from the Dean
God's Community
from the Dean
God's Community
| There are
significant moments in every human life when excitement and apprehension
co-exist in an uncomfortable mix. That's where Pam and I find
ourselves at this moment. This is perhaps how an athlete feels the
moment the baton is being passed from hand to hand during the final of the
4x4 relay race: "Please don't let me drop the baton or do something
silly in front of all these people". Having just let go of the baton of ministry in one parish where I've served for the last 16 years, I prepare to take up a new ministry in a new country, culture and community. St. Paul's words in Philippians 3:2-14 perhaps best describes the Christian experience in this process: "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me... " Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus". Two things help an athlete press on towards the goal of winning the prize: first his fellow athletes who form the team and second the country for whose honour and under whose flag he runs. At this moment two things support and sustain Pam and I as we move from one chapter in our life's ministry to the next. The first is the assurance that this is God's call, the next step in the commitment I made at my ordination 33 years ago in Leicester Cathedral: secondly, the tangible love and prayers of the Christian community, both the one we've left behind at St. Hugh's in Scunthorpe and the one to which we move at St. Christopher's in Bahrain. For Christians, and particularly those in the fulltime ordained ministry, "the community" is essential to our life in Christ and our understanding of what the Church is all about. Recently, I've learned a great deal from the writings of the late Henri Nouwen, a modern Roman Catholic spiritual writer. In the book In my Own Words, a passage of his writing clearly states the importance of "community" wherever or whoever we are on our Christian pilgrimage: "The primary quality of community is a deep sense of being gathered by God. "Many Christians who show great perseverance in hard and lonely tasks find their strength in the deep bond with the community in whose name they do their work. Here we touch one of the most critical areas of the Christian life today. "Many very generous Christians find themselves increasingly tired and dispirited, not so much because the work is hard or the success light but because they feel isolated, unsupported and left alone... We are able to do many hard things, tolerate many conflicts, overcome many obstacles and persevere under many pressures but when we no longer experience ourselves as part of a caring, supporting, praying community, we quickly lose faith. "This is because faith in God's compassionate presence can never be separated from experiencing God's presence in the community to which we belong...Apart from a vital relationship with a caring community, a vital relationship with Christ is not possible." As we leave one community and prepare to join another, we're supported and encouraged by the enveloping love and prayers of both. We're all one in Christ Jesus. Pam and I begin our new ministry confident among friends who, together with those we've left behind, constitute the Kingdom of God and the community of saints past, present and to come.
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