The Task for Deanery Pastoral Committees Facing Changes

The Task for Deanery Pastoral Committees Facing Changes Moving Forward Together Finding God’s way for us

Moving Forward Together The world and the landscape changes Dunwich: in Middle Ages, a major Suffolk port. It had 9 church buildings. Coast has encroached. Photograph, taken 1905, is of last church building. Today just some of the graveyard remains. Change is not always preventable Change can have a major impact

Moving Forward Together Populations shift for lots of reasons People used to live round here but not many live here any more

Moving forward together Making sense of the changing context is vital. Jesus calls us to read the signs of our times. The successful bear knows both where to fish and when to fish and risks getting wet in order to succeed.

A Story of Rebirth The Benefice of Watlington (1993) • Three Churches: – Watlington – Pyrton – Shirburn • The Benefice of Icknield (2003) • Four Churches – Watlington – Pyrton – Britwell Salome – Swyncombe

St Mary’s Pyrton • 1993 had a congregation of 15 • church was damp and cold no young people • 2003 had congregation of 50 • church is warm and bright and welcoming • outreach concentrated on monthly “village service”

2600 years ago 595 BCE - God’s promises revealed through D Monarchy in the line of David D Temple D Land promised to God’s people 595 BCE - Threat from Babylonians DThreat to Royal Line DThreat to Temple DThreat to land-owners and leaders

2600 years ago This would be the end of the world as Israel knew it It would suggest God had been conquered No other option conceivable. Exile - “how can we sing our songs in a strange land? ” < Pain and doubt would be worst for those most devout and most committed. < The answer was not in their time but. .

2600 years ago - 60 yrs n od Out of the ruins of the Temple io G ig Came theosynagogue f el r y ng and a re-evaluation of the value of “sacred place” vi er ed li v is alexile isco As a result of of t vi Came Jewish communities around the world, d e ys a R ed later used by first Christian missionaries w w ne ed e monarchy nis R The end of ga Brought a sharper critique of or e kingship and power R

2005 Manchester ? How would we feel if / when our place of worship is threatened by outside forces beyond our control? ? How does this affect our view of God? • How do we recognise the pain of loss - more acute for some who have been nourished in the “lost” structures - but also trust God for the future which is not clear at all? • How do we contemplate the possibility of a radically different future?

Discerning God today Jeremiah called on the people not to resist • but to see God in the process of ending / destruction: e. g. Jer 28 - and the altercation with Hananiah • to believe that God would restore in his time; • to accommodate to living in Babylon and seek its peace (Jer 29). He was called a traitor and worse. St Paul calls us to stand firm and resist (Eph 6) How do we discern when to “stand firm” and when standing firm is resisting God’s future? How do we decide between Jeremiah and Hananiah?

Can we have hope for the church? Do we have hope? What and when? Implicit Theologies The shrinking of church membership in recent years might be partially explained by: 1. God is judging the church for its complacency and short-comings 2. God is judging the nation for its sin and shortcomings; this will therefore be a time of “drought” for the churches till spiritual hunger returns 3. The church is now fairly irrelevant to “ordinary” people’s lives, and so they are no longer interested in being a part of it 4. People have become trapped in consumerism and individualism so the self-sacrificial, corporate call of the Church is definitely countercultural 5. If people were to pray more and call on God, then we would see revival on a wide scale, like we see growth in some churches now. 6. If the church were to return to being faithful, rather than trying to be trendy, then we would see modest growth and increased respect Which of these do you respond to and which do you resist?

Gracious God, who has created a changing world, and who suffered for its redemption; You have given us the freedoms and abilities to effect change and to suffer from change. Give us that sense of the wind of your Spirit that we may hear the groaning within Creation; Give us the faith that believes that you can raise the dead, and that death is not the end. Grant us to know you in your hidden-ness, and to trust you for an uncertain future For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever, AMEN