AGM 2011

Entertaining Angels Unawares

Introduction

It is an obvious thing to say, at any AGM, that we stand at a crossroads in the life of the organisation.  For every group at any point there are choices to be made which will affect its direction and development.  Rather than a crossroads I would rather say that we stand at a traffic light where the different lights represent the different things we need to think about.

PRESENT – reviewing current directions

Amber on the traffic sequence is a place in the middle between go and stop, like the present, a moment to think about where you are.  For both churches at the moment there are present issues about buildings.

For Mytholmroyd the great hall and square project is coming to an end as this year saw the arrival of the Sculpture by Nicholas Moreton and the completion of the outside works.  We are learning to use the great gift we have been given although questions of capacity still float around how we maintain and prosper this wonderful resource.  The decision to always look for grant aid before spending capital is about to pay dividends when due to a generous grant from Bradford Energy Action Trust the hall lighting is about to be replaced, and the graveyard extension paid for by a combination of Yorkshire Water and Calderdale Council.

At Cragg we are working our way through the Quinquennial report.  Of course the big news is that we have found sold the Sunday School building, we have hired an architect and we have hammered out our priorities for the coming work on the church building.  To quote Churchill: “This is not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning.”  Although consultation has started we need to have a public meeting once we have the plans and we need to go through the various planning authorities as we recognise that what we are doing affects not only the church but the community as well.

PAST - correcting old ones.

For me the red light in all of this is resources and this of course is relevant to what has occurred in the past. 

At Mytholmroyd this year has been a difficult year where with the help of David our treasurer, Church wardens and PCC and considerable effort and prayer, we have begun to become sustainable once again.  It’s amazing what can be achieved through hard work, prayer and the considerable generosity of God’s people.

 At Cragg we, as a small congregation always have questions about long term sustainability.  Even though we are a big congregation for such a small community we need more people to come more frequently and support us.  We need as well to design a church for the small congregation of thirty which we normally get.  Also there are a number of means of fundraising we could use.  Should we use direct giving, events or legacies?  Should we use capital or funding or grants?  The answer of course is all of these and we should also use our talents and the space God has given us to raise money and to create community.  I thank church wardens, treasurer and PCC for all there support and leadership in this important time in the life of our church.

FUTURE - setting new directions

The green light I see as the future, the direction God’s people are being called to in Erringden Benefice.  To answer this I want to explore with you another question: what is the church for?

There are two ways of thinking about what it's for.  The first is to think about what the church does.  The answer is easy the church does this…

Funerals, Weddings,Baptisms,Meetings, looks after a building, raises money, sings hymns, Does Pantos, makes dock pudding breakfasts etc.

There are problems to this functional approach not least because there is a tendency that you always get what you always got because you always do what you always did.  If what you do defines what you are then as you spend a lot of time maintaining a building that is what the church becomes; a group that maintains a building.

Perhaps a more interesting question is: Who are we?  The bible talks a lot more about this.  We are given a number of Biblical descriptions of the church.

· the body of Christ

· ekklesia - the gathering of God's people

· the way of Christ

· the bride of Christ

· a building

· a letter from Christ

· the body of Christ

There are others but whichever of these you focus on will change what we do as a church and answer the question: “What is the church for?”

· So if we are the body of Christ then we are all linked to Jesus, seeking to be hands and feet and looking as a church at what he would have us do for our community.

· If we are the Gathering – the ekklesia or church then we are the host at a very important meeting.  Our buildings are providing a place for God's people to meet with him and should be described quite properly not as the house of God but rather the house of God's people.  We don't create facilities for God but for those whom he is gathering and we need to make sure that they are open to all and accessible to all.  For Cragg this will be much of our discussion in developing and reordering our building.  For Mytholmroyd having done much of this for the hall we now need to focus on the church itself: Sunday by Sunday, day by day is this a good place for people to gather and meet God.

· If we are The way of Christ which was the first thing the church was called and through it we see ourselves as that then we need to be teaching people the way, teaching people of all ages how to be disciples.  We need to be transforming and challenging the communities around us so that others will follow the way.

· If we are the Brideof Christ then we must all be working on our relationship with Jesus… reading the scriptures, praying and seeking together to get to know God better.

· If we are a building, or rather a building site; being made of living stones we need to be working on our relationship with others.

· If we are those who are sent, a letter to our communities then we need to go out of our buildings as missionaries to those communities.  We need to find new ways of being church to reach those to whom we are sent, changing so that we can communicate the message of God’s love by our deeds and by our words if necessary.

These pictures of the church point us to what we should do in the future and particularly to a way of radical hospitality.  A group of people who make costly sacrifices as our Lord did so that others can be accommodated.

At the beginning of Lent I spent a few days at Scargill which is a community of lay and ordained people near Kettlewell.  They had a rule of life… a pathway they call it, I have written about it before.

1. speak often and regularly to our heavenly Father, on our own and with others, as well as unwrapping God’s gift of the Bible, allowing it to teach, illustrate, comfort and discipline.

2. offer everything we do and are to our heavenly Father to use as he wishes, trusting that he will enable us to mean it, and to endure the consequences.

3. enjoy and carefully look after whichever part of the world has been generously entrusted to us by God.

4. strengthen community through kindness and love, being sensible enough to keep the moaning inside and a smile on our faces until the right moment arrives to honestly release our complaints.

5. Our goal is to be consistently, constructively loving. welcome visitors and strangers as we would welcome Jesus himself, putting their needs before ours and treating each one as a royal guest.

6. speak up bravely for people who are rarely heard, helping our heavenly Father to fulfil his dream of seeing the hungry fed, the sick looked after, the naked clothed and victims of injustice released from their chains.

7. enjoy giving and receiving lots of treats - and laugh often.

I think it would be good for all of us to have in mind something like this as we enter a new church year.  Undergirding all that they do is a kind of sacrificial hospitality, people who are prepared to give everything in order to make you welcome. This is at the heart of the Christian Gospel where God, through Jesus’ death makes peace with us so that we can share at table once again and come to live in His house.

That’s why hospitality is so important as we as a church gather and gather others to Jesus Christ. 

That’s why I have chosen our motto this year:

“ Be not forgetful

to entertain strangers

for thereby some

have entertained angels unawares.”   Hebrews Chapter 13 Verse 2 KJV

It is a reminder in all our thinking about church that we should always be open to others as God is open to us.  A reminder of who we are so that can shape what we do and what we are for.

I am looking forward to entertaining angels this year with you all.

Revd Canon James Allison 2011