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.

Translating what we hear and read into lives that speak

Today at St John's Seven Kings we hosted a thanksgiving service for the life of John Toll. During the service I said the following:

"The Book of Common Prayer has been and continues to be loved" (as was the case with John) "for its wonderful language, dignified and memorable but always speaking to our human condition. Phrases from it have come into everyday use and have been quoted in literature. 'Till death us do part', 'read, mark, learn and inwardly digest', 'peace in our time'." With the Authorised Version of the Bible, "it has shaped the language of worship both in public services and private prayers." More than that, as Melvyn Bragg has said, "There is no doubt in my mind that the King James Bible not Shakespeare set this language on its path to become a universal language on a scale unprecedented before or since." 
 

John might have disagreed with that because he also loved Shakespeare’s ability "to summarize the range of human emotions in simple yet profoundly eloquent verse which is perhaps the greatest reason for his enduring popularity. If you cannot find words to express how you feel about love or music or growing older, Shakespeare can speak for you. No author in the Western world has penned more beloved passages. Many of the common expressions now thought to be clichés were Shakespeare's creations. Chances are you use Shakespeare's expressions all the time even though you may not know it is the Bard you are quoting."
 

As Bernard Levin said, “... if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare ...”

The language of Shakespeare, the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer live on when we use their words and phrases in everyday discourse but these words really come alive, as John knew for himself, when we act them out. Shakespeare lives in performance and the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer become contemporary when we "translate what we hear and read into lives that speak God’s truth afresh in our generation."

That was what John sought to do in every aspect of his full and varied life: in his conscientious work for Plesseys; in his enjoyment of sport and his encouragement of the boys in his football team; in his many friendships and his love of his godchildren; in his care of his mother; in his dedication to the support of live theatre; in the care and commitment shown in his volunteering; and in his enabling of worship through his many years as a server here at St John’s. The words that he loved shaped the man that he became and the man that he became translated what he heard and read into a life that spoke God’s truth in and through all aspects of the full life he lived - in the Arts, the Church, relationships, sport, and work (paid and unpaid).

In bearing God's image John brought light to our lives; for we saw in his friendship reflections of God's compassion, in his integrity demonstrations of God's goodness, in his faithfulness glimpses of God's eternal love. As we pray, may God grant to each of us, beloved and bereft, the grace to follow John's good example so that we, with him, may come to God's everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.        

O eternal Word of God, limitless and free, yet handed down to us through careful human speech, telling salvation's story in the homely and glorious words of our own mother tongue: translate what we hear and read into lives that speak your truth afresh in this generation, that many may come to love you our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Tomaso Albinoni - Violin Concerto in G Minor.