November 2012 - We are Disciples

Dear Friends

A Renewed Vision

I am pleased to announce that the vacuum is not total: there is some air! I have had two wonderful and thoughtful responses since last writing to you. Two members of Parish Council – re-elected for 2013 – have responded in the midst of their busy lives, affirming the input from our August workshop and highlighting aspects that we need to consider in formulating a new set of vision and mission statements that will both drive us and pull us as we seek to be Renewed and empowered by Baptism to be “Servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1).

The challenge of good vision and mission statements is for them to be succinct, easy to remember, implementable, and challenging. And yet they also need to say everything that needs to be said! We need to use words that point us to a reality beyond themselves and remind us of the volume of ideas we wish to capture. As a way forward I wish to suggest the following for consideration:

Vision:

We are disciples of Christ – committed, disciplined, willing, qualified – living

out our Faith in daily life.

Mission:

We are role-models and risk-takers for Christ where we live, work and worship.

Priorities:

        ·         Inclusive participation in our shared vision and mission

        ·         Family and Youth development

        ·         Active in Social Media

        ·         Outreach to less advantaged communities

        ·         Faithful stewards of our resources

        ·         Plant a new Anglican community in South East

Scripture:

“You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.”

(Matthew 5:14a; The Message)

Please reflect on the above and give comment. You may wish to refer back to the insights from the August workshop, and you can find this at http://bit.ly/Rqg0aY or if you need a hard copy, then my article in the September Parish Magazine. This will be discussed and further revised at our Parish Council meeting on 14 November 2012. A final version will be presented to our Annual Vestry meeting in January 2013, and if accepted, will become the instrument that helps us review our core practices and direct our ministry as a Parish.

Holiday

I will be taking three weeks leave from 19 November through to 10 December 2012. Dawn and I need to catch up with ourselves and with each other. In today’s world one tends to take a few days here and there, rarely enough to fully disengage and truly recreate. We are hoping to spend some time at a friend’s home on the Eastern Cape coast, ending in Cape Town for Dawn’s year-end function.

Fr Danny’s sermon this last Sunday made me realize that the noise of my “street” has dimmed my awareness of God, and that I need to find the space to reflect on how I desire to answer Jesus when I hear that profound question, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus’ reply, “… let me see again” (Mark 10:51; NRSV) struck a chord for me. The last eighteen months have been energy-sapping on a number of levels. It is good to be busy, but easy to allow the noise of busyness to drown out the gentle whispering of God’s Spirit, and so I look forward to giving God the space to talk quietly to my heart.

                Blessings

                                Mark

November 2011 - Servants and Stewards

Dear Friends

Vision

I reminded us in my article last month that the vision of the Anglican community in Southern Africa is to be “Anchored in the love of Christ, Committed to God's Mission, Transformed by the Holy Spirit.” The full vision, mission and priority statements can be found at http://bit.ly/sI5Mrw , and I do recommend you take time to read them. Bishop Jo, at our recent Synod, indicated that in 2012 there will be a process of revisiting our Diocesan statements in order to align them with the Provincial commitment, as well as to the context in which our Diocese finds itself, namely that we now have a rector in every parish in the Diocese, allowing every parish to become increasingly a centre of spirituality, mission and ministry.

Diocesan Theme 2011-2014

The Diocese meets for Synod every three years, and each time sets a theme for the three years to follow. The theme is designed to help us reach aspects of our Diocesan Vision and Mission, and to give us a focus for development and growth between Synod meetings. Synod 2011 accepted the theme:

Renewed and empowered through Baptism to be “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1)

I believe this theme will usefully help us redefine the focus of our Diocesan Vision and Mission as we seek to explore, in terms of the present Diocesan Mission statement, what it truly means for Parishes to be forming centres of spirituality, mission and ministry. In addressing this theme in his Charge to Synod, Bishop Jo reflects that we need to move our focus from the Church as a building to the Church as community. We need to spend time teaching and reflecting on what it means to be Christian Community, on what it means to be servants and stewards in the realm and domain of God.

One of the keys to building community that Bishop Jo points to in his Charge is the importance of establishing small faith communities in people’s homes. So much of community in the Anglican environment is established around our building and our Sunday worship, and so there is a huge challenge here. It has been touching in recent weeks to experience how the Corpus Christi Family Cross is taking the focus of community into our homes – drawing together the family, drawing in friends – as we meet to pray. It has been encouraging to experience something of the supportive and faith-filled friendships that uphold many of our parish families.

Our responsibility, however, is not just to ourselves, and not just to building our own community; we have a responsibility to the wider community of humanity and creation. The faith community forms our foundation, but we are called to build beyond our faith boundaries. Bishop Jo reminds us of this in his Charge when he says, “we must, as a matter of our confession, live a life reflecting God’s love which demands unity and requires justice for all humanity.” A strong aspect of this journey is being willing to reach beyond our own boundaries and to join hands with people of other denominational, and even religious, outlook. Unity can never exist if we are unwilling to embrace diversity. We also need to embrace our struggles, suffering and hurt, the fragmentation of human life and community. We are reliably informed that by the time you read this the global human population will have reached seven billion. What is the implication of such numbers for survival? What is the implication for our world? What does it mean for our faith?

The challenge is to live differently and meaningfully, to build community that rejects isolation and breeds wholeness, creating a secure future for our world. Bishop Jo’s challenge to us in this regard is that, “Our work for the kingdom of God must create an environment that has the character of heaven on earth.”

Blessings

Mark