Thanks to those of you who took time to answer the parish questionnaire that was distributed in church at the end of January. It gave us a helpful pointer to a number of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities at St Peter’s, which the PCC was able to reflect on with the Revd Mary Gilbert on February 9. Mary, who is vicar of St Paul’s in the Jewellery Quarter, is our parish consultant in the Transforming Church programme. At our discussion she encouraged us to think of starting from where we are and building on our strengths. Among the strengths that were brought to our notice by the questionnaire and discussion were the warmth of welcome and the way in which our life as a church is centred in worship. One of the weaknesses we highlighted was a tendency to be inward looking (good if it is supportive of those who come, but not if we fail to engage as a church with the world around us, and become more accessible to those who search).
Our Parish Away Day on March 20 will be an important opportunity to focus on some of these aspects of our church life. The themes of the day are inspired by the Bishop’s conference at Birmingham University in November. Those of us who attended (Lynette Adjei, Angie Stanford, Katharine Harris, Colin Dunbar, David Andrews, Joycelyn Lewis-Gregory and Martin Stephenson) wanted to share with you three themes in particular. These, ‘Unwrapping St Peter’s’, ‘Injustice’ and ‘Discipleship and the Integrity of Creation’, are to be the three subjects of the workshops at Temple Balsall on March 20. You will perhaps notice that they fit very well also as responses to the questionnaire. They are all concerned with the mission of the church in the world: being open to those who search, being agents of God’s justice, and being called to be stewards of the created world in which we live.
Unwrapping St Peter’s
This is based on an experiment in which a wrapped parcel is placed on a table as people enter the room and is left completely unopened. The wrapping prevents investigation. So the question is asked about church and how visitors find us: does our ‘wrapping’ prevent proper investigation? What obstacles do we put in the way of people finding out what Christianity is all about? What does help us to be accessible? In fact, when people do look into something that is wrapped there may well be something exciting inside. We may hope that that is so about St Peter’s.
Injustice (Addressing Unjust Structures)
I am very aware, living a pretty comfortable existence in suburban Hall Green, that the pressing issues of justice which many have to face in their lives don’t often have a live impact on me. But if I were, say, living in Newtown, where Caroline George works, I would be meeting daily people who were seeking asylum having fled from persecution and hardship, or the acute depressive impact of unemployment, or the traps which poverty places on people. But we are part of a Hall Green group of churches and the challenges of poverty are not very far away - in the vicinity of St Michael’s church, for example. Here, or in one of the other council properties in Hall Green, you might find Donna (not her real name), who has been the victim of domestic violence, caught in the drug scene and been in prison, and is now trying to rebuild her life with her four children. We may say this is not a question of unjust structures, but of a
personal human story. But we might also want to ask whether certain structures in society prevent people escaping from these kind of traps. This week, in the paper, we heard the shocking statistics that if you come from a poor British family you will expect to live 17 fewer years than someone from a well-off family. And what does ‘peace and justice’ mean, for example, to our friends in Malawi?
If we engage with the God of righteousness, justice and love, and walk with Jesus of Beatitudes (‘Blessed are the poor...’) we will know that these questions are questions of discipleship for the Christian. And it may not just be individual stories of injustice, but the structures which trap people and prevent them enjoying a fulfilling life.
Discipleship and the Integrity of Creation
One of the things that people often mention when they talk about why they like living in Hall Green is the ‘green’ in Hall Green. You’ve got tree lined streets, large gardens, the River Cole and the Dingles, Trittiford, Sarehole Mill and so on. The question I want to explore is this. As a disciple of Jesus, how am I called to be responsible for the world around me? This is also a question of justice. Who owns what control over what land, for example? Does it matter that some of us have space to grow our own vegetables and some of us don’t? And what should we as Christians be asking those who plan for buses and trains, cars and planes? Is personal travel and freedom more important than energy efficient public transport? Is this a Christian issue at all?
And then there are other issues about the created world in which we live. When the people come to Jesus to ask ‘Who sinned? This blind man or his parents, in that he was born blind?’ how will Jesus answer? Whose fault is it anyway? And what is God doing when some are blind at birth and some have perfect sight? So, how do we interpret what God is doing in an unjust world, or a world where some seem to get all the blessings and others get none. Should we do anything about it?
Essentially, what we are doing is saying: Christianity is much more than about me and my faith. It is about more than me and my relationship with God. We are very strong on individual rights in Britain. In Africa they have much more of a sense that things are naturally done with others. Many will be able to
remember times not so long ago when the street was much more an open space, when folks more naturally popped in and out of other people’s houses. It still happens in some places. And the church, a place where, week by week, the very young and the much older meet as friends, is the place above all to explore what Jesus Christ wants us to do about his command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
So come and join us on March 20.
With love and prayers.
Martin