'Newslink' - Ministers Letter

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Dear Friends,

A  MULTITUDE OF BEGINNINGS

Just recently I was reminded that it was about a year when Charlene and I descended on Paignton to explore a move to the “Bay”.  From that point onwards we have received hospitality and care which continued from our arrival in August.

Our beginnings continued with me discovering that the train did not continue to Brixham and Charlene discovering that ‘oyster ice cream' meant  the shape of the wafer not the flavour of the ice cream (apologies to Hester Blumenthal and his bacon and egg flavoured ice cream).

The beginning continued with our Christmas celebration of the coming of Jesus into the world with the New Year heralding the beginning of his ministry.  The fact that the Son of God needed to build a  ministry team of disciples had a great effect on me as a new Christian.

The New Year prompts us to consider our own new beginning as a church community.

We are embarking on a reconstruction programme which I have called Grace and Good Practice.  In this we consider the journey of the church and the organisation of that journey.  Already we are planning to consider the journey in quarterly “mile posts” at four council meeting.  These meetings will take place in Jan, April, July and October.  We will first begin by looking at job descriptions, understanding roles and consolidating tasks.

In the next quarter we will look at building the mission of the church in the local community.  We have the potential to engage in several communities or “congregations”.  There is the regular membership, there are those who attend fundraising events, there are the many businesses around the church and there is the local residential community.

You might think this does not involve me as I am not a member of the Council meeting – but this concerns everyone – we are all the community, we are all the church, we are all involved in Mission.

Join me as we journey, join me as we seek God’s guidance for our community and join me as we celebrate God’s love for us.

Blessings

Dermot

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'Our Calling' is a statement that was adopted by the Methodist Conference and sets out what our purpose is as a denomination - "the calling of the Methodist Church is to respond to the gospel of God's love in Christ and to live out its discipleship in worship and mission."  Click to read the document.

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Last modified: March 2010