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St Mary the Virgin Clergy Letter July 2011
There are times when, after you’ve heard me preaching yet again one of my sermons on the theme of the cost of Christian
discipleship you might have been a bit depressed and wondered how we are going to attract more people into church with
such a bleak message - the hard difficult and often lonely path we churchgoers follow in an attempt to follow our master
Jesus in dying to ourselves to be born anew to a life of radical service. Where’s the good news, you might justifiably ask?
Now I recently preached a sermon at St Mary’s about the other side to our Christian faith - well not just the other side:
something which is at the heart of our Christian faith which takes as its central inspiration the Good News of Jesus Christ.
It got some really positive feedback and it was suggested I make it the text of a clergy letter- so here it is but in a
shortened form.
If we are going to attract more people to Church, we have to be convinced that not only is our Christian faith Good News
for the whole of humanity but that Church going is actually good for you! We spend so much time looking inwardly at how
bad our churches are, that sometimes we need to see what the scientists who have been studying these things are saying.
New scientific studies, which I read about in a recent article in the Church times, need to be shared with all our none
church-going friends and will give us encouragement to keep coming too. And there’s nothing contradictory about saying
discipleship is both costly and challenging but ultimately good for you in every way.
One of the healthiest things one can do, writes Mary Coomber in the Sunday Times, is to go to church. According to the
National Institute for Health Research, American church-goers enjoy a lower mortality rate than Sunday sleep-ins -- 50
percent fewer deaths from heart attack, lower blood pressure, and half as many suicides.
Scientists seeking a non-supernatural explanation suggest that the comfort, hope and social support provided by congregational
worship account for the good news. Psychologist David Weeks of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital suspects that faith is the key.
Newsweek recently reported that church-going especially strengthens the lives of at-risk youth. For example, the single
greatest factor determining whether black urban youth achieve success rather than drifting into drugs, crime and
promiscuity is church attendance. Active membership in a church prevails over economic poverty and family instability
in creating a good citizen who can look forward to a long, rewarding life.
Continuing the good news about youth and church-going, a UCLA survey reveals that 72 percent of the nation's college
freshmen volunteered their time last year to help the needy in their communities -- most of them through their churches.
Other studies have shown that people who go to Church have longer lasting and more fulfilling personal relationships –
and there is some indication that this applies to people who have been married in church- or at least have made the
commitment of marriage or partnership in a civil ceremony and when at least one partner is a churchgoer.
There is however a downside to this: maybe it's all the church socials, but a new study finds that those who attend
religious activities are more likely to gain weight than those who don't go to church as often.
Religious involvement is linked to many positive health outcomes, such as happiness, lower rates of smoking and alcohol
use, and even a longer life. But research has also suggested that middle-aged adults who are more religious are more
likely to be obese.
But for those of us who are putting on weight (and you may have noticed that this has happened to me during my time at Middleton!!!!)
there is still the good news that churchgoers who are overweight have better chances at losing weight healthily than non-church goers –
because, the scientists say, the social networks we belong to through church give us greater support whenever we try to live healthier-
and often churchgoers have access to health exercise programmes run in their Churches and church halls.
People who go to church on the whole cope better with stress and mental health problems.
There is a whole new industry of popular psychology books which talk about “Happiness” as the key to living longer and better lives
- and they are finding out something we churchgoers have known for at least 2000 years- money and prosperity don’t make you happy-
children now are apparently suffering more instances of depression and mental health issues than their counterparts did in the 1940s.
What does make you happy is having a reason for living which involves finding satisfaction and a purpose through a life which will
involve some form of service of the other. Again we Christians have known this since Our Lord’s time and beyond!
Next month some of us are meeting about establishing a wellbeing afternoon monthly in the parochial hall- I’ll tell you more about this after
the meeting but it will be based on this concept of church being about holistic well-being.
So now let’s get that good news out to the rest of Middleton: Come to church – it won’t make you wealthy but it will make you happy,
healthy and wise!! Oh… and maybe I might do a bit of fasting next Lent!!
Love and prayers
Andy.
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