Team Message: Blyth Valley Team Ministry

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On earth as in heaven?

I wonder how much attention we pay to the individual petitions of the ‘Our Father’. ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” comes to mind at the moment. Jesus really meant it. God’s reign of love and justice isn’t just for isolated pockets of the planet but for the whole world. The Church (us) as the Body of Christ on earth is called work for the coming of the kingdom in our own day and to speak out, not remain silent. ‘The Arab Spring” should be very much on our minds and in our prayers at the moment. The situation in Syria is particularly horrendous and the women on the front cover of Team Times are crying out for the justice of God’s kingdom.

Christians in Syria make up about 10% of the population and Christians in Egypt well in excess of that. But when we pray “thy kingdom come” we pray it for Muslims as well as for Christians.  There is a lot of hard evidence that there is, in some ways, less justice in countries in which there is régime change than there was before. In my congregation in Grimsby was a Christian family from Iran who fled the revolution of the ‘Mad Mullahs’ in Iran. The father of the family, an Anglican priest, had been shot dead in his church office and was found by his young son. The rule of tyrants is never just, but their removal can lead particularly to the oppression of women and minorities. In fundamentalist states, women are in chains, their lives and their destinies determined by men. There is a massive exodus of Christians from Iraq. What will happen in Egypt and Syria? We need to pray in solidarity with the people of the Arab lands, that they may come through the present turmoil and bloodshed to justice and freedom. (And the Christians of those lands were Christian virtually from the beginning, long before us, and have defied all attempts to convert them.)

 

Closer to Home

It seems almost wrong to turn to the concerns of our local churches and communities. But it isn’t really, because God calls us to live, serve and witness to his kingdom in the here and now. The ‘here and now’ for us is Halesworth and district. (For those who life and work beyond the Blyth Valley, Christians have always been taught to seek the good in the places in which they are.) As the Blyth Valley churches move forward together, we must do so with kingdom values in mind, primarily love and justice. The key is loving, just relationships and the celebration of unity in diversity. God has made us all gloriously different - and if we don’t like a particular kind of difference (youthful enthusiasm for example) - tough, because human beings are meant to live together in peace and harmony. For Christians, we remember Paul’s words about us all being part of the Body of Christ, many limbs and organs, many different functions, but all necessary to the proper function of the whole.

And heaven only knows we have challenges that can only be surmounted by our working together. One of these in Halesworth is Anglicans and Methodists (and all the churches) growing together, our eyes so set on the kingdom that we forget to bother too much about what each finds irritating in the other. Another challenge is that the Anglican Team has to discern its shape for the future to better serve God, each other and our local communities, and Walpole comes to mind. A third is the ecumenical regeneration of St Mary’s, Halesworth church building, without which we will struggle to achieve our other God-given tasks.

 

Lastly

Another kingdom value is hope, which results in determination. Many people (not all) do all they can to make the Church financially viable.   Although the 2011 results aren’t fully in yet, the generosity shown by so many is a sign that they value the Church (people, not just buildings). This is an indication of commitment to the words Jesus taught us: ‘thy kingdom come...on earth’. In Syria. In our town and villages.

 

Edward