Stainglass window
Christmas 2011
3rd Dec Advent Party
12th Dec @ 2pm
Carol Service at Oak tree Court
16th Dec @ 2.30pm
Carol Service at Stratford Court
17th Dec @11am
Carol Singing outside Co-Op
18th Dec Nativity and Christingle Service and Carol Service
24th Dec @ 11pm (Service starts at 11.30pm
United Service at URC Etwall Rd
25th Dec @10am
Christmas Day Service
Make the Cross Count
Dear Friends,
All the talk in the Media is of a General Election in the next couple of months. In fact, everyone except the Prime Minister seems to think we are on the verge of an Election!
No one political part is exclusively Christian. It is possible to be a Christian in any of the mainstream parties (there are Christian MPs in all of them). What is important is that the Christian voice should be heard outside of the church walls.
Part of the reason for writing the "Where Did I come from?" articles each month is for us to see how Christians of pat generations were very actively involved in political issues- in the question of slavery, penal and parliamentary reform, education and industrial legislation. They campaigned about dueling, gambling, drunkenness and immorality. On Sunday mornings we've been thinking about how individuals have been challenged by the influence of Jesus Christ. But, sad to say, for much of the last century, many Christians withdrew from the political arena back into the church building.
In the end, there are only two possible attitudes which Christians can adopt towards society. One is to escape- the other is engagement. Escape means turning our backs on the world in rejection, washing our hands of it (though finding with Pontius Pilate that the responsibility does not come off in the wash), and steeling our hearts against its agonized cries for help. In contrast, engagement means turning our faces towards the world in compassion, getting our hands dirty, sore and worn in its service, and feeling deep within us the love of God which cannot be contained.
Writes John Stott in one of his books, "Too many of us Christians have been, or maybe still are, irresponsible escapists. Fellowship with each other in the church is more congenial than service in a hostile environment outside. Of course we make occasional raids into enemy territory; but then we withdraw again across the moat into our Christian castle, pull up the drawbridge, and even close our ears to the pleas of those who batter on the gate".
We need to open our ears and listen to the voice of him who calls his people in every age to go out into the lost and lonely world (as he did), in order to live and love, to witness and serve, like him and for him. That is "the mission of the Church"
At a local level, representing Churches Together in Hall Green, I have a place on the District Strategic Partnership, which is seeking to make Hall Green a better place to live and work in and visit.
And at a national level, we need to think through the issues which dominate our political agenda. A book has just been published by the Jubilee Centre entitled "Votewise". It takes eight issues that wil be at the centre of the General Election campaign, and thinks them through with the help of the Bible's teaching. It's a book that's well worth getting and reading.
This month we celebrate the heart of the Christian faith. The cross is firmly in front of our eyes. And if we are called to place another little cross on a ballot form soon, let this be our motto: Make the Cross Count!
Your friend and pastor,
Jonathan Calvert