Rector’s Report 2021
St Andrew’s Church,
Newlands
(Philippians 4:4-7; NRSV)
Introduction
Wow – what a year 2020 has been! When we met for our Annual Vestry a year ago none of us would have predicted the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic would thrust upon us just a couple of weeks later. Looking back, the timing was a gift, giving many of us our first authentic tase of what that first Holy Week, Easter, and journey to Pentecost may have been like for the early disciples. Personally, Holy Scripture was a wonderful and life-giving gift in those first five weeks of National Lockdown, and I am thankful that many of you shared the journey with me through my daily “Thought for the Day”. Additionally, the passage above from Philippians has been one that I return to on many occasions, especially when anxiety and fear threaten to overwhelm me.
I am particularly thankful for all of you! I am thankful for a willingness to embrace radical new ways of being Church, and your agility in embracing the virtual environment within which much of our worship and ministry life has had to relocate. I am thankful, too, that we are a resourced community with access to data and computers and a willingness to embrace this technology. I am thankful that we have had the resources to continue to reach beyond ourselves and make a difference to the lives of people within and beyond our Parish in need of food and other help as our economy and lives have been battered by the necessary National and global responses to the pandemic. I am thankful that we are a community of Faith and that our lives are centred on God.
The past year has been a full one, despite – perhaps because
of – the pandemic. The various other reports give focus to a variety of aspects
of parish life, and so it is not my intention to repeat what is available to
you in them. Please read them as they contain a great deal of encouragement to continue
to be faithful to God’s call on us at St Andrew’s.
Looking Forward
Our Lived Context
2021 will in many aspects mirror much of what we experienced in 2020, as was illustrated by the need to return to Alert Level 3 just before New Year. Another Covid-19 wave is expected somewhere between April and June, but I take courage from the fact that we have the experience of the last year to draw on, and that while 2021 will not be easy on many levels, we are becoming adept in responding to the changes in regulations. While we may not like what Covid-19 has done to our sense of normality, we do at least now have some understanding of how to cope with its vagaries. Our broader social, economic, and political context remains challenging, and we need to continue to ask what it means to be witnesses to the transforming love of God in the world in which we live.
Annual Vestry and Election of Office Bearers
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) Covid-19 Guidelines issued on 3 February 2021 allow the requirement for an annual Vestry to be suspended, which our Cape Town Diocesan Chapter has formally adopted. Reports are still required to be made available to the Parish, but no formal Vestry meeting is required. All Office Bearers elected in 2020 continue en bloc for the 2021 year with the Parish Executive empowered to co-opt individuals to fill any vacancies that may arise. I am thankful that our present Churchwardens and Parish Councillors have all agreed to continue in their positions, as have our Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Auditor.
In-Person and Virtual
Zoom has proved a wonderful tool to enable us to gather together, but apart. A return to limited in-person worship has been a gift. 2021 will require we continue to use both the physical and virtual environments for our mission and ministry, and that we explore together what this means for us as a faith community. Any input in this regard is welcome!
Reflecting on 2020
Bishop of Table Bay
Excitingly, we at last have a Bishop of Table Bay, and new neighbours! My thanks to our Churchwardens for organising a small welcome dinner towards the end of last year for Bishop Joshua and his wife, Joan, with the Parish Executive. I am enjoying working with Bishop Joshua in my capacity as Archdeacon at Diocesan Chapter level and am thankful for the gifts and focus he brings to the position.
125 Anniversary
My huge thanks to Mags Wingfield and the Flower Guild for an outstanding Festival of Flowers arranged for our 125th Celebration. Despite the limitations of lockdown it was wonderful to experience such beauty, which helped lift our spirits.
Treasury
2020 has been a remarkable year, which has been strengthened by a stable financial team. The financial report and Annual Financial Statements will give greater detail, but despite an expected shortfall in physical collections (balanced with a number of budgetary savings) our income is much as expected. Thank you to you all for your diligence in meeting your Dedicated Giving commitments, and the amazing additional giving that came in specifically to boost our Ministry to The Needy (MTN) funds.
Fund Raising
The focus of our fundraising is always the annual Morning Market. The pandemic put paid to having an in-person event, and I am utterly amazed at what we were able to do in other ways towards a virtual Market. Our coordinators, Jim te Water Naude and Wendy Bell, are to be commended on facilitating such an incredible response under really difficult circumstances; and thank you all for the creativity, sweat, and agility that went into the various activities and sales!
Children’s Church
Penny Middelkoop adapted amazingly to the challenges of Lockdown, and with Stephen and Amy’s help, must be commended for producing the most amazingly creative and professional videos for our children week by week (which a number of adult parishioners have admitted to enjoying as well)! I know Penny has enjoyed the return to in-person Children’s Church, and my thanks to the families that have supported and contributed so willingly to the Children’s Church journey this past year. Our children have proved amazingly resilient.
Clergy and Layministers
I am hugely thankful for Bishop Geoff Quinlan, Stephen Middelkoop, and Elizabeth Cherry, for the amazing encouragement and support they have given the Parish this year. As we went into Lockdown last March it was Bishop Geoff who pushed the boundaries in encouraging us to explore an online “Eucharist-by-Intention”, and moved the Bible Studies he runs onto Zoom; Stephen, who alongside doing pre-recorded sermons and services for St Martin’s, Bergvliet, during their interregnum also took on the challenge of video production for the Children’s Church and an in-person and virtual presence in the Parish; and Elizabeth managed to do almost a full year of Confirmation preparation via WhatsApp!
Our Layministers have been stars, and supplemented by a number of Parishioners who have taken to the new, virtual liturgical role of “Responder”, have served with courage. Sadly though, a number of our Layministers have stepped down, and we need to acknowledge their huge contribution to the worship and pastoral life of the Parish over many, many years: Denise Ackermann, due to the increasing struggle with her eye-sight, has withdrawn from the deeply impactful preaching and teaching ministry she has exercised in the Parish; Edgar Ruiters and Ivor Jardine, both having served for many years have withdrawn, citing the need to make way for younger Parishioners to come forward while affirming our newer Layministers who have come on board in the last while; Jenny Barron, together with her husband, Mark, have retired to Barrydale. Each one has contributed in meaningful and creative ways over the years, and leave individual legacies that have helped make our community what it is today.
Church Council
Our Churchwardens, Debbie Coombe and Janine Tough, along with our Parish Secretary, Bev Shaw, have been absolute stars! The three of them have developed a wonderful working relationship and have become a formidable team that has given me the space to fulfil my wider Provincial and Diocesan responsibilities alongside my role as Rector of the Parish, knowing the administration of the Parish is in good hands. Their willingness to work with the ever-changing Covid-19 Government Regulations and accompanying ACSA Guidelines and ensure that these are in place for all our in-person gatherings, along with the example they have set, has been inspiring.
Parish Council has been hugely supportive, although often frustrated by not being able to get on with practical plans due to lockdown. I appreciated their willingness, along with the Layministers, to keep in phone contact with the Parish during the initial lockdown, and beyond. I am thankful for their wisdom and patience.
Thank You
In closing, a special thank you to our Parish Secretary, Bev Shaw, who has managed to successfully run the Office from her home, has been flexible in her availability to myself and the Parish, and has maintained amazingly good humour despite the challenges! Bev consistently goes beyond the call of duty (and her job description) in her service to the Parish.
And to Dawn, who too often sees me at my worst levels of anxiety and wonderfully talks me back into reality, and is the bed-rock and anchor of my life: thank you!
And to you all: thank you for being a part of this amazing year in which we have all been thrust far beyond our comfort zones, learnt to cope with a pandemic and all the transitions it has demanded, grown in ways we would never have imagined; and amid it all have proved resilient.
My thanks to God, Source of all Being, Eternal Son, and Holy
Spirit.
22 February 2021
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