Journeying On

Last month we said goodbye to Martin and Liz Collins as they moved to Buxton to enjoy a very well earned retirement. Their final weekend at Norbury was very special indeed: The coffee morning that started things off was very well attended and gave people the chance to chat very informally to Martin and Liz. The evening ‘This is your life’ event was simply unforgettable as a cavalcade of friends and former colleagues were presented to a progressively more and more astonished Martin (Liz was in on the secret!); these included Anup Biswas and his family who memorably performed a short family concert for us. The standing ovation for Martin at the end of the evening said it all.

Then there was Martin’s final service at Norbury on Sunday—there was great love, many tears and a deep sense of thankfulness for the life of Norbury church for the seventeen years that Martin has been not just a Vicar but a friend and guide to so many.

Martin’s ministry at Norbury was full of care and deep commitment and included innumerable instances of ‘going the extra mile’ (or several miles!) to assure people that they mattered and were valued. We will all miss these wonderful qualities so very much.

Now, the time has come to journey on – so we must look to the future knowing that one of Martin’s great achievements has been to take us on a considerable journey over the past seventeen years. Christians, of course, are a pilgrim people and the journey needs to continue. At this stage we do not know who the next Vicar of Norbury will be – but God does and we believe that he will guide us in the future as he has done in the past.

As we contemplate the future I should like to offer three dimensions of the life of the church that we need to consider as we journey on together.

A worshipping church

Worship is not just ‘something we do on Sundays’; it involves our whole lives given in service to Jesus our Lord. It is something that should transform us. I wonder what you think about on your way to church? If you are like me you might well be distracted by the ‘tree full of monkeys’ that I find chirping away in my brain when I try to be quiet!

However Sunday by Sunday as we meet with each other, we also meet with God. This encounter, if it is genuine, cannot leave us unchanged.

This is one reason why, at the main Communion service on Sunday mornings, we are invited to keep silence for a few minutes before the service begins – it gives us some time to reflect and pray for a sense of God’s peace and presence. A worshipping church is a church on the move.

A loving church

I have recently been reading a series of ‘Great Tales from English History’ written by the historian Robert Lacey. As I read of the mutual loathing that defined the relationship between Catholic and Reformed Christians at the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century I felt deeply saddened. How could groups of Christians (on both sides of the divide) burn their enemies at the stake? Yet they did and, in doing so, betrayed the master they claimed to serve. Back in the 21st century I recently undertook a retreat at St Beunos, a centre run by the Jesuits situated in North Wales. Many of us on the retreat were Anglicans but it didn’t matter – we were welcomed as fellow Christians. The death of Jesus was an act of amazing sacrificial love and we are called to share that love with one another, the community in which we live and the world. A loving church is a church on the move.

A witnessing church

People today are really searching for something – they just feel that they are not going to find what they are looking for in church! This is why we need worship that transforms and love that heals at the heart of the church’s life. We have something amazing to share – the message of Jesus is as exciting and radical as it ever was. The fact that it takes the finest scientific brains in Europe and the most sophisticated scientific equipment on the planet to set up an experiment that, in an infinitesimally smaller way, might tell us something about the ‘big bang’ reinforces to my mind the reality that this universe is not the result of an impossible series of coincidences but the work of a loving creator. I believe that Jesus came to open a window into the heart of God enabling us to discover who we really are. If that is not good news, I don’t know what is! A witnessing church is a church on the move.

As we contemplate the future let’s reflect on these three qualities and ask God for growth. And remember our journey is not one undertaken in our own strength; the Holy Spirit is present with the church to enable the transformation that pilgrims seek.

Rob Green