God knows us all intimately, and goes ahead of us softening the falls when they happen. He makes no harsh demands of us, He just asks us to tell Him what we want. Prayers were said by you, and by the whole of the SEC for Ashley, and they were answered in his healing on earth. Thanks be to God. I returned to duties in April and since then there has been a levelling out of growth. As a person leaves they are replaced. No decline but no growth.
+ Gregor said to me after I told him that we were not growing in number“ that’ s your job”. A few of you have said the same thing A few of you have said that you knew getting a pioneer wouldn’ t work So, isn’ t it a good job that I am not the sensitive kind 😊 And in answer to the + and others; With respect No! it is not my job.
My job is to lead you in the faith as Priest, love you as Jesus does in sickness and health, and teach you the good news of the gospel.
A pioneer has lots of ideas and can / does connect with the community in varied ways. A pioneer even a priested one is only human. A pioneer needs a group of willing and able volunteers from the inherited church family to enable the community connections to strengthen and be meaningful and fruitful. Some of the connections that I have made, will take years to bear fruit, because hardly any person I have contacted outside of this church family has much of a clue about the SEC, let alone an understanding of God beyond the nativity, Noah, and Easter. It takes a lot of time to teach well, but before the teaching even happens trust needs to be there. And then there needs to be a reason to belong to the SEC.
With respect to + Gregor it is part of his job to prayerfully and skilfully support his priests and to encourage us in the faith when we are tired, praise us for keeping joyful in the hard times and scold us if we act less than priestly. And he executes that job extremely well.
With respect to others; it is your job to prayerfully support me, and the church family members who can and do actively volunteer.
To encourage us when we are tired, praise us for keeping joyful in tough times, and keep me to account in my priestly duties – see me for details of
the ordinal 😉.
St Oswald’ s will not grow quickly as there is a huge amount of work to do within the wider community first; our church reach out projects have begun that process.
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