Sunday, February 1, 2009

A challenge at church

We went to St Matthews at Helensville this morning. This Anglican-Methodist parish is starting on the Local Shared Ministry journey and its first team is just about three months into the role. Like many congregations who start out on this unfamiliar route, they’re having one or two hiccoughs along the way.
Parish Enabler, Rev Judy Vause, celebrated the Holy Communion this morning but also put some very specific and yet manageable challenges before people. Can you join the team of greeters? Can you conduct part of the worship? Can you read the scripture with meaning? Can you lead the pastoral prayers? She drew attention to the excellent lead given by members of the congregation today: scriptures well read; prayers skillfully and sensitively assembled, complex liturgy managed smoothly and with dignity.
Of course there are many other aspects to mission and ministry and these will be addressed in their turn as today’s questions were aired.
All pretty ordinary stuff, you might think. But in everyone’s mind was the reality that there are still a couple of vacancies in the Ministry Support Team and there will need to be another Calling shortly. The unstated question that hung in the air was, if the call comes to you to join the team, how will you respond?
Conversation with some of the individuals over morning tea confirmed our impression of an ordinary congregation putting in an extraordinary effort to break from the past and even move beyond the rules and create new life.

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