Rector's Report to Annual Vestry 2010 - St Anne's, Equestria (7 Feb 2010)

Introduction

Today is our 2nd Annual Vestry Meeting, and marks just over a year of our existence as the Mission Parish in Equestria. Since our 1st Meeting we have gained an identity, and I hear us talking about ourselves as “St Anne’s” as if we’ve always been here, which I see as exciting and positive. We come today to celebrate the last year, which is good; but more importantly we need to look forward with expectation. We need to make ourselves available to God, again, that his life may flow through us so that we may be truly be the light of Christ in this part of God’s world. We need to hold close to our hearts Pauls words, “If God is for us, who can be against us?“ (Romans 8:31b TNIV)

The foundation of our Christian confidence lies in four things: our calling; our identity, where we have come from; and where we are going. It is about vision, knowing who we are, and understanding our context.

Our calling

When I arrive in the Archdeaconry five years ago there was a desire to expand the Anglican Church eastwards, and two areas were identified: the area from Silverton through to Silver Lakes, and the area south east of Mooikloof. These two options were explored and land bought. A development centred in the Willows was identified as the priority area and in 2006 I was asked by the Diocese to drive the process with Corpus Christi (Garsfontein) as a base with support from St Francis (Waterkloof) and Holy Trinity (Lynnwood). By July this year (2010) the first phase in reaching this vision, this mission development, will be achieved with a worshiping community based in a new worship facility in Stellenberg Road, Equestria.

Where we have we come from

We needed to define a new Anglican community, and the Diocese committed to helping us do this by providing a clergyperson-in-training to help us determine if we could get a community off the ground. In 2007 Vernon Foster began canvassing in the area, speaking to various parishes, and before long we had a core group of Anglicans willing to join this new venture; the missionary congregation of Willow Glen was formed, and necessary ministry and administrative structures were put in place during 2008. The community was not growing fast, but the journey was exciting.

Alongside this process another more painful journey was taking place. This was the journey the Parish of All Saints (Silverton) was on with the Diocese. Again, a small core of people working diligently to keep head above water, but with the currents of Diocesan opinion – combined with an increasingly semi-industrial environment booming in the wider Silverton geographical surroundings – threatening their existence.

In July 2008 I was asked to explore the possibility of combining the Parish of Silverton with the missionary congregation of Willow Glen. The option was clearly viable, but necessitated the very hard step of Silverton saying good-bye to their home in Pretoria Road and, a bit like Abram and Sarai, stepping out into an uncertain journey. It required of Willow Glen a willingness to walk away from their still new identity, and inclusively embrace a hurting community.

And so a new community was born on Advent Sunday 2008, and the Mission Parish of Equestria (us!)  came into being. Fr Veron acted as mid-wife to this event before his almost immediate redeployment by the Bishop to take up the position of Rector in Lynnwood. Alan O’Brien, also a clergyperson-in-training, was assigned by the Bishop to assist me, and has helped oversee the nurturing of us as a new community. It is thanks to Fr Alan’s leadership, as well as your willingness, that we have forged a united Mission Parish over the last year. While not negating our past we have had the courage to overcome our pain that walking away from the Parish of Silverton required and the sense of loss that walking away for the very young Willow Glen congregation required – and for your courage I salute you!

Our identity

We are still, like Abram and Sarai, on our journey to the “Promised Land”. The site and building-in-progress in Stellenberg Road is giving some tangible reality to the vision, and we are thankful for these facilities at Willow Ridge High School that help contain us on the journey. During 2009 Diocesan Chapter placed the dedication of St Anne on us, which we have accepted. It has some roots in our shared history with Silverton, and so is a touch-stone with the past. St Anne was the grandmother of Christ, and there is always something very comforting about having a granny in residence! But just as Anne bore Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, so our name is a continual reminder to us that our calling is to make Jesus known to the world, to give birth to him in the wider community we serve, and to give birth to others who will continue to give life to the vision and continue to respond to the call.

It has been encouraging to see our community grow from under thirty people at worship early in 2009 to regularly around fifty people now. Our financial position has been far in excess of our Budget for last year. Although we may be relatively small in number there can be no doubt that we are big in heart! My thanks to all who have worked and contributed tirelessly in helping us become who we are, and who we will be. I’m encouraged by God’s name, as he shared it with Moses, because it can be translated as “I am who I am” or “I will be who I will be”: a reminder that we are always more than we appear to be, and that we must never limit our future by how we perceive ourselves in the present.

Where we are going

I know that many of us are mourning Fr Alan’s redeployment to St Bede’s (Soshanguve), and that we had hopes that he would be with us for another year. The reality is that we have had substantial help from the Diocese over the last three years in the form of both Vernon Foster and Alan O’Brien, and there can be no doubt that had they not been with us we would not be where we are today. The Dioceses’ support in the form of Clergy-in-training has helped us find our feet and become a viable Christian community.  With Alan’s recent move there is the temptation to feel abandoned by the Diocese, but if we are honest with ourselves such a response is that of any young adult facing the world as parents set them free to explore the world on their own. As we know, parents wait anxiously see if their child will fly, and are ever ready to step in with support. We now stand as many Chapelries and Mission Parishes stand throughout the Anglican Communion: on our own feet with the challenge to grow to the point where we can fully support our own full-time priest. In the meantime we are better resourced than many: we have a Rector with our needs at heart; we have access to two self-supporting Clergy who, together with the Rector, will ensure we have a Eucharist most Sundays; we have four trained and licensed Layministers; we have a committed Council and Churchwardens, also with our needs at heart; and we have each other.

The vision for our existence has been the vision of others; we have accepted that vision, but the challenge now is to make that vision fully our own, and sustain a vibrant and growing sense of family, meaningful worship, caring and fellowship. Both Vernon and Alan have helped engender this in our midst. The timing of the Bishop’s redeployment of Alan may not be ideal from our perspective, but know this: God has purpose in it, and we will look back in time to come and understand. It is part of the journey. Jeremiah says, ““For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:11-14a TNIV).

Let us hold to the vision and keep the faith!

The year ahead

Challenge number one: hold the vision, keep the faith!

Challenge number two: we are family together in Christ, and we need to stand together. It is likely that by July we will be ensconced in our new home, and the challenge will be exactly that: to make it “Home”.

Challenge number three: grow! We need to find and take every opportunity of reaching out into the community. The sooner we grow our numbers, the sooner our income will expand, and the sooner we will be able to apply to the Bishop for a full-time priest. However, this should not be an end in itself, nor the focus of our efforts. If it is it will fail. It needs to be an almost unintended consequence of our desire to serve God through Jesus Christ, to serve God’s creation and the wider society in which we find ourselves.

The challenge that lies on the shoulders of our new Council is to give us direction and lead us into the “Promised Land”: it is a massive task. But I trust we will all share the load and continue to walk this journey together. God is here, we are not alone, and we have the archdeaconry and the Diocese behind us.

Let us embrace God’s love, and walk together in his grace.

God bless!

Rector's Report to Annual Vestry 2009

A audio version of this report is available at http://share.ovi.com/media/markrdlong.sermons/markrdlong.10131 

Dear Friends, it is my privilege to present to you my fourth Rector’s report to Annual Vestry. Easter 2009 will mark the fourth anniversary of my appointment as Rector, and November 2009 will mark the twentieth anniversary of my priesting.

Reflection

We meet today to reflect on the past year and God’s graciousness to us, and to look forward into all that 2009 will be for us. 2008 has been a tumultuous year, and 2009 threatens to be no less challenging. In the midst of global economic chaos, political uncertainty in the Southern African environment, and the disarray of our own personal lives, we have, nonetheless, experienced God’s grace as a Christian community here at Corpus Christi. Perhaps today’s psalm speaks to the focus that has been ours in the midst of all the darkness that the world has thrust, and continues to thrust, into our lives:

For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

On God rests my deliverance and my honour; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us. (Psalm 62:5-8; NRSV)

In my report last year I challenged the Euro-centric nature of our parish life, which sparked some honest, but hurtful, responses in the subsequent discussion. The value of that interaction is that some of us have done some soul-searching, and I sense a greater openness to the dreams and hopes of all who call Corpus Christi home. Dawn, as only a wife can, in the midst of my own frustrations and reflection reminded me that I have walked a different path from many and that my experiences in ministry, from my emersion in Township culture in the late 1980’s to my exposure to different cultural expressions of Anglicanism in my varied parish appointments, has given me a perspective on relationships and a vision for the  potential of worship in a suburban, inter-cultural parish – such as ours – that can at times be deeply disturbing to others. There are two motivating factors that have driven my vocation: a desire to make God in Jesus Christ known to others, and a deep desire to overcome the obstacles to relationship created by Apartheid in the Southern African context. A Euro-centric outlook, while comfortable for many of us, is not helpful in this ongoing process of transition that affects us as much within the context of the Church as it does in our wider society. It may be that my role is to express the need, and that together we commit to explore the possibilities and walk the journey.

Highlights

Looking back over the last year: a personal highlight was representing the Diocese at the enthronement of the new Archbishop of the Sudan, his Grace Daniel Deng Bul, and helping define our companion Diocesan link relationship with the Diocese of Juba in Southern Sudan; a diocesan highlight was our Diocesan Synod where it was acknowledged that over the last ten years we have, as a Diocese, moved substantially from maintenance to mission, and a new focus on family life, with the catch phrase “turning houses into homes”, was adopted. There have been a number of parish highlights, much of which will be enumerated in the other reports received by Annual Vestry.

One such highlight has been our finances, and the phrase “Abundant Generosity” comes to mind. This may not seem to be very spiritual, but I generally find that the financial strength of a parish is directly proportional to its spiritual depth. Our Generosity Giving income was regularly over-budget resulting in us not needing to dig into funds deposited to cover an expected, but unrealised, deficit in our budget for 2008. Additionally in December we were able to clear the capital amount on our Diocesan Loan taken out to cover the cost of the extension of the church, enabling us to begin 2009 debt free. Further substantial donations were received that have made possible the renovation and extension to our Garden of Remembrance.

Outreach

Our involvement in outreach and mission during 2008 has also been considerable. We participated once again in the Irene Homes Fete and our stall made the highest contribution of the day to the Fete income. We have continued to provide food parcels via Tumelong to vulnerable homes in Maboloko, and with the rising cost in food last year the cash value of this outreach is sizeable. We again hosted a Christmas Party for the Maboloko Haven children and your response to this in gifts and food was inspirational: the children looked quite lost as they received gift after gift. Our involvement with Louis Botha Homes has continued and our “Shrove Sunday” celebration with the children of the house we support has become a Corpus Christi tradition. Our support of Woman Against Rape has also continued in a low-key, but ongoing, generous contribution of the “necessities” for our rape survivors.

Mission

The Gospel reading this morning reminds us of Jesus calling Simon Peter and his brother Andrew into ministry and mission: And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” (Mark 1:17; NRSV). These words remind us of the greatest highlight of 2008, our involvement in the development of a new Anglican presence in the Willows area of Pretoria East. Diocesan Synod acknowledged the growth of this work of mission by declaring the Mission Parish of Equestria. Our ongoing support of this mission effort will be needed for some years to come, and we will contribute a further R40,000 in 2009 towards the support of the Missionary Deacon, the Revd Alan O’Brien, who has taken the Revd Vernon Foster’s place. The formation of the Mission parish of Equestria has meant the closing down of the Anglican Church in Silverton, and the amalgamation of Silverton with what we have called Willow Glen. This process has been a difficult one that has taken up much of my time and energy since June 2008, and I look forward to it bearing fruit under Alan’s leadership in the year ahead. The focus of ministry between now and Easter will be the consolidation of the new Mission Parish, and beyond Easter on growth into the community. This is, perhaps, the opportunity to wish Vernon God’s richest blessings in his new appointment as Rector of Trinity Anglican Church in Lynnwood, and thank him for his dedication in so many varied ways to the formation of what is now the Anglican Church in Equestria; and also to welcome Alan onto the team.

It was agreed at our Council Planning day for 2009 that we need to encourage Equestria to become fully self-supporting by 2012, so that we can begin to throw our energies into developing an Anglican presence in Mooikloof and beyond. The Diocese is in the process of registering a property at the intersection of Garsfontein Road (M30) and the R25. It was agreed at our Council meeting in November that now that we have cleared our loan debt, it is time to take up the challenge of the Special Vestry meeting that approved the extensions to our Church to now raise funds for a building in Equestria; and so this will be the focus of all fundraising in 2009 and perhaps beyond.

Looking ahead

At our Council Planning day earlier this month it was a sobering realisation that no-one who served on Council in 2005 remains. Each year we have had a good balance of new blood infiltrating the ranks of seasoned campaigners. It is with sadness and much appreciation that the Parish bids Mary Verryn and Jeanne Jackson farewell as experienced champions of Parish life at Council level. Their contributions over the years have been considerable, and we trust that they will remain involved in other areas of parish life and ministry.

And so, at least at Council level, it seems we enter a new era. Over the last four years we have worked hard to define who we are, our purpose and our values as an Anglican Christian Community in this part of Pretoria. The challenge that lies ahead is to define our future: Jim Collins speaks of the importance of a BHAG, a big hairy audacious goal; Stephen Covey speaks of a WIG, a wildly important goal. What is our BHAG, our WIG? Certainly, building new Anglican Communities in the East of Pretoria may be a part of this, but only a part. We need something that drives us as a Community and impacts on the communities in which we are placed here in Garsfontein and the surrounding suburbs. I am very sure that God wants us to explore this, yet – as I said to our new Council at the planning day – I am personally struggling to give this definition. I have mentioned before in other settings, and continue to believe that, despite the effort we have put in over the last eight years to improve our facilities here in Garsfontein, from a strategic mission perspective we need to explore centring ourselves on the other side of Hans Strijdom Drive, perhaps purchasing the old NG Kerk facilities at the top of Rubenstein Drive in Moreletapark. 

Family Life

One of the important briefs of the incoming Council will be to take up the challenge of the Bishop and Diocesan Synod to involve ourselves in “turning houses into homes”. To this end a portfolio has specifically been set up to focus on areas of parish life that impact on family experience. A number of parenting seminars are being organised focusing on helping parents with drug awareness, self-esteem, discipline and stress. We will be attempting to organise events designed to help us be family together. We also recognise that the impact of the global economic recession touches us all, and are looking at support for those who may be struggling to meet high levels of debt.

Broad-based parishioner involvement remains a key parish value. Are you involved? If not, why not – what is the cause? It is my expectation that you will participate in parish life, no matter how insignificant your contribution may be. Are you over-involved? Why? It is my expectation that you will constantly and consistently invite others to walk with you in the Parish responsibilities you carry. Proactive face-to-face conversations are the best way forward, and will challenge the perception, shared frequently at 2008 Council meetings, that those involved in leadership are over-stretched and over-committed.

Young People

Children’s Church and Teen Church, which have formed the centre around which our ministry to young people has focused during 2008, sees some change this year. Olga Nel and Belinda Holden have resigned in order to focus on their own families, and we need to extend to them both our huge debt of gratitude for the major contribution they have made to our young people and children through this ministry. We welcome Barbara Primmer and Wonder Mutanha, along with others, as they step into Olga and Belinda’s shoes. In addition, our ministry to Teenagers outside of Sunday’s has been given a major injection with the resurrection of “Youth Fusion” – Hilary Davis has acknowledged her passion for this ministry and has gathered others around her to give this ministry new life. Our young people’s response is most encouraging.

The Future

I need to request your most sincere prayers: I have allowed my name to go forward for consideration by the Elective Assembly of the Diocese of the Highveld for election as Bishop. The election will take place on 12 February 2009, and depending on the outcome, could significantly alter all our lives. I covert your prayerful support, both for myself and my family, as well as for the Diocese of the Highveld, and for ourselves as a Parish community. Whatever the outcome, there will be consequences that will affect our future.

Thanks

My specific thanks to our outgoing Council for all you have contributed in giving direction to our Parish life during 2008, and to those who in stepping down have created space for new blood.

Thank you to you all! Our parish life would be diminished without your contribution of time talent and resource, however great or small, significant or insignificant; or just by your presence in our midst. The Kingdom of God is built not by the efforts of the individual, but by the collective multiplication of individual actions. I value you all and I thank you.

MARK R D LONG (Canon)

Rector