Marie Gray started the meeting by reminding the PCC of the ‘mindsets’ that had been agreed by the PCC that we should adopt in pursuing the Church’s values. These are Courageous, Whole-hearted and Expectant.
The PCC split into groups to look at these words in the context of money and think about how they would finish the following sentences: Because we are courageous, we will … Because we are whole-hearted, we will … Because we are expectant, we will … The groups fed back and then prayed for the meeting in the groups. Marie finished by reading Ephesians 3:14-21. Marie, as Treasurer, then presented a draft budget for 2024 which shows income very slightly less than the expected out-turn for 2023 with expenditure very slightly higher, giving a budgeted deficit of £28k. Although this is not sustainable in the long term, we built up a surplus over the period 2018-21and it was felt appropriate to use some of this rather than have it sitting in the bank, whilst still maintaining a sensible level of reserves. After some discussion the draft was approved unanimously. The PCC then considered the next steps for the plans for the buildings. Nick Smith reminded the meeting that the City Planning Department had raised various concerns about the proposal for a two storey new build for the Church Hall. The architect had come up with a couple of modifications to address these but they involved less floor area and it was not clear that they fully satisfied our requirements. The PCC agreed to commission the architect to produce costings for the latest proposal but also to produce a scope of work to cost a full refurbishment of the current building. It agreed that there should be a meeting in January with the Buildings Development Group, representatives from the PCC and from wider church to see if anything had been missed and to look for other possibilities. Nick had circulated a paper prior to the meeting concerning the proceeds from the sale of St John’s. 21% of the site had been donated by the Atherley family with the stipulation that, if it ceased to be used a place of worship, it (or that proportion of the proceeds from any sale) should revert to the family. The PCC had obtained a legal opinion that the requirement was still satisfied but the Charity Commission has taken the opposite view. In the light of this, the diocese had advised the PCC to go back to the lawyer for a further opinion at a cost of up to £1,500 plus VAT. The PCC agreed to this. The cost coming out of the 21%. The meeting ended with an extended time of prayer for the buildings next steps and for the General Synod which was due to debate the latest Living in Love and Faith proposals over the following two days.
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What proportion of our church community do you think are single – whether because they’ve never married, or because they’ve experienced divorce or lost a spouse – 10%, 20% or 30%?
We sometimes talk about ‘church family’ – but some people, especially if they’ve never been married or have children, find that language difficult – so I try to talk about ‘church community’ instead. We often talk about families – and how we’re working, with God’s help, to encourage the next generations to choose to follow Jesus as their Lord and Saviour for themselves. But we don’t often talk about single people – despite Jesus himself being a single man! So over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to take a break from our Proverbs series, and look at singleness in the Bible and in church life. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and eventually got round to! This mini-series isn’t just for single people; it’s for married people too. Not least because at least half of us who are currently married will land up being single again one day. But also because part of being church community together, part of being a good brother or sister to those who are single, is to understand more of the challenges and joys of being single, and knowing how we can love and encourage and serve those who are or who become single. The flip-side is also true, and so when we look at marriage and parenting in Proverbs later in the term, those talks won’t just be for married people or parents. They’ll be for everyone – partly because some who are currently single may get married or become parents at some point. But also because part of being church community together, part of being a good brother or sister to those who are married and those who are parents, is to understand more of those challenges and joys, and knowing how we can love and encourage and serve those who are or who are married or parents. Back to the two talks on being single. We’ve got two guest speakers. Eleanor Jeans is an old friend and colleague of mine from 20 years ago. She’s never been married; she’s written a course called Securely Single, and she’s going to be speaking on Singleness and Identity this coming Sunday. The following week, Jonathan Berry from Above Bar Church will be speaking on Singleness and the Lord. He describes himself as same-sex attracted, and has previously worked for True Freedom Trust, an organisation which helps gay and same-sex attracted people in the church. Now I know that with the discussions we’ve had over the last few months in our church community and in the Church of England about blessing gay relationships, me inviting someone who is same-sex attracted to speak could be misunderstood. So let me just try to offer some reassurances. First, for those who might be worried that this is just me trying to promote my opinion on sexuality issues, it’s not. Jonathan isn’t going to be speaking on sexuality or marriage; he’s going to be speaking on being single. I’ve invited him because he’s a great Bible teacher, and because as someone who’s made a life-long commitment to being single, he’s ideally placed to speak with integrity on this topic. Second, I know there are some in our community who aren’t sure that it is possible to be gay and be a Christian, let alone be gay and be a preacher or pastor. Let me reassure you that Jonathan is a wonderful servant of Christ; I’d urge you to listen to him and weigh up what he says. But again, the main reason for inviting him isn’t because he’s same-sex attracted, but because he’s single. So there we go – two sermons coming up on the Single Christian and the Single Saviour. That second Sunday is Remembrance Sunday – we’ll have a 2 minute silence as part of the service, and if you haven’t yet heard, we’re also having a church lunch after the service to which everyone is invited. I’d love everyone to listen and learn from this mini-series – whether you’re in the 30% of our community that are single, or the 70% that aren’t. And I hope that lots of the cell groups and others will have discussions off the back of these talks. There’s a few other resources that we’re highlighting as part of this mini-series, and I’d certainly welcome anyone who wants to chat with me about how our church community can be more welcoming to single people and can better serve those who are single. On Christmas Day we celebrate the greatest gift ever, the birth of Jesus Christ. We give gifts to others, symbolic of the presentation of the gifts by the wise men to the Christ Child. We can’t give him material birthday presents so instead we give gifts to each other in celebration of the day.
Do you remember the joy and excitement of receiving gifts as a child? Do you enjoy seeing the pleasure of your, or other people’s, children as they open their presents? Well now think about the anguish of those who are currently struggling financially, or in other ways, who don’t know how survive from week to week, yet alone find the money to buy presents for their children. That is where SCRATCH (Southampton City and Region Action to Combat Hardship) and Christmas Complete come in! Each year SCRATCH collects donations of presents and gives them out to carers who would otherwise be unable to treat their children. Last Christmas they were able to provide parcels of presents to 2762 children and young people. That was an increase of 21% from the previous year. The level of support enabled SCRATCH to help all the families that were referred to them by their trusted referral agents. So how can you help? By donating presents, volunteering or giving financial support. As a church we are looking to collect donations of new games, puzzles, crafts, stationery, toys, soft toys, sweets and books, as well as toiletries for teenagers. You can bring these to The Ark, the Church Office or Sunday services up to the 3rd of December. In addition, you might want to help by volunteering to sort the presents or donate financially to buy items in shortage areas. To do this visit the Scratch website or donate here. The appreciation of recipient families is shown by some of the e-mails received by SCRATCH: “I am overwhelmed by the amazing gifts and the generosity & kindness shown to my children, and myself. I can't even begin to thank you enough. The gifts were perfect. Beautifully bundled and even included paper and everything required to make them extra special. Thank you for making a difficult time so much easier and for putting a huge smile on our faces. I am forever grateful.” “Thank you to everyone at SCRATCH for putting together such a wonderful selection of Christmas presents for the family that I'm currently supporting. All four children were delighted with their gifts and it meant a lot to their mother, as they were obviously all very aware of things their school friends were getting and she was in no position to buy any presents for them herself.” So let’s look forward with expectancy to Christmas morning and the wonderful gift of the Christ Child we receive, knowing that many children in Southampton will also wake up to gifts thanks to the love of Jesus we have shown. Last year, there was an advent nativity trail around Shirley. This meant that each day in December a different home put up a window display related to the story of Jesus’s birth: there were wise men, shepherds and a 3-D Bethlehem as well as the four advent candles: peace, hope, love, and joy. For me, I love the excuse to get out and go for a walk (at a time of year when staying in is very tempting!), and the joy of seeing how another home interpreted the theme. I also personally find something very special about Jesus’s birth being celebrated in and by the community. We are hoping to run the advent windows again this year using the theme of Christmas carols to celebrate Jesus’s birth. If you’d be interested in hosting a window, we’d love to hear from you. Hosting a window would mean: 1) choosing a carol to celebrate Jesus’s birth and signing up for the date your window display would go up 2) creating/putting up your window display and leaving it up until Christmas. 3) having your address (but not name) on an advent window map (shared digitally and in print form), so people know where to find windows. 4) hopefully making people smile. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Laura on orkney_5@yahoo.com by 4th November. We have to talk about Israel and Hamas, don’t we? Because we not only read and watch – we are to pray. One of the shocking moments that happens on our church trip to Israel is when we visit Bethlehem and Bethany, see the settlements on both sides and the dividing wall that Israel has constructed, and begin to experience the deprivation of the Palestinians living behind it. It’s a brutal moment. And it lives with me as I see the horror of the kidnap of babies, murder of festival-goers and torching of villages.
Here are five truths I need to remember. This whole issue is complex – and, frankly, I don’t trust anyone who thinks all rights lie on only one side (although I will come back to terrorism). There are multiple parties and arguments, and if you’ve ever been involved in a serious conversation with anyone who is engaged, you will know how easily labels become attached to opponents. To support Israel, is to support apartheid. To support Palestine, is to support antisemitism. You’ve experienced how arguments get pushed to extremes, and nuance is lost. Any nuance is hard-won, and fearfully difficult to maintain. So, Truth number 1: we worship and pray to a God who can handle such complexity. He is infinitely wise (not just very wise; infinitely so), and he sees to the bottom of each and every question, with complete thoroughness and clarity. He’s not bewildered like we are by this. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth (that’s infinity!), so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9). This is also problem with a history. I mean, when do we go back to, for a fresh start, or to draw the borders? The Oslo Accords? Camp David? The Yom Kippur War? The Six-Day War? The founding of modern Israel in 1948? The British Mandate? The Balfour Declaration? The First Zionist Congress in 1897? The Crusades? None of those moments, and they’re a tiny sample – is mere, dead history. They are remembered and killed for to this day. Each killing justified as response to a previous one. And then there is the Holocaust. Do you know how many of your Jewish friends still live in fear of that, and have their passports ready, just in case? Even if they’ve been British for generations, and are the fiercest critics of Netanyahu, they still see the case for the existence of Israel, just in case? So, Truth number 2: we worship and pray to a God who sees everything, and saw, and remembers everything. Not a tear is lost. Three thousand years ago, the Psalmist prayed, Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll— are they not in your record? (Ps 56:8). Yes. They are still on record. As is the despair, the fear, the fury, the spite. There’s blood on all sides, too. Crimes and war crimes, past and present. Atrocities and hard hearts. It’s impossible for us to balance out those competing injustices, isn’t it? Does consistently losing your lands to Israeli settlements justify bombs? Does the reality of living in fear of bombs justify the building and arming of a wall? How do you calculate the terror of being stateless in the face of Holocaust and Pogroms? Does it outweigh the terror of being stateless and living in refugee camps in Jordan for half a century? Is it right to be even-handed? Where does the principal injustice weigh heaviest? So, Truth number 3: we worship and pray to a God of absolute justice and fairness. He knows and acts (and finally, will act decisively) to vindicate rights and punish abuse. Without partiality or turning a blind eye. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. (Ps. 103:6) Because I can’t tell who’s telling the truth, sometimes. Politicians, leaders, advocates, have been proved liars and corrupt. And incompetent. Conspiracy theories abound, and will get worse. Atrocities are Photoshopped. Even the best of causes can have appalling leaders. And my heart isn’t pure and truthful either. So, Truth number 4: we worship and pray to a God who sees through to the human heart. A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart (Proverbs 21:2) And then we have Hamas. What has become very evident this week, is that with Hamas you are not dealing with the legitimate voice and leadership of the Palestinian people. You’re not even dealing with ‘ordinary’ terrorism in that cause. With Hamas Israel is facing the same type of enemy as ISIS or Boko Haram. We are seeing extreme Islamist terror, not only with a hatred of the West and its influences, but in particular a hatred towards Jews – not just Israel. Make no mistake: Israel cannot negotiate with Hamas for a two-state solution, because Hamas wants nothing other than the destruction of Israel, under the flag of jihad. Hamas doesn’t want Israel out – it wants Israel out of existence, and operates under a different moral code to achieve that. It doesn’t recognise Universal Human Rights. (Yes, friends, I do know about the hundred and more UN declarations against Israel – see truths 1,2,3, and 4). Hamas hasn’t signed up to the Geneva Convention. Israel faces an existential threat. This is plain evil. So, Truth number 5: we worship and pray to a God, who not only knows and names evil, but has defeated it, and will run that victory through to the end. The cross not only deals with your sin, and mine, it defeated the hosts of evil in the spiritual realms. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Colossians 2:15). We can pray that God will run that victory through to its final conclusion. Which means we can and should pray for everyone involved in this terrifying chaos, right through to the worst of them, will come to know the love and forgiveness of Christ on the cross, and lay down their arms before him. Our Palestinian friends rightly fear for the lives of their familles and friends in Gaza. Our Jewish friends also fear for their lives here in the UK. We need to pray. first published by Chris Green on his blog, Ministry Nuts and Bolts |