News at the Parish Church of St Peter de Merton with St Cuthbert, Bedford

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Dear All,

Have you heard about MAP? Mission Action Planning. Every parish in our diocese has been asked to prepare a Plan, by next Easter, for the next few years – a plan that describes its priorities and its passions. By the time you read this, we’ll have started to think together about what it is to be ‘church.’ That’s where we have to begin, with our understanding of who we are and what we are about. And then in the New Year, we’ll move on to consider how God is calling us to serve the world around us.
We start from a wonderful place. Our Christmas Fayre was a brilliant example of what happens when we work together. So many people were involved in making it the event it was. Not only did we make a lot of money, at least as important was that it showed off our church (building AND people!) as a vibrant, friendly and exciting place to be. Working out our Plan will take some hard work, some discernment and much prayer, but we’ve started well.
And what of God in all this? Does God have a Mission Action Plan, I wonder? If God does, we are it! Or to be more precise, the body of Christ, the Jesus people, are it. And God’s plan is what the author of the Letter to the Hebrews describes so definitely:
‘When in times past God spoke to our forefathers, he spoke in many and varied ways... But in this final age, he has spoken to us in his Son.’ (Hebrews 1.1-2)
Or, in words familiar to us at this time of year:
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ (John 1.1)
Christmas!
That’s God’s MAP, isn’t it! Incarnation. God-with-us. What a simple plan it is! God’s presence. And whatever it is that we decide about our future, surely that has to be the mark of our mission. God’s love, hope and faith in action.
What it will be isn’t obvious. Financial uncertainty is changing people and their priorities. A report this week has shown a shrinking of compassion, a hardening of hearts, a blame culture that’s getting stronger, and a wide choice of scapegoats to make us feel better. None of that is in God’s plan! Perfect love casts out fear, our faith tells us. But to be hopeful and open, compassionate and understanding goes against the current grain. We have our work cut out. But then hasn’t the church always. Being counter-cultural is our culture!
And how promising was the ground where God decided to make his appearance? Take an unmarried mother, an inn that was full to overflowing, a breezy barn and a collection of smelly shepherds and an angry, insecure dictator, and how far do you expect to go? But out of this strange concoction came – salvation. The most complete Mission Action Plan there could ever be!
It sounds so dry, and yet it’s all about how we choose to live out the hope, the joy, the longing and the love that are at the heart of our faith and our human being. Can there be a more exciting, engaging, worthwhile enterprise? Just what our Fayre was to become.
If that’s what working together brings, think how much more exciting and engaging is the business of worshipping together. Carols and the Crib Service beckon, with the magic of Midnight, and then the Day itself. All of it brimming with the love of God incarnate. So let’s embrace it, enjoy it, celebrate well together, and open our doors and hearts to the world around us, which needs the light of Christ more than ever to penetrate the darkness and austerity of these days.
And may your Christmas be just as full of love, joy and hope as the first one was.
With my love,

Mike

 

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