The Vicar's Address - 2005

Preface

I am very grateful to those who, at very short notice, covered my absence (due to illness) from the APCM.  Heather Nunnerley chaired the meeting and a ‘trinity’ of speakers replaced me! - Bill Weddell updated us on the Site Development and John Anscombe spoke from my notes.  In my notes I had quoted from Zac Niringiye and so I was delighted that he was able to be there in person to bring a word of encouragement.  I am grateful to all those who assist me in the ministry, our Authorised Ministers and our Honorary Curates John Anscombe and Ken Short who closed the APCM in prayer.  Thank you, too, to Shirley Hutchings for typing up these transcripts.  As our text for the year says: let us “encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

Bill Weddell

I am sure many of you are asking a lot of questions about what is happening to the Site because it has been on the agenda for a number of years now.  Let me bring you up to date.  I had a very useful meeting on Saturday with Nicholas and Andrew Cornish who took us through the present situation.   Very briefly, there have been a number of proposals from developers on developing the whole site.  What the PCC have to consider is what is best value for the church to achieve our objectives of mission, and which will also meet our needs for the future.  The SITE Board hope to finalise their ideas and they have arranged a meeting with the PCC for the 7th May, starting at 8.30am – it sounds as though it is going to be a fairly hefty session.  We plan to discuss the proposals very thoroughly then and hopefully come to some conclusions.  I think that then we should be able to be in a position to bring proposals to the church for consideration by about the middle of the year, perhaps before the summer holidays.  Hopefully after that we will see real progress and things will begin to happen.

John Anscombe

I feel a bit like someone whose friend has said to them ‘kiss my wife for me’.   You feel it’s unlikely that you will do it with the same passion, but never mind!   Basically, what Nick wanted to say was round the acronym SITE which we have for our Site Development.  You know what SITE stands for don’t you?    

Space for grace
Involving the community
Transforming lives
Exalting God.

So first, Space for Grace: the main point he is wanting to make is that the crucial thing is not the space in which we meet but what happens in our meetings.  Buildings, however attractive, achieve nothing.  The really important thing is that people should encounter God’s grace in our lives and ministry.  It’s all about God’s grace.  “God is able to make all grace abound so ‘that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

Then, Involving the community: that’s something we should be doing as a church.  Nick wants to remind us that numerically we are treading water, not walking on it!  We’re not expanding; we’re not shrinking; but we are just treading water and that’s not really good enough.  We’ve got various parts of our work which are going wonderfully, for instance, the Mums and Toddlers attract vast numbers but are desperately understaffed.  Our youth work is going really well.   Support for world mission is encouraging.  But perhaps, in other ways, things are less encouraging.  Nick was going to quote Zac, reminding us that, though we may be materially rich, as a church perhaps we are quite poor in our lack of enthusiasm for the Lord, and sharing Him with others.  We should be involving the community, bringing them in and making sure we have a message for our community

Then, thirdly, transforming lives: this is all about bringing people on through ministry to maturity.  We can see some of that going on through that booklet of organisational reports.  Then there are lives, individual lives, that have been transformed: Alex and Natalie gave their testimony at the confirmation about how their lives have been transformed through getting involved in Alpha.  When they came to ask to get married, they got lured into Alpha and their lives were changed.  That’s great! - transforming lives.

Finally, the fourth point is about exalting God - that’s what we should be doing.  That’s the supreme purpose of our individual lives and should, of course, be the supreme purpose of the church.  And we exalt God as we work together as a body.  We’re committed to walk together whatever things may be.

The SITE vision is for a church which as a family incorporates all ages and provides for their differing needs, a Christian community that is loving, caring and vibrant, grace-filled, sharing the love of Jesus Christ with one another and welcoming newcomers, that serves the needs of the community and earns the opportunity to reach the unreached, a church that is growing as people become adopted into God’s family, to His glory.

The Chairman

Thank you so much, John.  Now we’ve got an unexpected pleasure tonight.  Zac we are delighted to have you with us, and I am glad Nick has persuaded you to say a word or two.  Can we just say how much the Vicar enjoyed coming out to Uganda.  I think he just found it absolutely marvellous and hasn’t stopped talking about it ever since.  We’ve seen some wonderful pictures, and we’ve heard a lot about it, so it is particularly special to have you as part of our fellowship here tonight.

Zac Niringiye

Thank you.   I think I should first of all promise you that this won’t be one of my long sermons!  (Applause!)  I didn’t realise it was that bad!!   Now I know, next time I’ll do better!

What a delight!  What a joy!  I did not anticipate it, but I’m truly glad that I could be at this meeting.

Greetings from Theodora and our children.  Currently Grace, who is turning 19, is spending three months as part of her gap year in North East of Kenya amongst the Somali people.   It is a mission experience for her.  Do please pray for her: we are looking forward to not only how she will be changed, but how she will come and change us.
Another important development in my work in CMS is a really exciting initiative that links with what Grace is doing.  It’s called ‘Mission Together Africa’. It’s an initiative intended to mobilise young people and professionals, Africans, to be able to share the Good News of Christ beyond our boundaries.   One of the target groups, really people that God has put on our hearts, are the Somali people and North Africa.  Through Mission Together Africa we are looking to the Lord to be able to be catalysts for a real mission movement, to Africa and to the World - so this is exciting for me within CMS.

With my work as Bishop in Kampala, the joyful thing really was to have 2½ days of retreat with the pastors about ten days ago.  It was wonderful, first of all, for me to sense the welcome, affirmation and expectation, the joy at my coming into the ministry, and really praising the Lord.   And, of course, the other response is a fear: the expectation is extremely high as to what they expect from me as team leader.  So do pray for me that God will help me indeed to continue to experience His grace and to be a channel of that grace amongst the pastors, especially.  

I visited some of the work that we have in the diocese among the police - massive needs - but again a ministry that is really transforming people in the police community.  The other areas I visited are among the slums.  We have teeming slums.  The fastest growing populations in Kampala are in the slum areas, and there is massive poverty.  But what a joy to be able to go to this particular slum and find a group of over 80 women and men, all of them are HIV positive, with different levels of HIV, some clearly seeking, and to lay hands on each one of them.  I have had stories of what a joy that was for them, and saw them singing with a joy of the Lord.  At the end, some of them came to me and said, “Bishop, we are ready to go to heaven, if the Lord should call us”.  There were 80 plus of them.  They meet together within the ministry of the church, to encourage each other, so I was really encouraged to see this work of the Lord, and look forward indeed to being part of it.   

And I think the last comment is really what a joy it was for us to have Nick and the excitement of St Luke’s Ntinda.  We look forward to more of Nick, to more fellowship.  We are really trusting God that we can see our Youth Group teaming together with St Luke’s youth group to do some amazing things together so that we are together in mission, and really looking forward to the continued fellowship and partnership.

Thank you for the massive gift for Theological Education by Extension which you made.  We praise the Lord.  I have just returned from Northern Uganda where some of that will be used.  Praise the Lord for partnership in the Gospel.

Do pray especially for a conference that I am providing leadership over, that will be looking at how we witness for Christ amongst Muslims all over Africa.   It is a strategic conference that is reflecting on Christian presence in sections of Africa that are dominated by Islam.   Maybe I should say this to you, that to date one of the fastest growing movements in Africa is Islam.  Actually in Uganda, Islam has grown more - I was looking at the statistics – the Anglican Church of Uganda was 39% of the population ten years ago, they are now 35%, the Muslims were 9-10%, they are now 12%, - so the Muslims are growing in percentage.  I think it’s really the challenge of how to engage with the Gospel with them, and we have a major conference coming up in July.  The next prayer concern is for my successor who is going to be elected as Regional Director for Africa.  We’re hoping the interviews are happening next week, and praying that the Lord will bring somebody our way who will continue the work of the Gospel.  

I can say that I look forward to coming again in July when I can be with you slightly longer, maybe two Sundays.   The Lord bless you very much, and hallelujah for being here.  Amen

The Chairman

Zac, thank you so much.   I think that has been a very fitting conclusion to our Annual General Meeting, that we had one of our fellowship here, our Honorary Curate, widening our vision of what’s going on outside this church.  We want to widen our vision locally, within our community, but we also need to enlarge our vision so much more in what is happening elsewhere, and thank you so much for sharing with us.

Ken Short

I always find some of the phrases from the old Prayer Book, which are very biblical, because that is where they have been ‘nicked’ from, appropriate in these sorts of occasions.  It’s that one that comes at the beginning of the possible things you could say when the collection is to be taken:  ‘Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven’.  You just need to sort of fill out the words in there because they don’t naturally come to our ears:  ‘Let our lives so be lived before other people, that we won’t get the glory, but God will’.  Let’s pray:
O God and loving Father, we want, first of all, to thank and praise you for all that you are, and all that you have done for us, in creating your world, in saving us in Christ, in calling us into your service, unworthy as we are.    We praise You particularly for Jesus, for His love, His commitment to us at the Cross, and the release that that brings, and Lord we offer ourselves afresh to you, in return for all that you and the Lord Jesus have done for us.  

We commit to you those who have been voted in to particular roles in our church, for Heather and Bill, as Wardens again, in such a large church and with so many things to do.   We pray for the new PCC members, for Lesley and Sarah, for those on the Synod, Chris, Philip, Marjorie, Heather.   Lord, we thank you that there are major things going on in the life of the church which will forward your work, and we do ask that they will bring glory to you.   

We pray particularly over the business of developing the site:  we pray for the special meeting in May with the PCC, and all who are involved in that, for a clear discernment of Your will, Lord, because we don’t want to be the sort of church that thinks it has the gifts and the ability within ourselves to honour You, but rather to be the sort of church which is seen to be led by You into all the things that we do for the glory of Your name.   

We pray for that meeting and for the first PCC.  We thank you for the youth work again, and we thank you, Lord, for the Bishop Justus school: for what that can mean in the future to so many children and what it already means to those who are going.  We thank you for the testimony that we heard at the Synod of what was happening in the school amongst the children themselves, and, Lord, we long that that engagement, that direct engagement with You by individuals of all ages, will remain the mark of this church, that You will continue to glorify Your name among us.

So, Lord, let our light shine that it may glorify Your name, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.