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Welcome to ST MICHAEL & All ANGELS CHURCH (Church of England) St
Michael's Green, |
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It should be noted
this was written intended to be heard and not read… Record of the Annual verbal overview and encouragement
given by Reverend Camilla Walton to the Church of St Michael and All Angels,
Beaconsfield Team, at the Annual
Church meeting for 2009 Thank you – What I intend to
say in this time is threefold.
it is precisely one
year and not quite 48 hours since I was licensed as Priest and Team Vicar of
this church and I would like to start by thanking you all for your kind and
grace-filled welcome of Ken, myself and our extended family and friends. I
recognise that it must have been a change for you all, not least being the
first female incumbent of this role, but also on your return to having a
‘Stipended’ priest used to a full leadership role within the church. It has been clear
to me what a good job you have all done in participating in the
responsibility of church during the sad onset of Richard’s illness and then
welcoming two non-stipended priests in their first roles of responsibility.
So we have had to learn to adjust to one another, you and I, as we have moved
into relationship with one another. So again thank you for all the adjustment
that has been necessary in this year. That adjustment has
been greatest for those who held most responsibility – I speak for the key
officers of Licensed Lay minister, DCC members, Treasurer, and Churchwardens.
Hazel has been kind
in her encouragement and support in matters of liturgy and has been
invaluable in providing past history. The DCC have had to tolerate several
long sessions as we have held lengthy discussions over important matters
which have been recorded elsewhere. Keith has done a stalwart job keeping us
informed of financial matters and bringing our accounts into a state
necessary for the transition into formal Charitable Trust status for the
Beaconsfield Team. This job all the more remarkable because he never really
wanted the job of treasurer! and has kindly agreed, against his better
judgement, to stay on until Graham Skinner is able to pick up the reigns
ready for next year. So a special thank you to them all for their hard work
and discipline of sticking to the task. But my greatest thanks must go to
Churchwardens Sheila Holyer and Chris Cook. By slow unfolding and guidance we
have moved from my being fairly useless this time last year to being well
informed of the being and doing of our community. Our regular meetings have
kept us all up to date but real praise must go to them both for their quiet
efficient manner, their constant thought and preparation for jobs as wide as
risk assessment to architects, rummaging in cupboards and last but not least
their attention to prayerful theological under girding of all they do. True examples for us all. So I record my and
the church’s thanks to our key officers….. but further thanks must go to
others. It is not my custom to thank every one by name, the electoral role is
after all over 100 names long. I am also long enough in the tooth to know
that as soon as I list one I must list all and miss one at my peril! so instead may I encourage us to take pride
in the many forms of ministry that are recorded in our wider list of church
activities so ably produced again this year. My special thanks go to those of
you who head up each of the teams of workers, activities, and rotas. You know
that without you it simply would not happen, and, as in other walks of life,
it is often the busy people we turn to for more ‘busyness’ so lets pause and
give thanks to God for all the gifts and talents we share and benefit from in
this church. …… My final thanks go
to several people who have been personally supportive to our entry into this
church, who have patiently listened to my concerns or questions, and helped
by talking things through, being kind enough to sift the wheat from the chaff
and so enabling me to find my footing. You know full well who you are so
thank you. As I near the end
of this time of thanks I do want to stop and make a special presentation to
Sheila. (Thank Sheila). Sheila’s qualities
are well known to you all, many of you having been here as long as she and
Tom have, but it is now time for her to lay down the role of Warden having
stayed on despite personal pressures to see me into post. Much of the role of
church warden is sacrificial, in time, in personal opinion, and in own
development. Sheila for your
quiet loving ministry, your passion for justice shown in the ………………………………………..
Moving on to
looking back over the past year and our shared ministry within it: I mentioned earlier
that church is a group of people who share a common love for, and
relationship with God and who are seeking to act out this love and
relationship as people of God in the world, as light and salt, and agents of
transformation in God’s world. Can we test the last 12 months against this
supposition? Well, I think we can be justifiably proud of the work and
developments that have gone on and testimony to this is ably reported in our
annual booklet. But these are more than activities, they are theology! The snapshot in
time identified the many ways we use our God given gifts and talents within
the church and wider community. We are called to care for the stranger, heal
the sick, visit and bind up the broken hearted and call all into abundant
life. Do take the time to pause and reflect on that snapshot bearing in mind
our calling, and give thanks for all we do. This church has a
long and good tradition of being a caring loving community, displayed by the
lengthy list of people that Kathryn can call upon for help. This is an
outworking of our Christian way of life and is vital to our being. However,
there has been a development within that team to deepen the work of our
church pastoral care for the community. Some of those who share key visiting
have been looking at transition into becoming ‘authorised church pastoral
visitors’. This means that they will
be called upon to officially represent this church in visiting people in
need, not necessarily church members but local people God puts us in touch
with. This will include recently bereaved, baptism families, hospital visits,
and housebound. This group are willing to meet regularly for ongoing training
and supervision and I am delighted to accept their gifts and talents as part
of the official pastoral care of the church. In the light of this we will
shortly be celebrating and commissioning both the work of the new DCC and the
church authorised visitors in a Sunday service. Two things: this
does not mean I will not be visiting! and no, that does not let anyone else
off the hook. Our natural Christian calling is to care for others. This is
just a deepening of that call. Kathryn is kindly going to co-ordinate this
aspect of life as it ties in so well with our other activities. I’ve mentioned our pastoral care to others, but of
course the other great charge is to make new disciples of others. How has
that proceeded? Well actively inviting others into sharing our
relationship with God involves communication so we must welcome the
production of various new booklets to aid this work. These include Sunday
worship, a guided prayer walk for use in the church, the new Angelus, a leaflet
on the stations of the cross, and just
last week our new annual prayer diary which runs until next Easter. Those
involved in producing these booklets are Roger and Kathryn Lockyer, Christine
Stewart, Ulrike Heyworth and last but by no means least Jean and John Dean.
My I thank, on all our behalf, Jean and John for their generous gifting of
much of our printing. But we cannot just print paper and expect that to
do the work for us – Jesus did not have a leaflet drop sent round with the
daily paper or post, no, he personally invited others in by shared story and
deeds, witnessed by those inside and outside the faith community. During last year several of us attended the day on
Living Faith run by the Diocese. This was an inspirational day to encourage
churches to seek ways to make contact with others using ‘story and deeds’. We
were reminded that we do not need to worry about making contacts for sharing
our faith, we already have them, we should just start from what naturally
occurs and ask God to use us as the invitation. As part of the outworking of that idea all the
study groups of this church graciously looked at the nurture course offered
in the Emmaus way of sharing faith. This was to understand what new-comers
would be studying and, for some, to be ready to help run sessions in due
course. Some of the material from this
course is being used at the moment to prepare adults for Confirmation and I
hope that in time we will have a nurture and growth in faith courses running
annually. Please click to read
continuation of our Vicar’s verbal overview and encouragement |
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