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St Mary’s Clergy Letter September 2011
I know you will be used to clergy constantly emphasising that Church can be found in lots of geographical locations and lots
of experiences which include Sunday worship but are not solely confined to it. I love that passage in the Gospel of Mark Chapter
1 where Jesus is interrupted whilst he’s alone saying his prayers by Simon who I think was kind of jealously wanting him to be
with the apostles and disciples, be just for the small band of followers of Jesus who if you like made up the first “Church”.
Jesus response was to explode and expand the whole of humanity’s vision in relation to who Christ is available for – you might
say he becomes radically unavailable for the churchgoers, as it were- so that he can become radically available for the whole
world. This is clear from his reply to Simon in Mark 1 vss 38ff
“let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came to do." And he
went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons".
I think it’s only human for us to worry about the constantly declining numbers at weekday and Sunday Masses – but whenever I pray alone
God always keeps niggling me with the thought that our mission, following our master Jesus is not just for Sunday or Wednesday but for
everything else outside of our little church services. This fills me with both hope- and fear and trembling at the enormity of the task!
But something happened last week which I think was God again reminding me that the transformation of the world does not depend on what us
churchgoers do alone (perish the thought!!) but that God’s mission is being advanced by God through other people working in small beautiful
ways for our Church.
For those of you who venture into the darkest recesses of St Cross, those who boldly enter its darkest places (past the clergy vestry!!)
and enter the Choir vestry you’ll know how badly it has suffered from damp etc. and just how much it needed painting.
Now help for our church came from an unexpected place in this matter. All our Middleton schools are now in a single trust including Cockburn
High – which I already have a good working relationship with - and I’d originally asked them if they’d supply some of their students to do the
job of decorating the choir vestry. Cockburn told me of a link they had with a legal practice in Leeds who’d done work for the school and were
keen to supply young solicitors who would do things like decorating rooms for institutions in our area which were serving the community.
I contacted the company who cheerfully agreed, after a site visit, not only to do the job free of charge - but also to supply and pay for the
special paint recommended by our church architect for damp Church walls (which as you might guess does not come cheap!).
After duly arranging for them to come we had the privilege of meeting these wonderful young and vibrant solicitors who got stuck in on a hot
summer’s day scraping and painting our vestry- and they even bought us a lovely new rug!!. On talking to them throughout the day I became
convinced that (although I’m sure they wouldn’t put it like this!!) they had been attracted by the Holy Spirit to want to be part of God’s
mission of bringing in God’s Kingdom into our world- and saw our church as one aspect of a divine mission to our community with which they
wished to be identified.
That day these young people were the Church of Jesus Christ for me. And they reminded me how we must never ever be tempted to think that the
body of Christ is limited to what we do on Sunday.
My hope is that as the body of Christ in Middleton we can learn from this little experience- both in getting alongside everyone outside of church
who needs us- putting their needs first – and being faithful worshippers too on Sunday and weekdays so that we focus on what should be the centre
of our lives- God and service of his children. Church will never then be an occasion for navel gazing our quiet self satisfaction: we’ll be called
by authentic committed worship to leave our personal space of comfortable unavailability for that dangerous public space where we are receptive
to the needs of all God’s broken children.
So thanks to Addleshaw Goddard LLP, the company who supplied us with the paint and the young solicitors of that company: thanks to Sarah Boulton;
Liz Banks; Becky Shepherd; Nicky Benyon; Elaine Woods; Bhaven Chauhan and Claire Wilkinson: and here is a photograph of the lovely team after the
work was done!!
St Mary’s parishioners reading this article will realise I wrote it originally for St Cross parish mag… but the essence of it is applicable equally
to St Mary’s and who knows we might enlist some aid from these young solicitors for future St Mary’s projects!
Every blessing
Andy.
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