The Herald
The Herald is the monthly magazine of the Team Parish of Louth. It is published on the first of the month and costs 50p a copy or £5 for an annual subscription. It can be posted in the UK for £;8.00 per annum. If you would like a copy posted to you or delivered, if you live in Louth, please contact the Parish Office.
Editorial for April 2008 We've had the eggs ... so what do we do now?
By the time you read this I bet there aren't many of you with Easter Eggs left in the cupboard. They will have been eaten days ago; the foil and the cardboard wrappers will have been put in the recycling bin and we will be looking ahead to the next public holiday, May Day.
Festivals are great because they set a particular time aside which we make special. We hear the familiar story; we exchange presents and perhaps send cards and then we move on.
But is that how it should be for the Christian Church? It's very easy for these times simply to become a memory, to be stirred when Easter or Christmas comes round again. But shouldn't it be more than that?
Eggs are Easter symbols because they speak of new life when the shell is smashed through and the chick appears. Here is new life; the egg has been transformed; the future has become present.
And that is what we mean, we say, by Resurrection Life: a new and different kind of being in the present as well as in the future because Jesus broke through the barrier of death.
But we can't just leave it there. Unless that new life is nurtured and formed it will die. The chick will never become a hen.
So the eggs are broken open .... what now? How do we nurture that new life? How can it be transformed? What might this it look like?
My thoughts turned to these questions as I was working on the Statement of Need (job description in other words!) for the Team Vicar post which is currently being advertised. It struck me that it isn't just about the person we want but also about the context in which we are asking that person to work. What are the signs of new life that will nurture and grow God's Kingdom here such that it will attract someone to work here?
Let me suggest some.
The ministry team in the Deanery meets every day at either St James or Holy Trinity to pray together. Everything else stems from that. The world, your lives, our lives are laid before God for his blessing, encouragement and direction. Specific situations and people are named and time is taken to try and listen to God too. And we do that together.
We are a team. All our work is collaborative. We meet regularly. We discuss and plan together. We don't do on our own what we can do together. It is always stronger and better when tasks and projects are shared. Different skills, gifts and genders; different personalities and experiences; different theological positions and churchmanships make for a richer understanding and a more rigorous examination of what we are doing.
Our work is world facing because we are in the world and the world determines the quality and context of all our lives. We resist the temptation to see the Church as a separate organisation that can be pigeon holed away into irrelevance; a holy club for members only.
The new life Jesus brought is for all and in all. Our task is to find it and work with it where it is. That is why the work out of Holy Trinity Church Centre is so important. That is why the parish has financially committed itself to the Church Community Worker; that is why the Team Vicar will spend 40% of the time with education and schools; that is why we are involved with those organisations and institutions that affect the community life of us all.
And what is true for the ministry team is of course true for us all. Our nurturing and growth take place within the context of the community of which we are a part. We meet and show God there.
The egg might have gone but out of it has come signs of new life. Encourage that life; grow that life; in you and in others too.
Stephen Holdaway