Dear
Friends.
A
Message from
our Chairman
Dear
Friends.
This
year, my wife Chris and I made a change to our usual camping trip to France in
favour
of a greater certainty of warmth and sunshine.
The Internet provided the answer to our search for a holiday and so we
ended up with a fortnight on the Greek island of Cephalonia.
We hired a car for two separate days in order to see the sights and then
there was no pressure to do anything else for the remaining twelve days except
to eat, sleep, read, walk and swim. Just
what we needed!
The
way of life in our part of the island, at least, was so laid back and easy
going. Even the church seemed to
slip easily into that way of life. There
were a number of churches (Greek Orthodox) near where we stayed, two in the
small coastal village of Aghia Ephemia, but no signs to say when services took
place. So we made enquiries about
service times with the small, local holiday company we had travelled with and
were told: “When the bell rings there is a service, when it doesn’t, there
isn’t!” I don’t recall
hearing the bell ring once. We did
get to a celebration of the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
We were told it started at 8.00pm and so arrived at 9.00pm whereupon it
started around 10.00pm when the crowds of people eventually arrived.
Then began the fellowship, food, music and dancing.
It
seems a far cry from our experience of church here in Wales.
I have been ordained for 23 years and have served in this Diocese of
Llandaff for all of that time, and in my present parish for nearly 10 years.
Before I was ordained, I had been brought up to worship in the Church in
Wales, being baptised as an infant in Haverfordwest, and confirmed in Whitchurch,
Cardiff. One of the first things
that Chris and I did when we were married was to seek out an Anglican Church
near our new home at which to worship together.
We have chosen to remain within the Church in Wales because this is where
we feel God has called us to be. It
can seem very different from other denominations, but within the Church in Wales
there is such a wealth of spiritual heritage that is precious to me.
Our holiday in Cephalonia was made a few days after the end of the Flames of Fire conference this year. I really enjoy going the conference to participate in the worship and fellowship, and receive good quality teaching. I never cease to be amazed at the way God seems so present, so gracious and so powerful. But again it is so very different from what we might experience within the ordinary parish church here in Wales. It is different, but I value it and want to see more of what we experience at the conference present in the life of the ordinary local church. But that can be a source of tension. The conference life can be so different that it hardly seems to relate to the life of the Anglican Church at all.
I think of the parish of Pencoed where I am
at this time. It is actually two parishes with
two P.C.C.s, we have three church buildings one at Llanilid, one
in Pencoed and one in Heol Y Cyw. They
serve three different kinds of community, one rural, one town and one former
mining village. The congregations
are generally small, elderly and traditional but friendly and open.
They are really lovely people here, but life is very different from Flames
of Fire. The contrast
between the larger gathering and the small local church can be like that of
being compared to a church in a foreign land.
So
how can we see renewal in the Church in Wales without making it seem so foreign
that the distinctive spiritual heritage is lost?
Other parishes may have found their answer to that question, but here we
seek to run both the traditional and renewal side by side.
We have ministry time at evensong, Praise & Worship as well as the
traditional ‘Green Book’ Eucharist. Greeting
people at the door following a service can lead to ministry for healing more
dramatic than that during the ministry time.
I am reminded of an illustration I once heard, of two rivers, one whose
waters was full of silt was brown and murky, whilst the other, a tributary which
had joined it, had waters which were clear.
The clear and murky waters flowed side by side for miles before finally
merging. The Lord is at work here and we are seeing people transformed by the
working of the Holy Spirit, but it is not like Flames of Fire and
many people here would not feel at home with the conference.
So
Anglican Renewal Ministries has a particular work to do, which is about Renewal
in the Anglican Church here in Wales. There
is a hunger and a thirst for the Holy Spirit to renew the church that is not
being satisfied through the conference alone.
In September the ARM Executive committee met for the first time since the
extraordinary general meeting in June. There
was a sense of loss regarding the conference but it was good to be together.
Looking to the future was hard, but inviting the Holy Spirit and waiting
on Him led to a really positive time of sharing what we felt He had shown.
It was about getting alongside the church in parish, deanery and diocese.
Such was the enthusiasm that was generated that one committee member
said, “I came here intending to resign, but now I am too excited to do so!”
The Holy Spirit had given vision and vision generated hope.
As
we look forward to the Annual General Meeting in November it is in this spirit
of hope and expectation of the Lord leading ARM (Wales) forward to see renewal
in the Anglican Church in this nation. A
renewal that is not creating a church foreign and strange, but of realising,
renewing and releasing the gracious gifts that God has bestowed.
Jesus said to His disciples, “Therefore every teacher of the law who
has been instructed about the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of a house who
brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
(Matthew 13 v 52)
I
close with this prayer from St Paul:
“May
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you
may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
(Romans 15:13)
Yours in Christ
Nicholas