News 1

Christchurch News October 2008 Page 1

Minister's Letter

Dear Friends,

What a wonderful welcome. Thank you for cards and kind words, calls at the Manse, biscuits, phone messages and e-mails, and for a wonderful first weekend at Christchurch. I’m sure I’m right in assuming everyone gets such a warm welcome and not just a new minister!

I’m very conscious I have to listen very carefully and fit in. One of the ways I’ve started to do this is to ponder our Mission statement “Christ at the Centre of the Church, at the heart of the town”. In previous churches a mission statement containing a vision has been a gift to help me, the other leaders, and indeed the whole church keep focussed on God’s calling for us.

So at the risk of teaching grandmother to suck eggs, may I ponder a few reflections on this vision, and invite responses, either to me in conversation, over a cuppa, or maybe in the pages of Wider Horizons. Help me get in touch with what this statement means.

A heart is the essential life giver, though it is unseen. A physical heart is quite ugly and almost obscene, but it is perfectly formed for its task to maintain, sustain and give life. It beats to its own rhythm, can repair itself while it works, and responds to the needs made upon it. As we live up to our calling to be the heart, or should I say perhaps to be at the heart of Ilkley life, we can learn a lot about the humility of Christian service, often unseen or invisibly going about our work and witness, to be kind to ourselves and know ourselves, our rhythms and capabilities, our own needs for sustenance and health, and our ability to respond to the town in which we are set. Above all, though perhaps we are not necessarily here to create other hearts, to give life. And that is what Jesus’ ministry was about, according to John’s gospel. Life, and life in all its fullness.

To be at the centre is an incredibly responsible place, but if I can borrow the image from the hub of the bicycle wheel on which I mended a puncture last weekend, the centre holds all things together, yet gives meaning and purpose for the rest of the wheel. The whole point of a centre in a wheel is to give the focus around which everything else revolves. And it is Christ who is that centre, not us. None of us is that important, none of us is indispensable, if Christ is the centre. We are the spokes, vitally important, but with a humility, a simplicity, to fulfil our own vocation without making a fuss. The centre of a wheel is the stillest point while the rest spins, it moves the least yet can get the hottest! Is it blasphemous to suggest that Christ is a still and yet powerful centre to our life together?

For Christ, at the centre of our church, at the heart of this town is everything, and all there is. Whether we look to the Jesus of history (a figure who inspires, fascinates, teases and attracts as we read gospels which are thousands of years old), or whether we look at the Christ of faith (a mysterious presence in our lives), or maybe an old and familiar friend, or whether we are glimpsing the almost will o’ the wisp figure who darts about in other religions, new age spiritualities, and intense emotional experiences, Christ is of God.

God - there’s a concept to ponder, a person to know, a creator to love, a Father to cuddle up to, a doctrine to believe, and a way to go.

It is an exciting and demanding vision to have God at the core of what our church is about, but it is the right vision to have. It may raise as many questions as it answers, and I hope it causes deeply reflective conversation and searching; but most of all I hope I catch and share what this vision means, and together we can share something of God with Ilkley.

I look forward to the task,

With every blessing,

Your Minister and friend,

Rob Hilton.

Worship At Christchurch

October 2008

5th 12th 19th 26th

9am On-Line@9 On-Line@9 On-Line@9 On-line@9

10.30am Rev. Rob Hilton Rev. Rob Hilton Rev. Rob Hilton Rev. Arnold Clay

HC JMA

6.30pm Rev. Ken Sowerby Michael Noble Rev. Arnold Clay Roland Henney

Prayer & Praise 3rd Sunday @

Christchurch

SHOPPERS’ SERVICE EACH FRIDAY at 10.30am

10th Rev. Arnold Clay , 17th Rev. Rob Hilton, 24th Dr. John Morgan-Wynne,

31st Rev. Carole Johnson

Worship At Christchurch
October 2008
	5th	12th	19th	26th

9am	On-Line@9	On-Line@9	On-Line@9	On-line@9

10.30am	Rev. Rob Hilton	Rev. Rob Hilton	Rev. Rob Hilton	Rev. Arnold Clay
	HC		JMA
6.30pm	Rev. Ken Sowerby	Michael Noble	Rev. Arnold Clay	Roland Henney
		Prayer & Praise	3rd Sunday @
			Christchurch
SHOPPERS’ SERVICE EACH FRIDAY at 10.30am
10th Rev. Arnold Clay , 17th Rev. Rob Hilton, 24th Dr. John Morgan-Wynne,
31st Rev. Carole Johnson