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Framland Focus January 2012

“The World in Union”

Contents

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Thank you from Rev’d Richard King

Mission Partnership 2012

Framland Mission Partnership

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

January 15^th – 22^nd.

The Ecumenical Service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2012 comes to us from Poland where an ecumenical group has written a liturgy that draws on the experience of Polish Christians who have lived through times of joy and adversity.

The history of Poland has been marked by a series of defeats, victories, invasions, partitions and oppression by foreign powers and hostile systems. The constant striving to overcome all enslavement and the desire for freedom are a feature of Polish history.

The service takes as its theme 1 Corinthians 15.51-58 which speaks of the transformative power of faith in Christ, particularly in relation to our

praying for the visible unity of the Church, the Body of Christ. As we pray for and strive towards the full visible unity of the church we – and the traditions to which we belong – will be changed, transformed and conformed to the likeness of Christ.

The Church that is truly One will look very different to the traditions that are so familiar to us. This is an exciting vision but it may fill us with some fear! The unity for which we pray is not merely a “comfortable” notion of friendliness and co-operation. It requires a willingness to dispense with competition between us. We need to open ourselves to

each other, to offer gifts to and receive gifts from one another, so that

we might truly enter into the new life in Christ, which is the only

true victory.

“We will all be changed by the victory of

our Lord Jesus Christ”

(1 Corinthians 15.51-58)

Dear Sue,

Through you, may I express our thanks to Mission Partnership for the generous gift of John Lewis vouchers. I don’t know if there was collusion but we also received some from Wymondham and Buckminster, so our new home will be enormously enriched. It will be good to remember the Mission Partnership through them.

I have been enormously enriched already from working with the Mission Partnership and with you, Sue, in particular. Your vision for the Mission Partnership is inspirational. I guess our collaboration began in Burton Lazars when you ran SWiG in our home and later Closer to God. We also started praying together at that time, and this has been the bedrock of the partnership. It has also been a real joy to take part with you in the 24-7 weeks of prayer, and LYCiG and its follow-ons. I have also enjoyed leading Closer to God around the partnership and getting to know people around the deanery through it. The Mission Partnership is the engine which will lead the deanery forward in years to come so I will continue to pray for you all and wish you every blessing in the future. Your support and encouragement to me personally has been an essential element in keeping going as long as I have.

I had not planned for my stipendiary ministry to end in this fashion; it was a huge blow to get cancer within a few months of arriving and I never really recovered my strength. Then it was the worst possible time to have a road accident, with retirement, moving and Christmas all looming. However people have been amazingly kind and helpful and I think we’re going to get through it. I am still in some considerable pain; largely it is under control, leaving me frustrated, but with time to sleep and direct operations.

I wish you all the very best and God’s blessing for the future.

Richard

Mission Partnership 2012

As we begin a new year, it is a good time to look back and review what has happened in the Mission Partnership, and also to look ahead at what we might do in the months ahead….

First of all, I would like to record my thanks to Richard King for all his help and support since the Mission Partnership began. He has been an invaluable colleague and friend, always encouraging, always so good at teasing out the potential of an idea and carrying it through with great efficiency and skill. We owe him for his Closer to God course, his experience in 24-7 planning and running, his talents in the field of spirituality and so much more. One of his most useful and helpful remarks is now my motto: Hold your nerve. He is right, as ever: holding your nerve is essential in mission. So often we get cold feet: will it work? Are we doing the right thing? Will we fall flat on our faces? “Hold your nerve” is a modern day translation of the biblical command “Do not be afraid” – the most repeated command in the whole bible.

We held our nerve when we signed a group up for the first Leading Your Church into Growth (LYCiG) course and then met to see what sort of mission we could aspire to in Framland, with all its diversity and huge geographical size: the outcome was last year’s four weeks of 24-7 prayer during Lent, during which over 160 people learned new ways of praying and a new zeal for Christ. We held our nerve again when we repeated the exercise for a week in Advent – with proportionately the same response. Across the deanery, churches are seeking to set up prayer rooms and prayer trails to draw people into prayer – without which we can do nothing. The insistence on prayer as our primary calling has been – and remains – the bedrock of the Mission Partnership. Not that 24-7 is the only means of discovering prayer – the hugely successful Messy Church initiative is a recognised source of mission across Framland. But then there is also Open the Book, Café church and community breakfasts or lunches, which all seek to engage with local community and build up relationships within with evangelism can take place. Once you start looking, it is enormously encouraging that so many benefices are experimenting with mission and learning from one another.

Looking ahead, we have some major opportunities coming our way with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics both making a large impact. The Olympic torch is coming right into the heart of Framland on its journey, and there are plenty of opportunities for churches to get involved: and, with our penchant for feeding people, it is extremely likely that many parishes will be taking part in the government’s planned Big Lunch on 3rd June, the Bank Holiday weekend of the Jubilee.

In addition, we are sending our third group of people on the LYCiG course in March – after which we will need to tighten up our Mission Action Group (MAG) and structure it so that it becomes a more cohesive group of people: it is in my mind that perhaps as the deanery 2020 Vision moves towards liaising more closely in clusters (or families) of churches, so the MAG might subdivide into groups that focus on particular geographical areas. This would make mission distinctly more locally based and enable greater cohesion. So – possibly one Mission Partnership, but several MAGs within it. All these issues will need to be discussed properly after Easter.

Finally, I’d like to end by welcoming new clergy to the Framland Mission Partnership. Peter Collins has slid into place so easily and naturally that it is hard to remember that he has been in post for less than 6 months: Rowena Bass joins us next month at High Framland, and we extend a warm welcome to her too. I would say to both of them, as to everyone else: hold your nerve, and climb aboard the rollercoaster that is Mission Partnership – that way, even if we go off the rails, we will all be doing so together!!

Rev Sue Paterson

Mission Partnership Development Officer

Framland Mission www.framlandmissionpartnership.com  Take a look at the web site.  Framland Focus is also available on