Winter Newsletter 2020: Article

Dear Friends

Who could have imagined six months ago the changes we have been confronted with in the last while? The National Lockdown in March, mirrored across the world, has changed our lives in almost every way. I certainly entered the initial 21 days with a naïve expectation that we’d be back to life as usual by the end of April and continue merrily on our way. This was not to be, and the initial extension made it clear life was on a new path. Much of my emotional rollercoaster over the last while has been a mix of coming to terms with the death of “normal” and dealing with the anxiety associated with transitioning to something different as it begins to emerge.

From a faith perspective, I have found that having this Lockdown period run parallel to a very different celebration of Holy Week and Easter, the journey of Eastertide, and now an embrace of life post-Pentecost, helpful in navigating our journey into a “new normal”. My devotional reading for today centred on Lazarus being brought back to life by Jesus, and what strikes me is that as Lazarus dies to life and is returned to life, on one level life itself didn’t change. However, his experience of life must have changed fundamentally. It would be so interesting to hear from him how this impacted on his perceptions, expectations, and attitudes; what renewed life was like?

For you and me, as we reengage again with life as the National Lockdown begins to ease, perhaps it is time to bury past expectations, and acknowledge these last weeks as a time of mourning for all that we have needed to let go of. We also need to take time to reflect on what we are clinging to that may be obstacles to reengaging with a renewed life, one in which Covid-19 will remain an active participant?

As we step back out into the streets life looks familiar. Are we tempted to live as we always have, with relative disregard? Probably, but the virus does not allow us that luxury! As other generations have managed in centuries past, we need to find the courage to brave a new world, a renewed world. This virus has reminded us on a global scale that we are not immortal, and that we can no longer live without reference to the needs of others and without reference to the needs of the earth. It is no surprise that within this context several social diseases are also spotlighted. Racism and gender-based violence are two global social pandemics presently requiring attention: CNN reports that violence against women in the UK, Spain and other parts of Europe has increased, that in Mexico 11 women a day are killed by partners, and in Iran honour killings are up; and in our own country Cape Talk reports that 21 women have been murdered since we moved to Alert Level 3. There are other social problems endemic to our own context, including the ongoing murder of farmers to which there seem to be no answers, the gang-violence in many of our Cape Town suburbs, and random acts of violent crime. The loss of life is never acceptable, and this Covid-19 pandemic is a broader wake-up call for our world. As we hear the alarm bell going off, how do we react? Are we turning off the alarm, and getting up to act; or have we snoozed it?

The challenges are great, but not insurmountable. Our faith teaches us that even when the situation appears most dire, there is always hope. Job 4:6 (NRSV) reminds us that our confidence comes through meaningful relationship with God, and our hope is built on the integrity of our lives:

Is not your fear of God your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?

As we journey into winter, keep warm and keep healthy! Maintain social and physical distancing, wash your hands regularly, sanitise, and wear your mask in public (properly over your nose and mouth, and not as a chin or neck decoration!!). See you on ZOOM!

Blessings

Mark

Winter Newsletter 2018: Article

Dear Friends

St Andrew’s Mission Statement

 

St Andrew's aims to be a loving and inclusive Christian community that encourages everyone to follow Christ as disciples through being obedient to his Word and Spirit, and as a result taking God's love to the local community, to the poor, the needy and the world.

 

Why a mission statement? Most of us have a vague recollection that St Andrew’s has one, and on the rare occasion we refer to it we may remember that it sits on the front of each and every Sunday’s Pewleaflet. Most of us would probably be hard-pressed to recite it from memory. Aware, remembered, forgotten, ignored, this statement continues to speak to what is important to us, to how we see ourselves, and to whom we seek to be for God in our world.

Recently we agreed to a small, but deeply significant, change to this statement. This change is the addition of the word inclusive, and it has its roots in our Parish conversation at Volmoed in 2017. While this conversation acknowledged that on many levels we are both an inwardly and outwardly caring community at St Andrew’s, there is a need for us to become more conscious of the manner in which we are, and are not. It doesn’t matter how caring, diverse, or homogenous we perceive ourselves to be as a Christian community if we are not truly welcoming of each other, of the visitor, of the stranger in our midst.

A mission statement is normally written in the present tense, not because we think we’re “there”, but because we hear what we are called to be and we commit to changing our attitudes and actions in the now. Vernā Myers, a diversity consultant with a degree from Harvard Law, says, “Diversity speaks to who is represented in the [community], whereas inclusion speaks to who is respected, expected and integrated into [a community]”. This distinction is useful, as too often we fail to apply our minds to what it truly means to be either diverse or inclusive. There are a variety of Scripture verses in both Testaments that speak to an inclusive belonging: in the Old Testament it is often about the importance of welcoming the foreigner and treating them as native-born (Ezekiel 47:22); in the New Testament it is the renewing activity of God’s Holy Spirit at work, “In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all in all!” (Colossians 3:11 NRSV), and “… there is no male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28b NRSV). Some of the differences we deal with today are particular to our time, but we can extrapolate from and build on these principles that we find in the Biblical record.

While our Mzansi-mind often takes us to gender and race issues when we hear the words diversity and inclusivity, it is also about different generations, different personalities, different ability, different strengths and weakness, different opinion: difference on a variety of levels. The word inclusive is a dare to consider our unconscious bias towards difference, to become aware of and walk towards these biases, and not pretend that we are bias-free. To be inclusive is to see the attributes that define our differences and consciously embrace these, and in doing so deeply and fully welcome each other.

The decision to add the word inclusivity to our Mission Statement is the recognition that we can’t leave belonging to chance. We need to consciously foster belonging by creating opportunities for all who belong to – and visit – St Andrew’s to both know and experience that they are part of the whole.

And while we are a caring community, let us not take this for granted, realising that while it may be my experience it may not be yours; or while it may be our experience it may not be the visitor’s experience. Are we open to becoming more conscious of exploring how we create an environment where anyone, regardless of their differences, can be proud to belong and participate?

A recent Sunday collect, based on Ephesians 3:15, says,

Our Father, from whom every family on earth takes its name: help us to do your will that, as sisters and brothers of Christ, we may love  and serve you and one another; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen

 

“… every family on earth …” is such a beautifully inclusive phrase, and the desire to “… love and serve you and one another …” speaks powerfully to the nature of our call as people of God.

So who do you respect, expect and include in your circle at St Andrew’s?

Blessings

Mark 

Sources:

Jude Foulston (24 April 2018), Tuesday Tip: Creating a Culture that Retains Diverse Talent www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com

Vernā Myers, How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly towards them;TEDx, Beacon Street

Summer Newsletter 2017: Article

Dear Friends

 

 

Myth and Metaphor

 

 

I am very aware that I use the word “challenge” far to often, and search regularly for another word, and finding none, return to it. It is the nature of the times we live in that if we wish to embrace God’s sovereignty in our lives and in our world, and wish to respond to God’s call to participate in proclaiming the reality of that sovereignty in the present moment (Mark 1:15), then challenge is a reality; and there are many challenges. The greater challenge is to live out our faith-reality daily, to allow the inherent nature of who we are as children of God to proclaim that the social constructs of our day (race, gender, sexual orientation, etc) are a lie, and that the truth is found in the goodness of Creation as proclaimed in Genesis, where we are reminded that we are created in God’s image, created for community, created to belong and to be loved. It is, however, difficult to manifest this truth in a religious climate that has forgotten that our Scriptures are largely narrative, collections of stories seeking to share the relational experience of Gods people with God over millennia; and that these Scriptures are not a treatise seeking to present a scientific theory of God that requires unquestioning obedience to often outdated social norms and prescriptions.

 

 

The essence of good narrative is myth and metaphor, something that our Scriptures are full to overflowing with. We often equate myth with fiction, but Biblical myth - while often not historically or scientifically factual from a 21st century perspective - seeks to explain or give value to the unknown, and uses metaphor to help provide understanding. An example is the assertion in 1 John 4:8b that “... God is love”: this is a metaphor that seeks to help us understand something of God’s nature, and is a powerful statement in and of itself. However, amazing as it is, it is a very limited description; God will always be more than any metaphor we may choose to use to describe God’s-self. To know that God is love is profoundly helpful, but the mystery - the unknown and unknowable - that is God is so much more than just love.

 

 

Eugene Kennedy, in his forward to Joseph Campbell’s book Thou art That, says, “When spiritual rights are demanded on the basis of religious metaphors as facts and geography instead of as symbols of the heart and spirit, a bitterly divided world arises with the inevitability of great tragedy.” We see this ongoing tragedy in the conflicts in Israel/Palestine; we’ve experienced it here in terms of the false theologies that backed the Apartheid system in South Africa; we’ve seen it in the rise of German Nationalism that led to the 2nd World War and the Holocaust; it is visible in today’s growing right-wing fascism in Europe and the USA.

 

 

As we move towards Christmas and the celebrations of Jesus’ birth, how do we understand the virgin birth? And how does our understanding open up fresh opportunities to face the pain and hopelessness of our time and context, and to celebrate the counter-intuitive values of hope, peace, and love in our struggling world? If we’re honest, most of us dismiss the virgin birth as either impossibility, improbability, or pure fiction; this despite the fact that we affirm this belief as we repeat the words of the Creed Sunday by Sunday. Contemporaries of the Gospel writers would have understood the proclamation of the virgin birth as a metaphor, because in the Graeco-Roman world a virgin birth always denoted divinity. Jesus’ conception happened as every human conception has ever happened, but the metaphor spoke to the hopes and aspirations of the 1st century Jewish community and the developing Christian Church of the living God finally offering a meaningful alternative to the oppressive and ruthless rule of Empire (Syrian, Greek, and now Roman). The fact that they, like us, confuse facts and geography with symbols of the heart and spirit, doesn’t negate the reality that Jesus’ birth - metaphorically virgin and spiritually Divine - became a powerful force for a transformed future both then and now.

 

 

As I write there is a great deal of unknown in our South African future, and I won’t depress you further by enumerating all that those brief words encapsulate: we are all aware. However, let me declare to you the Virgin Birth: we are remembered by the Divine, by the unknown and unknowable mystery that is God, and that this indescribable Sovereign of all Creation has made us in the image of Mystery, and imbued us with Divine Presence, reminding us that we belong and are loved.

 

 

Madeleine L’Engle, in her Christmas of 1973 poem The Risk of Birth, reflects on these challenges:

 

 

This is no time for a child to be born,

With the world betrayed by war and hate

And a comet slashing the sky to warn

That time runs out and the sun burns late.

 

 

That was no time for a child to be born,

In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;

Honour and truth were trampled by scorn -

Yet here did the Saviour make his home.

 

 

When is the time for love to be born?

The inn is full on the planet earth,

And by a comet the sky is torn -

Yet Love still takes the risk of Birth.

 

 

Advent and Christmas blessings 

 

 

Mark

 

Spring Newsletter 2017: Article

Dear Friends

Investing in the Future

I am struck that as the Western Cape embraces Spring in the midst of the present crippling drought that living is not for the fainthearted. Despite the low rainfall the Spring flowers still open, and with them our spirits lift. It takes courage to embrace the challenges that life places before us, and to not be diverted from the opportunities for growth that continue to exist. Humanity has an amazing ability to reach towards a greater vision despite the chaos of the present moment. This was true of Europe after World War II, true of South Africa in 1994, and it remains true of us as South Africans: despite the daily revelations of corruption and wrong-doing, not just in Government but in collusion between Government and Business interests – both of which should be trustworthy – there is a greater vision of what South Africa is and can be. The vision dims, but it is not destroyed.

St Andrew’s: a Future

What of our St Andrew’s vision for the future embodied in our proposed Building Project? In the last eighteen months we have grown the funds dedicated to this project from R2 million to just over R5 million. This is an amazing achievement: individuals and families have made some very generous donations via the Buy-a-Block initiative; individuals have got together to contribute by organising a number of fun and successful fundraising events and concerts that have enabled us all to contribute in some way; others have committed to monthly or annual ongoing contributions. As we will explore at our upcoming Vestry on 9 October 2017 we are sitting – to use a rugby analogy – just over the half-way line and there is still some ground to be won before the try-line is in reach: a dropkick or two are needed, and the Fundraising Committee has a game plan in hand for this (to be discussed at our Vestry meeting). To mix sporting metaphors at this point, we need to ensure we don’t score an own-goal at this critical point in the game!

Game Plan: Building Project

A game plan is driven by an overall vision of what we wish to achieve. As time passes and the context of the game changes it is easy to lose sight of what we sought originally to achieve. We have a long-time commitment as the Newlands Village Church to offering educational facilities and opportunities to the local community stretching back into the mid-Nineteenth century, and our present project seeks to maintain this historic commitment. The present School building was originally built in the 1950’s to serve the working-class families of Newlands Village and at its fullest held 257 learners. The school was built with loans that rental from the early years of the present Kildare Pre-Primary helped settle after the demise of Newlands Village (due to the enforced removals in the early 1960’s, which caused the closure of the original Kildare Road School at the end of 1966). During 1967 the building was refurbished with funds raised from the sale of the cemetery across the river, with three of the classrooms converted into our present Church Hall. In January 1968 Kildare Pre-Primary opened with 40 children, and it was only in 1994 – due to changes in the Education Act – that the Church and School administration were separated with the Rector ceasing to chair the School Board. It is worth noting that through the 1970’s and 1980’s St Andrew’s relied almost completely on the rental from Kildare Pre-primary School for financial survival; and it was only in 1991, when the Parish embraced Dedicated Giving, that the school rental was freed up for development and maintenance, morphing earlier this century into funding a healthy percentage of our Outreach initiatives (Ministry to The Needy).

Our Building Project – as presently proposed – seeks to uphold education as a core mission and ministry focus and commitment to the local community, no matter the nature of that community.

The other driving elements of our vision for this Project are our own needs as a faith community: we need a Church Hall that is more easily accessible. This accessibility has three focii: easier access to the Hall from the Church building, and easier access to the Hall on weekdays, along with dedicated spaces for youth ministry (which under Elizabeth and Jess’ watch is growing again). Access to the Hall in the mornings will enable us to increase our ministry to the elderly and retired in our community for whom mornings are a better option to evening gatherings, along with opportunities to make our Hall and meeting spaces available to the wider community when not needed by us. While pressure on the parking will always be an issue, there are four hours available from 08:30 to 12:30 every morning between school drop-off/pick-up times. Easier access from the carpark and from the Church will all add to a fuller sense of cohesion on Sundays - especially for our children - and offer more pleasant facilities for fellowship and other social events.

The journey has proved more complex than expected when a potential building project was first discussed some ten or more years ago. Fatigue sets in, doubts set in. This is not unusual for an extended journey towards a future as yet unseen. We are people of faith!

Intentional Engagement

We all need to engage intentionally with this vision. Our Vestry meeting in October is a critical point on this journey, and if you have any desire whatsoever to engage with the future of St Andrew’s we need you present at this meeting, please.

Investment in the vision is crucial, both financially and spiritually. If you have already contributed funds towards this project, are you able to commit further? If you’ve been on the sidelines – watching and waiting (as we all do on one level or another) – are you willing to join the game? Do you have access to potential external sources of funding that we can draw on? Do you have an idea for a fundraising event? Have you considered a codicil to you Will?

And are you praying? Is this vision part of your personal times of prayer and reflection? Please pray!

Sisters and brothers, the time is now.

Blessings
Mark

Winter Newsletter 2017: Article

Dear Friends

Reflections on Volmoed

The Winter edition has become, in the last couple of years, the instrument for me to reflect on our Church Weekend away at Volmoed. As you will see elsewhere in this Newsletter, it was once again a valuable time away in which relationships are formed and renewed: an important gift in a world where we so often struggle to connect face-to-face, and communication is in brief 240 character messages or text on a small screen. We had a good time, again!

On the Saturday morning we took time to reflect on our roots in Anglican culture going back to St Augustine of Canterbury’s arrival in Britain in 601 CE, through the challenging period of the “Tudor Saga” (1509-1603) that saw the Kingdom of Henry VIII excommunicated by the Pope and the English Church interdicted by Rome; the schism with Rome that continued under Edward VI and was somewhat repaired under Mary; to the orthodox – yet refreshed – Church during the reign of Elizabeth I (she was declared an unlawful Sovereign by the Pope), a Church committed to following a middle path between Roman Catholicism and Calvinism. We then reflected on our own experience of Anglicanism under the African Sun, and more specifically in Newlands.

We met in small groups for the latter, asking what it is that we value about our Anglican ethos today, and how we might become more relevant to the communities we serve through St Andrew’s. These are some of the responses that came out of our discussions:

There is value in belonging to a Church that is part of a worldwide, global community, willing to play a role the in secular and political discourse, and offering a broad commitment to inclusivity, structures for dialogue, and a focus on the power of prayer. Our teenagers expressed that the gift of forgiveness and a reminder that we can believe in something bigger than ourselves is really important.

A number of questions came up such as, “While the Church fills our need for diversity and different viewpoints, how do we explore this when we’re all very similar?” and our Teenagers asked, “How do we give back with a focus on community service where we can share our faith through what we do?” One answer offered was that St Andrew’s is a safe place from which we go out into our lives, and perhaps there is some way we can live the gift of reconciliation by creating dialogue amongst ourselves and with communities that may be in conflict, showing that anger and defensiveness can be held without resorting to violence.

Not unexpectedly, worship came up as a focus. While we value the different focuses of our three Sunday Services, we acknowledged the importance of always being welcoming of whoever attends. There was some thought that the Evening Service could focus on becoming Church Unusual, rather than Church as Usual! A rock band, opportunities for more interactive sermons, something different. A “Community Service” was suggested as a means of getting to know each other better, where we can talk with each other as well as worship.

We value being a family-focused Church at St Andrew’s, but questions were asked about where one fitted in if one didn’t fall into the “Family” demographic? What do we offer for single people, especially those under 50 who aren’t parents, younger folk who may not yet be professionals, older folk who may be divorced or widowed; where is the discourse for these various groups located? Home groups were mentioned as a possible response – and there are a few in the Parish -  and there is certainly room for the development of more groups as this is often a space where faith comes alive.

Our discussion also touched on our values, recognising that (obviously!) at St Andrew’s we hold to Christian values, but that we needed to be more explicit about those Christian values that are special to us, and in this light to make space for people to be welcome, and find ways to say, “You’re needed, wanted, included!” We need the courage to reach out, too, to our local community in an unthreatening manner, and it was suggested that advertising our activities through our Ministry to The Needy (MTN) to the Newlands community may be an avenue.

So as you can see our reflections were broad-ranging and engaging, and – as at least one person reflected – too brief! The purpose of our Annual “Volmoed Dialogue” is to have an opportunity to hear from each other, and there is no specific agenda for these conversations to impact in any special way on Church life. However, useful ideas do float to the surface, and it is likely at least some of it is Spirit-inspired. You may or may not have been present, but does any of the above strike a chord for you? Is there something you would like to see come to fruition? And if so, are you able to commit to helping us explore what this may mean for the way we do – or stop doing – things at St Andrew’s? If you wait for an invitation it may never materialise. Dawn and I have a sign at our front door: it says, “If you’re waiting for a sign, this is it!” This is your invitation!

Keep warm! Blessings,
Mark

Summer Newsletter 2016: Article

Dear Friends

Come and See

John the Baptist’s disciple, Andrew, is invited by Jesus to “Come and see”. We were reminded of this invitation as we began Advent this year with the celebration of St Andrew’s Day. It is an invitation to each of us as we journey through Advent, preparing to embrace once again the extraordinary gift of God’s self in the birth and life of Jesus. Extraordinary, yet ordinary: an event that over two millenia later we still struggle to find words and images that make full sense of it. Jesus’ words, “Come and see” remind us that it is not ultimately about words and finely tuned doctrines of faith, but about participation and immersion in the moment and in the relationship. “Come and see” is an invitation to explore, to experience, to know and to understand in a space beyond words and concepts, beyond theories and theologies, in the wonder created by birth and new life. It is about expectation, healing, and hope.

There are implications to accepting an invitation, especially one to “Come and see”, and especially if one responds with expectation. We respond out of our context, out of our desire for healing and wholeness, and out of our desire to make a difference. The New Zealand Prayer Book contains a wonderful Maori version of the Lord’s Prayer, which includes these words:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.

These words reflect something of the implications for those of us who seek to respond to Jesus’ invitation to “Come and see”, and for those whom we invite – as Andrew did Simon Peter – to join us in this exploration of relationship with the Creator, Restorer, and Sustainer of life. There is a deep desire in the common heart of humanity for wholeness, for life and relationships filled with peace and freedom, with justice. To “Come and see” is to be reminded that in God we are able to find the strength and vitality to participate in making this God-given longing a reality in our world, in the spaces in which we have influence and in the context of our daily relationships with family and friends, with colleagues and neighbours, with strangers.

And so may this Advent that flows into the Christmas Season and the New Year be one in which we find the willingness to “Come and see”, and the courage to invite others to join us in this journey of life and faith.

Blessings
Mark

Spring Newsletter 2016: Article

Dear Friends

More than Stone: Laying the Foundation for the Future

Our Common Commitment

How do we meaningfully serve each other and serve the world? This is a question that is brought into sharp focus as we consider our proposed building project. We had a wonderful Fundraising launch in August, and our common commitment to this is important. The numbers are big, but so is the vision. I’m reminded that it was only when the Israelites put their feet into the waters of the flooding Jordan River opposite Jericho that the mudslides happened further upriver, creating dry ground for the Israelites to cross-over and make tangible the vision that had held generation after generation enthralled since God first made the promise to Abraham. Had they not had the courage to put their feet in the water, the vision of the Promised Land would have remained what it had been for generations: just a vision.

Our Journey

Similarly, our proposed building project has been around awhile: Liz Murray remembers seeds of a discussion while she was Churchwarden. It has gained some form over the last few years: we have committed R190,000 to the project so far, which includes the initial plans by Austin Architects and the present plans from Fagan Architects, as well as an Environmental Impact Assessment. The project is now ready to be birthed, and requires us to take the next step of applying to the City of Cape Town for approval. The present estimated cost of R10,000,000 sees the project completed by the end of 2018. The Diocese has given the go-ahead for the first phase, and provided we have a financial plan in place to complete it, for the whole project.

Engaging Courageously

There is always a choice: we can have courage, and put our feet into the flooding river; or we can continue to wander in the desert (as the Israelites did for over forty years), watching and waiting, to end up only renovating what we have, leaving no new legacy for future generations. What do we choose?

“I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9; NRSV)

And so I am wondering where the Fundraising pamphlets are that we received at the Church door? Are they gathering dust in a “I should do something about that sometime” pile, or perhaps in the file 13? Or have we acted by making our contribution or indicating what this may be over a period of time? Have we had the courage to pass the pamphlet on to a family member, a friend, a colleague, an acquaintance?
I’ve put the digital version on the Church Facebook page and shared it with my extensive Facebook network; and handed out pamphlets to some of my colleagues. I know of a parishioner whose aim is to raise R25,000: he pesters his fellow-golfers, and has emailed his friends, one of whom sent in R5,000 to purchase a Sandstone block, and some of whom have given him R100 to go away! Another parishioner arrived in the Parish Office with some beautifully hand-knitted jerseys and gloves for us to sell towards the purchase of a block. Other parishioners have put sizable donations into our Church Bank account, or donated via the GivenGain website. What is your story? What are you doing? Please let us know!

Our Challenge

There is (of course) the issue of the amount of money required for this project, and I see this concern lurking in the back of our minds, and the obvious question: “Should we be spending this sort of money on ourselves?” There is no easy answer except perhaps to reflect on our sphere of influence as St Andrew’s Church in Newlands, and how this may be extended through our building project to benefit our extensive outreach projects. The School rent has enabled us to provide the equivalent of R2 million in today’s money in bursaries for tertiary education to people in less-privileged communities in the wider Cape Town over the past ten years. The more attractive and accessible our Hall and meeting rooms are to the broader Newlands community, the greater the opportunities will be to partner with the local community in our outreach projects and Christian mission, expanding our circle of influence and our access to local resources. This building project will provide us with a significant renewed base from which we can continue our Christian mission in Newlands and beyond, and will of course benefit future generations of those who live and worship in this space.

Are we willing to trust that there is reason – purpose – that for more than a decade this vision has held, has not gone away, and is now demanding our attention? Friends, let’s put our concerns, scepticism, and even fear aside. Let’s embrace this God-given opportunity and make it happen!

Blessings
Mark

Spring Newsletter 2015: Article

Dear Friends

Welcome to Spring! One of my favorite images in the Cape is the fresh green oak leaves that appear at this time of year, almost translucent. The clivias in their prolific orange are also a treat for the eye, as are the bursts of pink and purple, and the variety of blossom that greets us in the great outdoors. The days grow lighter earlier, and the sunset holds the dark at bay that little bit longer each day. Summer beckons, and Capetonians creep quietly from their winter hibernation, or fly home. The Church pews fill, and life begins again.

Not that winter has been lifeless; far from it! July saw Dawn and I celebrate our 50th Birthdays, and we much appreciated the many who joined us on Mandela Day to celebrate: a wonderful sense of belonging as friends old and new played tag at the front door. The accompanying pictures demonstrate the unexpected generosity of gifts; and thanks to all who brought a plate of food to share. The added gift of sunshine after a week of drenching rain added to the festive nature of the day. "Thing One" and "Thing Two" shared a glorious birthday!

August sawn Dawn and I, together with our daughter Cassie, heading to England for a family-filled three weeks. We were joined by our son, Nathan, and our granddaughter, Rebecca-Lee, for the final week. We spent the first week with my parents in Surrey and travelled daily into a London immersion of St Paul's Cathedral (where we "did the dome", climbing the five hundred plus steps to the top) with its amazingly beautiful mosaic ceilings depicting various aspects of creation; the Tate Modern where I enjoyed Picasso for the first time, and discovered from my daughter that Modern Art is all about cloud watching (images appear and disappear as you stare into the amorphous mess of paint on canvas); a tour of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace with their opulence and pomp of royalty (a really well put together tour); and time with my brothers, their wives and their children.
     We then headed to Cheshire, visiting the Michael's in Winchester on the way, a beautiful town with an amazing Cathedral. In Cheshire we visited the Moore side of my family, enjoying a family gathering on the Sunday, a visit to the family caravan on Anglesey and a final dinner together at the Stretton Fox; a visit to St Beuno's Retreat Centre in Wales, and a return visit to the beautiful Chester Cathedral. We then headed for our Long Family Gathering in Devon, near Exeter, via Oxford for an afternoon of exploration and to London to collect Nathan and Rebecca-Lee. Oxford was amazing in a short period of time, walking from Magdalene College up to the Carfax Tower, returning via Christ Church College (more recently of Harry Potter fame) and the Botanical Gardens, stopping in to visit the University Church of St Mary the Virgin (an intriguing space with not one cross visible, and a beautiful portrait of the Virgin and Child behind the altar) where Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer were condemned for their reformist ways and led to their deaths to be burnt at the stake.
     We had a wonderful Long Family Gathering in Aylesbeare - the main reason for our visit - filling a ten bedroom house with twenty three of us, four generations! We went swimming in the sea at Dawlish Warren, walking along the coastal path at Ladram Bay, and visited the seaside village of Beer (the source of Exeter Cathedral's stone), and Buckfast Abbey (a working Catholic Benedictine Monastry), and Exeter Cathedral, in between serious challenges at the pool table, much good food and family fellowship.

While visiting St Beuno's Retreat Centre in Wales, Dawn picked up a pamphlet that contained the following quote by Pope Benedict XVI:

Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.

One might be tempted, visiting various Cathedral's in England, to think that these buildings were inspired by lofty ideas. However, when one considers the commitment, often of more than one and sometimes many generations, to the building of these incredible symbols of a glorious God, one becomes aware of a generation's encounter with something of substance that led to projects that continued to inspire future generations, that continue to creat new horizons of awareness every time one enters these magnificent structures; projects that gave decisive direction over long periods of time to generation after generation, and even today to the curious tourist like myself. Chester and Exeter Cathedrals, despite their size and incredible soaring Gothic architecture still manage to create a sense of intimacy even in their larger spaces for worship, a sense of this great and glorious God being accessible and available.

And I am challenged to ask, "Are we building similarly, not necessarily in stone and mortar, for future generations? Or in this consumerist culture that we've embraced, are we building only for ourselves?" It's an important question.

Blessings
Mark

Winter Newsletter 2015: Article

Dear Friends

As always, time seems to move forward far faster than it possibly should! Winter is upon us, marked by late rains in June; half the year has passed and yet seemingly only just begun. Since our last Newsletter we have journeyed through the Seasons of Lent and Easter, entering now into the extended Season of Sundays after Pentecost that will take us through Winter and Spring and into early Summer. In terms of Church activities, Lent was marked by our Parish Camp in early March and our Lent Course that focused us on the Apostles Creed, asking us to reflect on the relevance of ancient beliefs in our 21st century world; the Season of Easter was marked by The Marriage Course.

The Parish Camp

This was a really good time away together, and my thanks to all who were able to join us. There was lots of time for fellowship and relaxation together. We did spend some time, though, applying our minds on the Saturday morning to Acts 2:42-47 while reflecting on the theme "serving each other; serving the world". We drew on the links between teaching,  fellowship, the sharing of meals, and prayer in terms of serving each other;  and on signs and wonders, the sale of property and possessions, giving to those in need, and generosity in terms of serving the world. Out of these reflections we moved into discussion groups, which highlighted the following as needing to be priority for us at St Andrew's:

Priority One

Preaching (the present quality and variety was affirmed); Home Groups (that the present Groups should be supplemented with new groups, for which leaders need to be identified); Young People (identify needs, create opportunity for volunteerism, and explore a supper club)

Priority Two

Regular multi-generational "Coffee Afternoons"; teaching on Contemplative Prayer and on "Being Anglican"; Newcomers (create room to be involved beyond the superficial); Programmes (Alpha, Renew, The Marriage Course, etc)

Priority Three

Worship (forms of worship, a review of service times, opportunity for quiet); Men's Breakfast; Ministry to The Needy (fewer, bigger projects with more opportunity for active involvement); Prayerfulness (prayerful support, being a "voice of hope"); Evangelism Training (how to market our community, attract visitors to belong; impact on our communities for Christ)

Parish Council has noted these priorities, but the key to implementation is finding people who will have the passion and time to help further interrogate, and then implement, these priorities in practical ways.

What of the above has warmed your interest? If you are sensing a gentle pressure from the Holy Spirit, please come and chat with myself, or a member of Council, or a Layminister,  and we can explore this prompting further. God generally prompts more than one person, so while one needs to take that step of Faith and speak to someone, often God already has a partner lined up. But you'll never know if you don't ask... and I look forward to a conversation with you.

The Marriage Course

You may have noted (above) that one of the items noted under Priority Two in our group discussions at the Parish Camp were programmes such as Alpha and The Marriage Course, both of which have their origins at Holy Trinity, Brompton, in the UK. Just as the Lent Course was an offering to us during the Season of Lent, so The Marriage Course has been an offering to us during the Season of Easter. The Easter Season reminds us about the essentials of our Christian Faith (death, resurrection, renewal), and The Marriage Course likewise does this in terms of our marriage relationships (the essentials of strong foundations, artful communication, resolved conflict, the power of forgiveness, the impact of wider family past and present, good sex, and putting our love into action).

Nine couples participated this year, and all completed the course strengthened in these essentials. Dawn and I were privileged to be able to participate (and I must admit to Dawn being keener than I was to start with). I must also admit to being surprised! It really was good, and enabled us to talk through numerous aspects of our relationship in a fresh and life-giving way in our twenty-fifth year together. And, of course, the weekly suppers... delicious!

This course took place (and will again next year, hopefully) because of Graham and Margie Michael's passion and commitment to facilitating this ministry. And also due to their willingness to draw others into the team (Waitrons Richard & Debbie Emery, and Edgar & Beryl Ruiters). My thanks to them all for their gift of ministry to us. And they are not alone in setting this example.

Participation

One of the huge challenges any volunteer organisation faces is ensuring people always feel welcome to participate in leadership and facilitation spaces, and the Church experiences this, too. I encourage you to look around: how often do familiar faces reappear in different settings at St Andrew's? There is comfort in seeing a specific face at the altar, then in the kitchen,  then on Church Council; but is it good for us as a community? There is a danger that we rely on the goodwill of the few, and take their availability and passion for granted. Or, as in the case of the Layministers, for example, there seems to be a large group, but we forget that there are five services a week at St Andrew's and not all Layministers are available all the time, or during the week, due to work or travel or illness.

A number of our coordinators and facilitators of key ministries have indicated a need to step back after numerous years of active and faithful service, but Council is finding it difficult to identify people willing to accept appointment. Among others, we are looking for new coordinators for the Morning Market, Children's Church, and Flower Guild. We're needing to grow the Layministers team, find additional Children's Church teachers, Home Group leaders, flower-arrangers, people to serve tea, sidespeople, readers. We need to add to our team of available people to help with various Ministry to the Needy projects, and people to participate in the Fundraising Committee for our new building project.

The temptation is to see people busy and active and involved and to say either, "They don't need me!" or, "There's no space for me!" I wish to suggest that neither statement is ever true... we need your participation, and we need more than just your help (although help is valued). If I may be so bold, "participation" is about being proactively willing to either lead or support depending on the need; it is about taking "ownership" of our community life. The nature of the Church (in the broadest sense) is that even if you don't belong, you do!

What are your gifts? What are your interests? What is your passion? How can you participate in the St Andrew's call to serve each other  and to serve the world?

I look forward to our next conversation, you and me.

Love and Blessings
Mark

Winter Newsletter 2014: Article

Dear Friends

Appointed and Sent

Today, as I write, we remember St Barnabas. The Gospel reading for the day reminds us that God has "... appointed [us] to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last" (John 20:16). In this Pentecost season we are reminded of the nature of this fruit: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). In preparation for Pentecost I became aware, in the Lectionary's immersion of us in John's Gospel, that for John everything revolves around the gift of love: it is the touchstone from which all else evolves. In linking this to Paul's teaching in Galatians, it is possible to realise that love becomes tangible as we allow the other fruits of the Spirit to grow in our lives. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all instruments through which God's love may flow into our lives and communities. It becomes even more powerful when we remember that John goes further: "... God is love" (1 John 4:8). It is not just God's love, but God's very being, that is manifested in this way.

On Pentecost Sunday we were reminded that on the evening of the resurrection the risen Jesus meets with the disciples, saying, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). This begs the question, of course, as to what it is that Jesus had been commissioned to do? Again for John it is all about love: Jesus was sent by the Father to live God's love, God's very being, in our world; and we are similarly called. Richard Rohr, in his book The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, makes this same point: "Jesus became the Human One who believed the divine image in himself, who trusted it, followed it, and told us to do the same" (page 48). This begs a further question: what is the nature of the divine image? Key to this is that having commissioned the disciples Jesus "... breathed [into] them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit"" (John 20:22). The Holy Spirit is the divine image and the source of life: present at Creation; active throughout the millennia; present in Jesus; and as we participate in the body of Christ and the wider family of God, present in you and me.

It becomes possible to draw this conclusion: we are appointed to participate in a mission; we are commissioned to bring a vision to fruition. Are we, personally and corporately, aware? What do we understand our appointment and commission to be, to encompass? What are we being sent to do? And if we are aware, are we being faithful to our appointment and obedient to our commission?

Mission and Vision

At St Andrew's we do have a strong sense of purpose, enshrined in our mission statement:

St Andrew's aims to be a loving, worshipping, Christian community which encourages everyone to follow Christ as disciples through being obedient to his Word and Spirit, and as a result taking God's love to the local community, to the poor, the needy and the world.

We are committed to seeing this statement move from words into action, and it drives our commitment to reach out beyond ourselves in good and meaningful ways, chief among them our Ministry to the Needy. Additionally, I was encouraged by the attendance at the Lent course, which spoke to our commitment to follow Christ as disciples (people committed to growing in their faith). We worship well, we care, and we share God's love. This is a hallmark of who we are as Andreans.

Being obedient to Christ in Word and Spirit is to be continually immersing ourselves in Scripture, searching out the principles that have given life to God's people throughout the ages and seeking ways to make these live in our own context; it is also to be listening for what God is doing in the world today, to be aware of the Spirit's presence in the currents flowing around us, being ready to respond as we hear the call to serve.

We have lived at St Andrew's with our mission statement for some time, and time changes things. The foundation of our mission - Scripture - remains constant, although interpretation may adapt to our ongoing experience. The foundation of our vision - context - is less constant, making it important that we review both our sense of mission and vision from time to time. It is important that we find time to review where we are heading as a community, to ascertain how faithful we are being to that to which God calls us, and to make any necessary course corrections. Parish Council has agreed that we consciously take time as a Christian community to reflect again on who God is calling us to be, what God is calling us to do, and where God is calling us to go. This process will include such further questions as: what is intrinsic to who we are at St Andrew's that we never want to lose; what new things do we want to put in place that will add to our sense of being abundantly where God wants us to be; what do we need to stop doing, get rid of, in order that we may have space to build for the future; and what are those things that may destroy who we are, destroy the legacy that has been built in our midst over a century and more, and that we wish never to include in our activities and community?

It is likely that we will engage as a Church in this process of consultation, reflection and review after the July holidays. In the meantime please, in preparation, begin to engage prayerfully and thoughtfully with the questions I have raised above.

Personal

Thank you from Dawn and myself to all who contributed so generously to our Easter gift. It has contributed to one of my dreams: a mountain bike with which I can confidently tackle the off-road beauty of the Cape. Scotty, a black and red Scott Spark 960, has recently joined the family. It is going to need some training, as I discovered on my second ride out that it has a tendency to run away on muddy downhills, buck wildly on steep uphill paths, and generally not always behave as expected. Tar surfaced roads do seem to have a largely calming effect on us both, but the great outdoors beckons, and we will doubtless train each other as time goes on!

Blessings to you all as we enter the cold and wet of Winter, which has already given fair warning of things to come: may the fire of this Pentecost season be warming to your souls!

With love
Mark

Autumn Newsletter 2014: Article

Dear Friends

Amazingly, it is time for our Autumn Newsletter. It seems just a few, brief weeks ago I was putting something together for the Summer edition, feeling very new and wet behind the ears! A summertime later, and both Dawn and I are feeling very much a part of the furniture at St Andrew's and more rooted in Cape Town, although still a little disbelieving that we are actually here. Christmas was a good time with lots of family visiting and helping make the Rectory really feel like home in a way that only lots of family can! We were also thankful for all the Christmas gifts from so many of our St Andrew's family, and if we've failed to say a personal thank you our apologies: with our granddaughter present when we opened gifts we got a little distracted as to what we'd received from whom! Your thoughtfulness is much appreciated.

We head into our Lenten journey as I write: a period of reflection gifting us with an opportunity for renewal as we prepare in expectation for Easter. Christmas a reminder that God is with us, the joy of birth and God present to us in human form; Easter a reminder that life is ever renewing, indestructible, eternal, a powerful meeting of now and eternity. I am struck, year by year, as Lent approaches that I take so much of life and relationship for granted, and how seemingly little indisciplines cause me to miss many opportunities to revel in life's goodness. The occasional early morning walk - in the forest or along the beach - has me marvelling at the beauty of creation at daybreak; prayerful meditation awakens me to the beauty of being in relationship with God; and I am challenged in Lent to renew my commitment to life, to disciplined, creative and focused living.

In his sermon around the Transfiguration last Sunday, Bishop Geoff reflected on how we often equate Lent to Jesus' desert experience and temptations, but that in the light of the Transfiguration it can also be about mountain top experience. Both deserts and mountaintops can be desolate places, but both (if you think of the Great Karoo and Table Mountain) give us distant horizons to contemplate, and mountains give us a different perspective on life in the valley. Desolation is an important liminal space that allows us to see with greater clarity, unencumbered by material and relational and spiritual clutter, and our Anglican tradition of giving something up for Lent is a part of rediscovering this space, reopening ourselves to what is truly important, opening ourselves to loss but also to hope. As Bishop Geoff reflected, simply giving something up for the sake of giving something up has little impact on our lives. It is more about rediscovering balance: material, relational and spiritual. My experience of wealth is that too often it gets in the way, providing more than the necessities to enjoy life, often over-encumbering us with comfort and the responsibilities of comfort. Lent becomes the opportunity to realise afresh that if we remove the flowers from the Church and limit our praise then our worship is no less meaningful, and that some of the trappings we've come to believe to be indispensable to our worship are dispensable. And if we can find the courage, we can begin to apply this to other aspects of our lives, and be renewed. There is that wonderful proverb, that one cannot see the wood for the trees: Lent is an opportunity to see the forest again in all its greatness and beauty.

Autumn is a precursor to Winter, and Lent a precursor to Easter. In the Southern hemisphere this relationship plays out differently to its roots in the North. In Autumn the trees are stripped of their leaves, preparing for hibernation through the Winter months; in Lent we are stripped of our encumbrances, preparing us to hibernate in God's love, to be enshrouded in resurrection, that we may burst into Spring rested and strengthened to serve God and the purposes of God's kingdom. May this Lent and our Easter celebrations be God's gift of renewal and hope to us all!

Blessings
Mark