Meeting People 2015
Reports from St Faith's Annual Parochial Church Meeting
After the morning service on Sunday, March 8th, the annual statutory meetings took place in church, following a sandwich lunch for the faithful.
The brief Annual Parishioners' Meeting, to which all resident in the parish or on the Electoral Roll, are entitled to vote, was originally known as the Vestry Meeting. Its sole purpose is the election of two churchwardens, and Brenda Cottarel and Rick Walker were duly re-elected, to take office at the forthcoming Visitation service.
The APCM itself, at which only those on the Electoral Roll were entitled to vote, followed without a break, and received the previously published official report to the diocesan authorities. This contains all required information and reports, together with the audited church accounts. Those responsible for these spoke to their contributions and were available for questioning, as were those making other contributions from the 'floor of the house'.
Following this, we listened to the Vicar's 'State of the Nation' report before proceeding to the election of new PCC members and Deanery Synod representatives.
This latter address is reproduced in full below.
The official returns referred to above are may be seen HERE
Pages introducing previous APCMs are HERE
The Vicar’s Report
Those words from Mark’s Gospel occur in the story of
Bar-Timaeus, the blind man Jesus heals – take heart,
get up, for he is calling you. And they were
the words that came to me as I began to reflect on
this year.
Just a year ago, relatively speaking the ‘new girl,’
I spoke about what had been a difficult year with
the spiritual and relational troubles of 2013.
Well, I still feel like the ‘new girl,’ relatively
speaking – though not quite so new-minted and just
out of my cellophane – and 2014 has been different;
in fact, a year of building.
It’s been quite literally a year of building, as
we’ve responded, with commitment, energy,
imagination and generosity to the need to repair our
roof, following two incidents of lead theft.
That’s not something we’d have looked for or wished
on ourselves – and I well remember the sinking
feeling when I learned, one Friday afternoon in
October, that the second incident had happened; but
we have gone some way to addressing the issues of a
120-year-old roof, issues we may well have had to
face in the coming decade anyway.
So this year has, in its own way, also been
challenging; people are still at different places in
processing and reflecting on the events of
2013. It was a brutal and difficult experience
for everyone. But look at it we must, as
Christians – not in the sense of worrying away at
it, like a dog with an old bone – but in the sense
of learning what it means anew in terms of our
Christian story – the story we are living now, in
Lent, of passion, suffering, and crucifixion, all
the way to the glorious Easter morning of
Resurrection and redemption. We, the Church –
are an Easter people; but we cannot be an Easter
people without Lent, the Passion and Good
Friday. Some of you had more than enough of
Good Friday I know; but do not forget that part of
our call is to see everything – everything – in the
light of the Resurrection – a Resurrection that was
not about being right, or about revenge on those who
did the most horrendous wrong – but about God’s
relentless committed love for all humanity in Christ
– even for those who crucified him. A
challenge, yes – but a challenge in the light of the
faith and hope that, wherever we are in processing
our own feelings, God’s grace is sufficient, and the
past can be reimagined, the present transformed, and
the future hoped for.
And, in October, the Episcopal Visitation was lifted
– it is now only we who have the responsibility to –
well, take heart, get up – and respond to God’s
call.
So – take heart and get up! But perhaps the
trickiest of all is discerning, carefully and
prayerfully that to which we are called. This
is never easy or straightforward – as R S Thomas
writes in Pilgrimages, it can often seem that ‘He is
such a fast God, always before us, and leaving as we
arrive.’
We don’t discern vocation alone – my hope this year
is that the PCC, the various officers, but also all
of you, as God’s Holy People, have a role to play in
discerning what God is calling us to here at St
Faith’s – and more about that as the year unfolds.
However, there are some directions of travel, I
think, beginning to emerge;
One is – well, this Holy House. Our building
has much to commend it – it has a real sense of the
presence of God, of being a house of prayer; it is
big enough to host concerts and events and serve our
community – and it has a very forgiving acoustic
musically. Like all 120 year old buildings
though, it has a habit of springing nasty surprises
on us – so we need to be proactive in thinking both
about how to maintain it to a high standard, and
about making it a space in which God is worshipped
and all humanity welcome for another 120 years.
The Waterloo Group Council has had its first
meeting, and those present felt it was very
positive. It was born of the conviction that
the Anglican Churches in Waterloo – whatever
difference we have in terms of churchmanship, and
whatever our history with one another, deeply belong
to one another – quite simply, by dint of geography,
God has given us one another, and we need to discern
how best to use that gift – after all, it is being
properly ‘holy, catholic and apostolic’ to belong to
one another in this way.
And thirdly, what, distinctively, are we, as God’s
Holy People being called to at St Faith’s.
You’ve probably heard me say, with a twinkle, that
the catholic revival in the Church of England is
about to happen. Well, it’s only half in jest;
I believe with all my might that the Church and the
World have never needed Catholic witness as much as
they do now. It is characterised by
friendship, but critical friendship, with the world;
with the search for holiness, with Christian life
expressed as our way of belonging to one another,
with a cherishing of spiritual rhythms in daily
life, with an openness to the whole of the Christian
tradition, and above all, with a costly
reconciliation between our faith and society and
culture. And I believe with all my might that
St Faith’s calling is in discovering anew and
showing forth in our live what Catholic witness
means in these parts.
Needless to say – that’s the most challenging of the
lot! But let me say it again – you are not, on
the whole, shrinking violets, and on the whole, you
like a challenge. What I would say though – is
that the discernment of this vocation is as much
about prayer, reflection, and careful thought, as it
is about action; St Faith’s are great do-ers, great
activists; part of the calling now is to bring that
gift into harmony with prayer and reflection.
And to trust that, whilst our stumbling efforts to
discern that to which we are being called are met
with the grace of God – with encouragement, hope and
committed love, more than we can imagine.
So – take heart, get up, he is calling you!
