From the Vicarage

Dear Friends

The church is once more looking at change……….and I can hear people now saying ‘Oh. No. It’s Robert on again about us having to change!!!! Again!!!!’

However, change is happening, the Catholic Church has a relatively new Pope, who seems to be saying many wise words to various leaders of the world and is looking at a new direction in the ministry of the Catholic church and outlook on the world. The Church of England has also a new leader, Archbishop Sarah, who seems to be starting to listen to many, many people who recently thought that the church had nothing to say on any matters of importance.

In the Archbishop’s Easter sermon Sarah spoke about the world currently being in a very dark place and that we needed to see the light of Christ in our lives. She said: ‘Jesus doesn’t wait for us to have it all together. Jesus is with us in the darkness. Jesus calls us by name and invites us to be with him in the light of the resurrection, to trust that we are known and loved.

’ This reminded me of the first Easter Sermon from Archbishop Justin when he was talking about a need for change in the church, and the world, but more importantly the need for the country not to rely on others, in particular an individual leader, to do the work for them. He said: ‘Setting people or institutions up to heights where they cannot but fail is mere cruelty.

’ By contrast, he said, Holy Week and Easter "show us the reality of God and human beings." The disciples, he said, had pinned all their hopes on Jesus - and on the people of Israel to recognise Him. But "the rulers of Israel held on to what they knew, for fear of something unexpected and worse, and did what we all do: failed to see the evidence of God in front of them." What does this mean though? Well one thing he means, I think, is what St John refers to in his Gospel for Easter Day that there is a distinct possibility that the disciples were anxious to return to normality following the traumatic events of those last few days and weeks, or perhaps they simply needed to occupy their time now that the excitement of ministry with Jesus appeared to be over? Which meant fishing all through the night for what appears to be very little reward!

In other words Peter and some of the others soon returned to normality after Easter! This of course begs the question; as Christians, do we soon return to ‘normality’ after Easter?!

Nevertheless, return to fishing they did, and it would appear that it was not only normality they had in mind, for John suggests that not only did they go back to doing what they had always done, but also to doing it in the same old way they had always done! Someone once said ‘The definition of foolishness is doing what you've always done and expecting a different result!’ This would have made the disciples pretty poor fishermen, and there is no suggestion that they were.

Perhaps only history will ever recall whether or not, when our time came to ‘do it differently’ we the Church did! Who knows, perhaps history will reveal that when it was our time...we did it the same old way? Perhaps now is the opportune time to adopt Peter’s response, ‘Lord we have toiled all night...nevertheless at your command... we will do it differently!’ Should we therefore not also try and do things differently here in this part of Cheshire? To listen to our Lord as the disciples did that morning and change the way that they fished so that they caught a huge catch .

Change is always frightening, difficult, and takes courage, but as Jesus himself commands us, that we too need to change in order to become better fishers of men and reach out to more people with the Gospel of Christ.

After all if the twelve disciples could build a church which is still here 2,000 years later, then just imagine what we could achieve here if all the 200 plus people on our combined electoral rolls lived out their lives according to the Gospel of Christ. Finally I would also like to take this opportunity to say a HUGE Thank You to Christopher, Ed and Rodney who have all stepped back from their roles at the APCM. The three musketeers have made an enormous difference to the life of the church, particularly in Rostherne and we all thank them for their service. Thankfully new people have stepped up to take on their various roles, and we ask for Gods Blessings on Gail, David and Jo as they take up their new responsibilities. Please do pray for them over this year and offer them your support and encouragement.

Yours in Christ Robert