enhancing mission and ministry through social enterprise

HeartEdge supports its members in finding their stories, sharing resources and connecting effectively with others developing their church and community.

We create spaces where members give from their experience and take from others – an exchange that's often inspiring, always compelling, and mutually useful for all participants.

We want HeartEdge to be an essential resource and a valuable community, as you develop your church and neighbourhood.

When you join HeartEdge you and your church get:

1. Connections: Access to all kinds of useful contacts and connections to help your church develop cultural, commercial and community activity
2. Information: Grow your knowledge and insight to help you in your work via the lived experience of others
3. Visits: Opportunity to meet those most relevant to you in situ, gaining understanding of their work and experience, live
4. Mentors: Via phone calls & meetings, appropriate learning and support from others
5. Events: Programmed with bespoke content useful for your context
6. Publications: An emerging range of resources based on approaches to ministry used by HeartEdge members
7. Projects: Support and resources to begin specific social justice initiatives
8. Emails and Online: We’ll keep in touch with you via a monthly email with links to useful resources via our website

HeartEdge is fuelled by its members. Members are people and churches who are makers and takers – people and churches that both give to the network and take from it.

When you join HeartEdge you give us:

1. Information – about your story and journey as a church. This includes information about what is working well and what isn’t
2. Money – via payment of a membership fee. We want to resource HeartEdge and this needs paying for. We tell you how we spend the money elsewhere in this pack
3. Time – to meet other members and participate in a useful and resourcing network
4. Resource – We think you will have one or more of the following that we think will be useful to others members: ideas, stories, experience, approaches, knowledge, relationships, tactics, strategies and resources. By joining the network you agree, where possible, to share these with others

Generosity is central to HeartEdge – it helps the network to become a useful resource. Your generosity enables members to generate new stories across other communities.

HeartEdge was initiated by the congregation at St Martin-in-the-Fields and will be formally launched early in 2017, but we are seeking founder members now. Join HeartEdge now and you become part of the network as we start out, developing relationships and growing this new resource.

For more information and a membership pack contact Revd Jonathan Evens, Associate Vicar for Partnerships on 02077661127 or jonathan.evens@smitf.org.

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Great Sacred Music - A Hymn for St Cecilia.

Two sculptures: Jean Lamb and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones

Here are two sculptures, one from the area where I have been ministering and the other from where my ministry will primarily be in future. Jean Lamb's sculpture (top) is at St Mary Woolnoth, while the sculpture by Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones is in the churchyard of St Peter Aldborough Hatch and is part of a local art trail.

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Aaron Neville - I Know I've Been Changed.

Churches can survive and thrive in changing and challenging times

The Evens Evening at St John's Seven Kings, which was my farewell event in the parish, was a very special evening for us as a family. I gave a presentation of the recent East London Three Faiths Forum Tour of the Holy Land, there was a delicious bring and share supper, and there were words of thanks and presentations to Christine and I.

Here is the speech I gave at the end of the evening:

St John’s is a diverse and busy church in a diverse and changing area. This makes it an interesting and dynamic place to be. When that is combined with committed, caring and creative people in the congregation and community, the parish provides opportunities for ministry which is engaged and engaging, innovative and traditional, memorable and mundane.

Over the past eight years together we have: celebrated anniversaries (Contact Centre, Mothers’ Union, 110 years of the Church); been inspired by the examples of those no longer with us such as Dorothy Hart, Doreen Gullett, John Toll and Barbara Trump among others; maintained our work with children and young people; drawn new people into ministry in services and leadership; welcomed new people into the congregation as a result of our community engagement, the occasional offices of baptisms, funerals and weddings, and through people moving into the area; contributed to successful community campaigns for much needed local facilities; organised art exhibitions, bazaars, community information events, concerts, light opera performances, literary panels, a Praise Party, a wide range of social & fundraising events, table-top sales and a talent show; supported the setting up the Sophia Hub social enterprise support service; worked closely and well with our friends in the Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches and the local cluster of Anglican churches; and expanded the range of community groups using the Parish Centre.

As a result of this shared missional activity, St John’s is well known in the borough as a well used and well loved community hub; a church that is open, welcoming, engaged and engaging. We have achieved this together in a challenging context for the borough’s churches which results from the changing demographics in the area. The multi-faith nature of this parish means that Christianity is becoming numerically a minority faith in the area bringing significant challenges for maintaining church buildings and congregations as a result. While understandably, but unhelpfully, this can result in a defensive attitude developing among Christians, overall at St John’s we have been open to engagement and dialogue with our neighbours of other faiths through our support of Faith Forum and Three Faiths Forum events and the work of the Sophia Hub and Scriptural Reasoning group. In addition, although there has been resistance, we have faced up to the changes needed to address the financial issues which arise from the challenge provided by changing demographics and have worked our way together to a place of renewed financial viability. We are, therefore, an example of how churches can survive and thrive in changing and challenging times and locations.

None of this has been achieved without debate and stress, conflict and challenge both for you and for me. All of this – continuity, change and challenge – has contributed to the ministry we have done and the foundation for the future which has been laid.

St John’s will be a hugely interesting and attractive parish in which someone new can minister. It has been a privilege for me to be your minister for the past eight years, to get to know and grow in friendship with you all, to face the challenges and take on the opportunities of this area, and most of all to do ministry together; to share in activities which benefit the local community, bring diverse groups together, develop understanding and community cohesion, bring people to Christian faith and to a deepening of their faith.

Thank you for the opportunity to have been part of all this together with you. Thank you for all that each one of you contributes to the ongoing mission and ministry of St John’s. Thank you because of the impact that that ministry has individually and overall. Thank you for all that I have learnt and for all the ways that I have developed and grown through being here. Thank you to all those who have shared ministry and leadership with me here and thank you to all those who given me particular support, help and encouragement in the time that I have been here. I pray for God’s continued rich and deep blessing on you as individuals, congregation, church, parish and community.   

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Bernadette Farrell - Christ Be Our Light.

How do we react when the boss is away?

When the boss is away how do we react? That's the scenario on which this parable (Matthew 25. 14 - 30) is based.

Responsibilities are delegated to three workers, two of whom shoulder their responsibilities and develop the business so that it grows. The third, however, is so paralysed by the responsibility and the possibility of failure that he does nothing with the responsibilities that have been entrusted to him and consequently there is no development and no growth. When the boss returns the first two are rewarded and the third is sacked.

Jesus told this parable to prepare his disciples for his death, resurrection and ascension. He was going to leave them but he was entrusting them with the responsibility of continuing his mission and ministry in his physical absence. It has to be said that this was and is an awesome responsibility and we can understand why the third worker was paralysed by fear at the prospect. However, it also shows the value that Jesus saw in his disciples and sees in us. It is amazing but true that God believes in us enough to entrust us with working towards the coming of his kingdom, on earth as in heaven.

So the story suggests that we have a responsibility to use all that we have for the benefit of the world. If the Boss represents God then his property is the world and we, his workers, are placed in charge of his world and given responsibility for its change and development. It is also worth noting that in the story we have the resources needed for this responsibility. The Boss gives out resources alongside responsibilities.

How we respond to this situation is what is at the heart of the Jesus’ story. The faithful workers are those that accept this responsibility and act on it. The unfaithful worker is the one who does nothing, who does not act.

Can we say something similar? Are we faithful or unfaithful workers? Are our lives dedicated to using the gifts which God has given to us for the benefit of others and our world? Do we recognise that each of us has much that we can give; that we are all people with talents and possessions however lacking in confidence and means we may sometimes be?

We all have something we can offer, so how will we respond? How can we, through our lives and work, benefit and develop the world for which God has given humanity responsibility? What resources - in terms of abilities, job, income and possessions - has God given to us in order to fulfil our responsibility to benefit and develop the world?

Will we be faithful or unfaithful servants? How will we respond?

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Larry Norman - I Am A Servant.

Parish ministry

I don't normally post about day-to-day parish ministry but am very aware in this my first week back from my sabbatical of what is involved. Additionally I've had a meeting with a potential ordinand today and have therefore been talking about my understanding of ministry.

So, just for the record and as a one-off post, today, as a fairly typical day in the life of a parish priest, has involved: leading our midweek Holy Communion service; a meeting to plan interviews for the vacancy in our Playgroup; a meeting to discuss ministry with a potential ordinand; passing the time of day with centre users; two hospital visits; and one home visit. I also have a meeting scheduled for later this evening to plan a renewal of vows service for a couple on their wedding anniversary.

In the course of these activities I've met with 20 parishioners (some members of the congregation, others not), prayed about one person's carpal tunnel condition and another's MS, collected and tested a CD for playing during a funeral on Friday, passed on a message about our Contact Centre, advised a family on how to access NHS Chaplains, and listened to people unpacking issues related to landlords and caring. Unusually I've done almost no administration today other than to send an email thanking those who provided cover during my sabbatical. Most of the above was local but I've visited two different hospitals, so have driven 12 miles in the course of the day.

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The Alarm - Absolute Reality.

Transforming Presence: Reimagining Ministry

All of those exploring the possibility of ordained ministry in the Chelmsford Diocese are asked to do the priesthood project. This involves interviewing a selection of Church of England ministers from across the church traditions, reading a particular book on ministry and then exploring the nature of priesthood in an essay drawing on the interviews and your reading.

When I did this at the end of the 1990s I took Ephesians 4. 1 – 16 as the key text for understanding Church and ministry. So I am very pleased that Bishop Stephen has chosen the same passage when he writes about ‘Reimagining Ministry’ in Transforming Presence:

“I would see my role, as vicar in a parish church, as being one of serving the royal priesthood in that locality by identifying, developing and co-ordinating the gifts and roles of the people within the priesthood so that we become a fully functioning part of the body of Christ able to reveal Jesus clearly in practice. Ephesians 4: 11-16 describes this as the task of every leader within Christ’s body:

“It was he [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”      

The differing roles of leaders mentioned here combine to realise the same aim – preparation of God’s people for ministry (works of service). It is God’s people who minister - who serve and are served - and it is the leaders of the church who prepare God’s people for that service. Both serving and being served build up the body of Christ until the whole measure of the fullness of Christ is attained. Such service will include the priestly sacrifice of whole lives, possessions, praise, money, and evangelism.

The corporate nature of full and effective ministry is vital because God as Trinity is corporate. Jesus does not exist as a sole entity but as part of the Godhead, a distinct part of an inter-related whole that is God – Father, Son and Spirit. As this is the nature of God so it must also be the nature of the Church. Diversity within unity and unity within diversity with God and the Church seen fully as they are seen whole. This is the gift of Jesus, to be drawn into and to reflect corporately the inter-relationship of God himself.

The kind of ministry which I am attempting to describe draws heavily on the example of David Watson and the church structures and approaches that were introduced under his ministry at St Michael-le-Belfrey, York. Watson describes their model and approach in his book ‘I believe in the Church’. In his preface to this book, Michael Green isolates the key characteristics of the approach taken at St Michael-le-Belfrey:

“It is a church where the leadership is shared, where prayer is central, where the sacraments are dynamic, where art and drama and dance adorn the worship. A church where the gifts of the Spirit mingle with His graces of character – and also, no doubt, with many failures! But it is a church which does not depend on its minister. Indeed, it tends to grow when he is away. It is a church that has learnt the pastoral value of the small group, the renewing power of the Holy Spirit, the mutual caring of members one for another.” 

Green argues that Watson’s approach involves “the rediscovery of biblical precedents and principles which are often enough forgotten”. Watson points to six principles of Christian ministry:

1.         No distinction either in form, language or theory between clergy and laity was ever accepted by the New Testament Church.

2.         The ministry is co-extensive with the entire church (1 Corinthians 12: 7).

3.         The local church in the apostolic age always functioned under a plurality of leadership.

4.         There are no uniform models for ministry in the New Testament; the patterns are flexible and versatile.

5.         In the New Testament church can be found both leadership and authority, but no kind of hierarchical structure.

6.         There is one, and only one, valid distinction which the New Testament appears to recognise within the ministry, apart from the different functions to which we have been alluding, the distinction between local and itinerent ministries.”

Much of that remains what I try, very inadequately, to do as your Vicar and much of it overlaps significantly with Bishop Stephen’s vision for reimaging ministry.

Here are the basic principles which Bishop Stephen thinks, with our agreement, could form the basis of a more radical forward thinking look at the ministry of God’s church in our diocese:

·    Ministry belongs to the whole people of God. Every person, because of their baptism, has a ministry. We must nurture an expectation that every Christian gives expression to this ministry in their daily life and in their participation in the life of the Church.

·    Stipendiary priests will need to be more episcopal in the way they understand and express their ministry. They will become much more obviously those who have oversight of the ministry of the church in a cluster of rural communities, or in a town or suburb. Their role will be to lead and facilitate ministry in that area, not provide all that ministry themselves. They will, of course, be involved; but their main task will be to animate the ministry of the whole church.

·    For this to work, there also needs to be a huge flourishing of authorised lay ministry (especially youth and children’s workers, authorised preachers, catechists, pastors and evangelists) and ordained self-supporting ministry. And of course we already have many Readers. Alongside some priests being more episcopal we need many others who will be more diaconal, taking on a pastoral, catechetical and evangelistic ministry at the local level.

·    Each local church needs to have some sort of ministry team and, preferably, some minister to whom they identify as the worship leader and pastor of that community. Sometimes this will be a lay person, such as a Reader, and we should encourage lay led worship and ministry in many of our churches. In many cases I hope it will be an ordained self-supporting minister, so that the sacramental life of our church continues to flourish. But where there are lay led services of the Word it will still be possible within the cluster of communities under the oversight of the (probably) stipendiary priest, for there to be regular Sunday by Sunday Eucharistic provision. Some Self-Supporting Ministers will themselves be the leaders (‘episcopal’ priests) in these benefices.

Hopefully you can see the overlaps between these principles and Ephesians 4, as well as seeing that this is not radical for St John’s Seven Kings as it has been our direction of travel over the time that most of us have been here.

It stands or falls, however, on the understanding that ministry belongs to the whole people of God and on there being a real flourishing of authorised lay ministry. That is why it is so relevant to preach on Transforming Presence during our Stewardship month. Such service includes the priestly sacrifice of whole lives, possessions, praise, money, and evangelism or, as we put it in our Stewardship packs, time, talents and treasure.

All this is so that our churches can be a transforming presence in our community as: places of prayer; places where people learn about the faith and are active in discipleship; places where there is a ministry of evangelism; places where ministry is shared and developed; places which serve the local community; places that are inclusive and welcome to all; places which are seeking the unity of all God’s church and working with their neighbours locally and globally.

Next week, in our Patronal Festival Service, we bring our reflections on Stewardship and Transforming Presence in our annual recommitment of ourselves in the service of Christ by saying together:

I have a part in God’s great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for nothing. I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place. Deign to fulfil your high purposes in me. I am here to serve you, to be yours, to be your instrument. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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The Staple Singer - Pray On, My Child.