It’s never to late for Lent by Revd. Trevor Jamison

26/02/2011 by idavidsonblog.

Lent is late this year.  Lent is late because Easter is late.  Easter Day is the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox, 21^st March, unless that full moon fell on a Sunday, in which case Easter would be the following Sunday (yes, I had to look that up in order to be sure I got it right).  This means that the date of Easter varies and this year it does not arrive until 24^th April.  Since Lent is a fixed period that precedes Easter then the starting date for Lent this year is 9^th March, Ash Wednesday. 

So, after the pancakes have been eaten up on Shrove Tuesday – celebrated in some places as Mardi gras – what do we intend to do for Lent this year?  Of course there are the traditional opportunities to give something up for Lent.  Once again I’m giving up alcohol for Lent, a reassurance and reminder that I don’t depend on alcohol in order to live a happy, fulfilled life.  Given that yet more statistics about the impact on alcohol misuse in this country have recently been published – an article in the Lancet informs us that an additional quarter of a million people could die from alcohol abuse over the next twenty years unless tougher restrictions on alcohol are introduced* – the lesson of alcohol restraint or abstinence is one for the nation, not just for individuals (for those in the two congregations in the pastorate that use wine, not grape juice, in Holy Communion, you might like to know that Sundays in Lent are regarded as “mini-Easters”, not part of Lent itself). 

As well as giving things up for Lent there is the tradition of doing something positive to mark the season.  Often, in Church settings, this includes taking time to learn together, since Lent is understood as a period of reflection and preparation for the events of Holy Week and Easter; remembering Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.  All three Churches in our pastorate are “doing something for Lent” this year. 

In Ingatestone, along with the local Anglican, Elim Pentecostal and Roman Catholic Churches, we meet to follow the York Course material.  We gather and listen to a conversation via CD between eminent Christians, this year looking at Jesus’ “legacy of love”; what He left behind Him, such as an empty tomb, a band of followers and a meal to be shared. 

Over in Brentwood, in company with the local Methodist Church, we are taking part in The Big Read, a national initiative, following on a highly successful event in the northeast last year, reading our way through Matthew’s Gospel and meeting weekly to discuss what strikes us about the story. 

Finally in Billericay, we are continuing with the Emmaus Course, now meeting in small groups to explore “How Christians Grow” – by learning to pray, reading the Bible, belonging to the Church and sharing Holy Communion. 

If you are able, I encourage you take part in these initiatives, both gaining from the insights of others and encouraging others by your presence and contribution.  If you secretly hanker to do what one of the other Churches in the pastorate is doing for Lent this year I’m sure that a temporary transfer is not out of the question! 

Whatever you do this Lent, whether in terms of stepping back from something or taking on something new, whether done in a group setting or as an individual, I wish you well for this part of the journey towards Easter. 

Trevor 

*           BBC News, 21^st February 2011            http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12523639 

 

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Daydream Believer by Trevor Jamison

23/01/2011 by idavidsonblog.

Daydream Believer 

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’  I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.” Martin Luther King Jr, 28^th August 1963 

Dreams have been on my mind lately.  What are they?  How do they happen?  What should they lead to?  I’m writing this letter a few days after the birthday of the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. which is celebrated as an annual holiday in the USA, but there are also other reasons why dreams are on my mind.  Dreams feature in the stories that many of us were reading or listening to not all that long ago even though it may seem an age since we were celebrating Christmas.  In Billericay United Reformed Church’s snow-delayed nativity play that took place in January, dreams were shown as messages whispered by an angel directly into the ears of a sleeping Joseph or snoozing Magi.  Intriguingly, the play also portrayed the same angel as murmuring in the ear of Pilate’s wife in a vain, misguided attempt to spare Jesus the agony of the cross.  Are dreams really like that?  Are they externally generated messages from God, spoken direct by the Almighty or delivered on his behalf by an angelic messenger?  I’m quite prepared to believe that on occasion that is how things work but my personal experience and my observation of other situations is that this is not how dreams mostly happen. Rather than messages delivered from outside into the empty mind of the recipient dreams mostly seem to be the products of life experiences and prospects being contemplated and pondered by the person; experiences and our personality, which to some extent at least, are God-given.  Perhaps we can’t put into words what we think or feel about a situation but our daydreams and sleep time dreams give us clues about what we are thinking and where we may be going.  Martin Luther King’s dream contains a succession of images of how things will be when a nation works out the implications of the principles that brought it into being and to which it aspires.  Are these the sort of dreams we have as individuals and as a Church?Not all dreams or daydreams are good ones.  Sometimes they express our failures, shortcoming and self-centredness.  The author, Gerard Hughes, in his book, God of Surprises provides a ‘rule of thumb’ or initial indicator for judging the quality of our daydreams: “Ask yourself the question, ‘How do I feel at the end of them?  Bored and empty, or hopeful and encouraged?’” 

I think these are very good questions for Churches to ask about all sorts of aspects of the dreams of their communal life.  That’s true, for example, of our daydreams concerning evangelism, when there is a danger we may dream more of increased numbers bringing us a sense of security rather than as evidence of a good-news message shared and accepted.  Another ‘rule of thumb’ I think, goes something like this: “If I take my daydream seriously does it lead me to take actions that benefit others (as well as me)?” Joseph’s dreams led him to marry Mary and to protect the infant Jesus; the Magi’s dreams led them to avoid further meetings with Herod; Martin Luther King’s dream led to him obtaining a measure of justice for a mistreated people. So, 2011, the year of daydreams for you and for your Church; dreams that make us hopeful and encouraged, dreams that lead us to good and useful actions. 

Sweet dreams. 

Trevor

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Maybe the Devil doesn’t have all the best tunes……….. by Revd. Trevor Jamison

23/11/2010 by idavidsonblog.

Maybe the Devil doesn’t have all the best tunes… Driving from Billericay, on my way to a hospital visit one Saturday morning I did not expect to find myself listening to a conversation between Annie Lennox and Graham Norton about the role of religion in world conflict, or to find myself singing along to her rendition of In the Bleak Midwinter. 

Graham Norton has made his reputation as a comedian, television presenter and now as host of the BBC Radio 2 Saturday show in succession to Jonathan Ross.  He comes from a Southern Irish, Protestant background but his public persona is as an openly gay, flamboyant, going-on camp, lovable purveyor of jokey innuendo.  Annie Lennox boasts an impressive career as a singer, song-writer and political campaigner.  She has long championed AIDS awareness and is a prominent support of Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the Burma UK Campaign. Whether my surprise that a couple with such backgrounds should be “talking religion” in public is more a comment on me, them or on the Church as we know it is an issue for another time.  For now, I want to think about Church and great music.
In her conversation with Graham Norton, Annie Lennox was quite clear about her position on religion – she’s an agnostic.  At the same time she did not come across as someone with an axe to grind about organised religion in the way some the “New Atheists”, such as Richard Dawkins obviously have.  This did not prevent her from pointing to the alarming and shameful correlation between strong religious beliefs and readiness to do violence to others in the world.  At this point Graham Norton had to take on his (unaccustomed?) role as defender of faith, arguing that human failings are about people (sin, we Christians might say) and not about religion as such. 

Although Annie Lennox was born on Christmas Day that doesn’t necessarily mean she is a Christian.  On the other hand (and this was the occasion for the interview on Radio 2) she’s recorded A Christmas Cornucopia, a collection of interpretations of traditional festive songs, some familiar to most of us (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The Holly And The Ivy, Silent Night), others less so (Lullay Lullay, Il Est Ne le Divin Enfant), and one new Lennox composition, Universal Child.  Now, a collection of Christmas carols from Annie Lennox has huge commercial potential for the singer and of course this interview was part of the publicity push for the recently released album.  At the same time, however, it’s clear that this is more than a purely commercial venture as far as she is concerned.  Lennox is emotionally and artistically caught up by this music.  For many of us, to sing or hear these songs is to be re-connected with our childhood and subsequent significant stages in our life journeys.  As Lennox puts it, “they are part of my backbone”.  Also, she is intrigued that this music has endured across decades and centuries and wishes to give it a further lease of life through her particular treatment of carols in the here and now. I have no problem with Christians appreciating Christ-inspired music performed by an agnostic, especially when she sings so well.  I am not so convinced that emotional resonances, anchored in significant memories and musically intriguing tunes tell the whole story about why this music endures and should be still sung today.  I just can’t get away from the content of the words.  In the Bleak Midwinter, to take just one example, begins with the bleakness of the human landscape, moves to the hope that it can be brought to life through heavenly intervention and then invites our response, treading in the footsteps of shepherds and wise men, coming to Jesus.  Today’s bleak human landscape includes unnecessary illness, death, unjust imprisonment, misuse of the environment and the persecution of people deemed significantly different by virtue of their sexuality; actions and attitudes on which Annie Lennox campaigns and which Graham Norton wittily subverts.  For me, as a Christian, these carols will always remain great (Church) music as long as they remind me not only of my childhood but of today’s world, its difficulties and of God’s response: 

Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor human earth sustain,Heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign:In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed,The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894), Rejoice and Sing no. 162 

A blessed and happy Christmas to you all, Annie and Graham included.  Trevor p.s. Happy Birthday for the 25^th, Annie

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What makes a good Church? By Revd. Trevor Jamison

06/11/2010 by idavidsonblog.

What Makes a Good Church?

 

1	Worship	6	Social activities
2	Friendly people	7	Numbers of people like us
3	A safe happy place	8	Food and hospitality
4	Children’s activities	9	Forward thinking
5	Being inclusive	10	Serving the community

 

That’s not just my view. It is the collective view of the first five hundred children and young people to respond to a survey produced jointly by the United Reformed Church’s Youth and Children’s Work Committee and the Children’s Society. I’m struck by how many of the items on the list are things that adults are likely to put if asked the same question. In one recent service at a Church in this pastorate I asked the above questions and the answers provided by adults in the congregation related to several of the above headings.

 

I am also struck that worship came first in the responses from children and young people whilst something specifically related to the interests of the group surveyed did not appear until fourth in the list. In a recent document from the URC Youth and Children’s Work Committee, Valuing Children, we have the following comment from a twelve year old boy: “I wish my Church listened more to young people. We have good ideas but no one listens to us because they think all we care about is football.” The responses given in the survey tell a very different story.

 

Coming along just behind the question of what makes a good Church comes the question of what would make it better, and yes, they asked that question too!

 

1. Worship which is more inclusive in the music used
2. A better sense of community
3. Practical activities offered in an age-appropriate way
4. Well maintained buildings, especially better toilets
5. Compromise
6. Nothing!
7. Age-related Bible study
8. Opportunities to pray

 

Some responses may not surprise us (though if not, I hope we have done or intend to do something about them). How many of the people reading this letter expected age-related Bible study or opportunities to pray to appear in the top ten responses? I wonder if any of our children would have given no. 6 as an answer. Indeed, I wonder what our children and young people would like to say to me (tjamisonurc@tiscali.co.uk or just try telling me when you next see me) or to the Church about the above lists and in response to the questions that produced them. I wonder what adults would want to affirm or disagree with in these lists. I wonder what they learned from them.

 

Trevor

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So Many Reasons not to ‘do’ Evangelism by Trevor Jamison

23/09/2010 by idavidsonblog.

I have just returned from the annual Eastern Synod Ministers’ get-together, held at a conference centre near Norwich, over three days.  Two conferences ago we were introduced to the United Reformed Church Vision4Life process, particularly the “Bible Year” that was soon due to commence. Last year we explored the content and material for the “Prayer Year”.  This time we were looking at the Vision4Life “Evangelism Year”, due to start in a few weeks time.  On the morning of the day I departed for the conference the man from DHL delivered three boxes to the door, containing this year’s Vision4Life booklets on “Exploring Evangelism”; enough copies to provide one for every person associated with the URC congregations in Billericay, Brentwood and Ingatestone.  Yes, evangelism is almost upon us. Now, I wonder if readers of this blog greeted the above news with a unanimous chorus of ‘hurrahs’ and ‘hallelujahs’?  Somehow, I doubt it.  That’s not to say no one is enthused at the prospect of year emphasising evangelism.  At a recent Church Meeting in one of the congregations we looked at piloting a Christian nurture course with a view to then sharing it with others who are not involved in any Church congregation.  In response to the question “How do you feel about this?”, rather than, “What do you think about it?” comments included “I feel really excited” and “I have been waiting for years for us to do something like this.”  On the other hand, to be realistic, to be truthful, not everyone shares this sense of positive anticipation. Francis Brienan, the URC Secretary for Mission, a speaker at the Ministers’ conference, identified some of the doubts that people have about evangelism; doubts about method, content, Church, context and personal experience.  For some people the word “evangelism” conjures up unsettling images of being asked to go door-knocking, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or organise big rallies, a la Billy Graham.  For others, evangelism is too closely associated with a narrow focus on being saved from personal sin.  Some have problems about the Church, fearing that their Church will not prove attractive to their friends if they ask them to come along, even though they personally find it a good place to be.  Some despair of evangelism having any impact in our context, one where Church attendance is falling and many of the population are indifferent or even hostile to any sort of religion.  Finally, of course, some individuals have been the victims of inappropriate or heavy-handed evangelists and would not wish that experience on anyone else. 

One Minister’s letter in a Church blog cannot do justice to the anticipation that some of us feel and the doubts others have at the prospect of year emphasising evangelism but here are some statements of intent and observations to get the conversation and the process rolling: Ø  Any evangelistic method we use will be appropriate to us and to our situation now, not just to how things were sometimes done in some places in the past.Ø  We won’t skate over the reality of personal sin but the good news we share won’t miss out all the other elements of joyful living that come from following Jesus.  Ø  All three of the Churches in this pastorate have aspects of their life and worship that others would enjoy and appreciate if we could persuade them to get involved. Ø  A large part of the population of this country, including people we know, are open to exploring the things that interest us (the indifferent and the hostile we can look to on another occasion). Ø  We need to listen to and learn from the bad experiences some of us have had in order to share our good news in a sensitive and appropriate way this time around but not let them prevent us from sharing good news at all.  Now, as to the content of the evangelistic message and the ways each congregation in this pastorate can share it… a Vision4Life year of exploring (and doing) is coming to a Church near you soon.  I am looking forward to it with both nervousness and expectation and I hope you are too. Trevor

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Eating for England by Trevor Jamison

31/08/2010 by idavidsonblog.

I seem to have spent this week eating for England (or should that be ‘eating for Ireland’?).  In Brentwood the URC and Methodist Churches have joined forces to provide “Brentwood Break”, a series of activities for older folks who have not got away on holiday.  Not surprisingly for a Church event, food has featured prominently and all look to the Minister to provide strong Christian leadership in consuming what is on offer.  This is but the hors d’oevre for what lies ahead, for we are now moving into harvest season and at the fourth attempt since I came here the three Churches in the pastorate have coordinated harvest service and harvest meals so that I am able to attend (and consume) all three.  It’s not quite The Vicar of Dibley, where the unfortunate priest accepts invitations to several Christmas dinners on the one day but there’s more than a slight echo as far as I am concerned. 

Food eaten together seems to be such an important part of the life of our Churches.  Was Methodism, for example, really “born in song” as the hymn writer puts it or, as a sceptic suggested “floated on tea”?  Whatever the history of our Churches, recent architectural changes tell their story.  In many Church halls up and down the length of country (including at Ingatestone URC and the Belfast Church in which I grew up) stages have been torn out, to be replaced by enlarged kitchens.  In others, kitchens have been refurbished (as at Billericay recently) or even brought up to professional catering standard (as at Brentwood).  Is it that our Churches are just mirroring the greater interest our wealthier society has exhibited in culinary matters in the past few decades?  Perhaps there is something in that but I am sure it does not tell the whole story. Food, whether eaten together at times of celebration, at times of sadness, or just as part of a regular get-together carries a lot of significance beyond just taking aboard the necessary calories to keep body (and soul?) together.  Food eaten in the context of Church is inescapably about sharing with each other.  I recently heard one Church member who declined to rush forward to be first at the food table comment that they were not worried as in several decades they had never yet attended a Church event where too little food was provided for those who turned up.  Meals, eaten in Churches that have emphasised the word, spoken and heard, and the use of the intellect in the service of God, are a welcome opportunity to exercise those other senses of taste, smell and touch that might otherwise be a bit neglected in our tradition.  Food, available to us in plenty in the context of a world where this is not always the case, can function as a reminder of God’s generosity to us and of our wider responsibility to share with others. 

Food shared together should be important to us Christians.  After all, it plays a significant role in the life of Jesus.  In the Gospels Jesus is often at the table, in the houses of friends like Martha and Mary, of sceptics or inquirers such as a Pharisee called Simon, or invited to a celebratory banquet thrown by a repentant Zacchaeus.  He feeds the hungry by the thousand and, of course, shares that meal with his closest disciples just prior to his arrest and crucifixion.  Quakers, so I understand it, do not have the Lord’s Supper as part of their worship because they understand the life itself as sacrament – a gift from God that demonstrates the grace of God to us – so every meal can be a sacramental event.  I would not wish to drop Holy Communion from our worship but neither would it hurt to recognise every meal as reminders of what God gives us through creation and the salvation that God offers to us through Jesus.  Bon Appetit! Trevor

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An Unforgettable Sacrifice

29/06/2010 by idavidsonblog.

From the Bible Isaac said, “Here is the fire and wood but where is the sheep for a sacrifice?” Abraham answered, “God will provide himself with a sheep for a sacrifice.” (Genesis 22: 7, Eight) From The Independent on 21^st June 2010 A spokesman for 40 Commando, based in Taunton, Somerset, said: “Our thoughts are with his immediate family who were with him at the hospital. His courage and sacrifice will not be forgotten. We will remember him.” 

The Prime Minister stated, “Of course the 300th death is no more or less tragic than the 299 that came before. But it is a moment, I think, for the whole country to reflect on the incredible service and sacrifice and dedication that our armed services give on our behalf. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/david-cameron-britain-should-reflect-on-role-in-afghanistan-2006415.html Genesis Speaks Today is the title for a series of sermons I have been preaching during 2010 at the 5:00pm services at Brentwood United Reformed Church on the third Sunday of each month (to which all are welcome). I must admit I chose the title because it was the catchiest I could think of whilst working against the deadline set by church magazine editors. I did not expect it to describe reality quite so well. In previous months we learned that, like Adam and Eve, we human beings are created for company, both with each other and with the rest of creation. Later, we pondered that John Venables, like Cain, the biblical murderer of a younger child, is a ‘marked man’. Then the biblical flood confronted us with the implications of contemporary climate change and an appropriate human action. On the next occasion God’s covenant with Abram impelled us to consider human response in terms of pushing Christian Aid envelopes through letter boxes. Most recently, in June, we arrived at Genesis 22, the instruction from God to Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. 

For Christians who read this story it is packed with intimations of another death, one that it is yet to come in the biblical timeline. It is hard to read Genesis, which speaks of a father’s beloved son, forced to carry the wood on his shoulder that will be used to create the instrument of his death; a death due to take place on a hill and understood as a sacrifice, and not think of Jesus. 
Many Christians are comfortable with the language of sacrifice concerning the death of Jesus – the death of one living creature in order that others might live and flourish. Some Christians are not so happy, saying that we should not describe Jesus’ death in ways now alien to our society. Yet we today do use the language of sacrifice, as the quotations above concerning the sad death of yet another British soldier in Afghanistan demonstrate. Concerning the death of Jesus there is little point in detailed questions asking who is being sacrificed by whom and to whom (can God really sacrifice himself to himself?). ‘Sacrifice’ here is a metaphor, trying to describe a reality, not the whole reality itself and there are other images which can also be and are used to describe the significance of Jesus’ death. What matters is that ‘sacrifice’ speaks of the reality that Jesus’ death brings life to others. The changed lives of Christian believers provide evidence that this is so. Concerning the ‘sacrificial’ death of soldiers in Afghanistan, there are times when soldiers have died, sacrificing themselves to save the lives of others. More widely, our Prime Minister is correct; each death of military personnel is not just a tragedy but represents for us an opportunity, a duty, to consider to what extent their deaths bring life to others, both in Afghanistan and in the wider world. Careful consideration of such costly sacrifice, balanced against what is achieved is the true basis for political decisions about the way forward. We should pray for our political leaders as they proceed to make these life and death decisions. Trevor

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A Hung Church

31/05/2010 by idavidsonblog.

Dear David and Nick

A Hung Church

Well, I am so glad you managed to get that situation sorted out.  After all, you would not want the country to go ungoverned for too long (unless you are a convinced anarchist).  As Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister I watched you stand in the Downing Street garden, elegantly clad and sporting your different blue and yellow ties.  This seemed to be the only jarring note.  Perhaps you need a coalition tie.  What would the design be?  Blue and yellow stripes seem to put across your message more clearly than mixing the two to produce a shared of green in my opinion.I must say it seemed odd to me that parties who denounced coalition as a bad idea (though embracing it is Scotland and Wales and even making it compulsory in Northern Ireland) soon sought coalition partners once the reality of a hung parliament hit home.  It certainly kept the political analysts and the 24-hour news channels excited, almost to the point of hysteria though the financial markets and almost everyone I know managed to stay calm  It seems that you will have to live with a hung parliament at least for a while, but take hear; some of us belong to a hung Church.Jesus may have prayed that his followers would be one so that the world might believe (John 17:21) but it just does not seem to have worked out that way.  We all know that there are different denominations and that although many of us get along better than we used to (just like you Conservatives and Liberal Democrats?) there is no immediate prospect of us all getting together to the point where we are doing the religious equivalent of wearing exactly the same tie.  Even if we could somehow resolve all the differences and reconcile all the denominations that have arisen since the sixteenth century we would then still have to look east to the Orthodox and a much older division between Christians.  Ecumenically speaking, we are a hung Church.Denominationally, we are no less a hung Church, a hung United Reformed Church.  There are some issues on which we just can’t seem to come to one mind.  In recent years the URC has had impassioned debates about human sexuality, to the point where exhaustion set in and we moved on to other matters.  We have to perform a tricky balancing act to respect the views of those who see infant baptism as acceptable and those who are committed to the practice of believer’s baptism.  One of the Elders Meetings in this pastorate (no names, but they know who they are) could tell you that discussing this issue touches upon deep feelings.  On Holy Communion, the three congregations of this pastorate even have different policies and approaches concerning the presence of children at communion and the presence of alcohol in the communion wine.The truth though is that we are not a hung Church so much as a “hang-together Church”.  In other words we are not defined by our differences but by what we hold in common; that we live in God’s world (Psalm 24:1); that even when the world has gone wrong God puts things back together again though Jesus Christ and our task is to share that message (2 Corinthians 5:19): I doubt if the current coalition will be around for anywhere near a s long as the United Reformed Church has managed so far but if your define yourselves by ideals and policies you share, one that benefit the nation and the world, rather than your differences that will generate party and sectional self-interest you might  just hang together for a while yet.Look forward to seeing how the new tie idea works out. 

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Blessed are the flexible? by Revd. Trevor Jamison

24/03/2010 by idavidsonblog.

Jesus never said, “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not snap”, though I sometimes wish that he had done so. Nor, in the interests of balanced reporting, did Jesus ever say, “Woe unto you who are infinitely flexible for you lack backbone” but it might sometimes be a good warning to receive. How do we find the right balance in being a church in the early twenty-first century? When I was a child the prospect of the twenty-first century was the stuff of science fiction, though now we are here I don’t think that the twenty-first century church feels particularly futuristic. Of course congregations have changed. After hundreds of years of congregational life I don’t suppose anyone thinks everything will be just the same or wants us to be doing everything the way they did it in seventeenth, eighteenth or nineteenth centuries (though some of us may harbour a nostalgic desire to return to church as we knew it in the mid-twentieth century). In our own lifetimes our congregations have changed and developed, which is good news as most things that don’t are lifeless. So, for example, we worship using different hymnbooks than those from even twenty years ago and although many of the hymns we sing came from long before that others are of a distinctly more recent vintage. These days, as we worship we sit on padded seats rather than wooden pews and our hearing is aided by a sound system that those who first formed the congregation could not even have dreamed about. One strain upon us is that although we have changed and are developing as a congregation that rate of change seems slow in comparison to the rate of change in the rest of the world in which we live; technological change like air travel, computers and the internet; social change in the variety of family structures; religious change, with churches, ours included, much less prominent in the life of our society. It is important that as a church we get the balance right in responding to the changes in the part of the world where we live so that we are still relevant to that place and to the people who live there; people with  whom we can share our faith, hopefully in language that makes sense to them as well as us. Getting the balance right is not easy. One thoughtful worshipper in a URC congregation that I know observed that most of the sermons he heard week by week from a variety of preachers fell into one of two types: TYPE 1. The world has changed radically but this congregation has not. Therefore, in order to be faithful to Christ, we must change the way we do everything in the life of the church so as to more relevantly share the Gospel with others. 

Or TYPE 2. The world has changed radically but this congregation has not. Therefore, in order to be faithful to Christ, we must resist the temptation to change anything in the life of the church so that we continue to distinctively demonstrate the Gospel to others.  (He tells me that my sermons are harder to categorise which I hope is meant as a compliment.) In a congregation it is never easy to discern where we should try to position ourselves between these two extremes, seeking change or maintaining continuity. The answer will vary according to the particular situation. Also, as with any group of people, what seems right to one person may not seem like such a good idea to another. We need to be in an ongoing conversation about how we stay true to our faith; worship in a way that makes sense to us and our experiences yet speaks to others who have not been socialised into the particular (and peculiar?) ways our congregation works. This offers us all an opportunity and possibly a challenge. We have the opportunity to play a significant part simply by turning up to worship: never underestimate how much you can contribute by encouraging others by your presence.  And the challenge is to offer a genuine welcome to any visitors, so that they know there is a Christian congregation here that will welcome them should they come again or ever wish to become part of its ongoing life.

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‘tis the season of Annual Church Meetings – rejoice! by Revd. Trevor Jamison

22/02/2010 by idavidsonblog.

During March all three congregations in this pastorate – Ingatestone,

Brentwood and Billericay – will be holding their Annual Church Meetings. One will occur on a weeknight evening and two will take place on Sundays. In one church we will be re-arranging all of the chairs in the church to worship together, café-style, meet together and eat lunch together (in that order). In another church we will conclude the meeting with Night Prayer, using subdued lighting, sitting in semi-circle, following (more or less) a set liturgy. In the third congregation we’ll get the “official business” over with quickly in order to have focused discussion on evangelism and how we might get on with doing some. All three meetings, different in form and focus as they are, share a common three-fold structure. We will spend some time looking back, some time considering where we are now and some time looking to the future.

 This is given a poetic form by the hymn writer Fred Kaan, a URC Minister who died during this past year: We pause to give thanksand focus our thoughton how far our Godhis people has brought.We pause for affirmingour ‘Yes’ to his call,pursuing his future:life’s fullness for all. The future is hereas Christ sets us free;we reach out in hopefor all that will be.We go where he leads us,to time’s furthest ends,to share in his missionas partners and friends.

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