When we made the decision to come and serve at St Peter’s, we knew that it wasn’t likely to be a very easy process. Not just the whole moving abroad, away from the family thing; but also that the job itself would not necessarily be an easy one. St Peter’s is a traditional church, with a traditional style of worship that has grown used to doing things one way for a long time. Dave’s predecessor had been in post for over 20 years, and retired at the age of 86. With this information, we knew that it wouldn’t be easy for any new Rector coming in – not to mention a (relatively!) young one from another country.
So there have been some significant challenges in the first year and a half here. Some of them have been very stressful and painful. Change, even gentle change, is never easy. That’s not a criticism of anybody – change of any sorts leads to a sort of grieving process, which different people need to take their own pace. Add to this the fact that any time a new minister comes to a church, there will inevitably be some for whom this means they want to find a new church.
The tide is, though, turning. We had our annual church meeting in May, just before we flew to the UK for Dave’s Mum’s funeral. It was an inspiring and positive occasion. The new church council was elected; it now consists of some of the same people who have been on the council for a long time previously, some new to the council who have been in the church for a few years and some who are new to the church in the last year or so. This combination is really positive – it’s a sign that new life is taking root. Financial giving is on the up; and the council has already agreed to some new things like the tutoring project I referred to in the previous post. We’re going to start a Saturday morning meeting to go deeper in prayer and community together. We even have a new church website – click here! The council also addressed a few things regarding Dave’s pay and some issues around the house we’re living in – more of which in another post.
We just celebrated St. Peter’s Day the Sunday before last. It was our 157th birthday! We were very blessed to welcome Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and his wife ? who came to celebrate with us – that’s where the photo is from at the top of this post. It was a wonderful service and very significant day in the life of St. Peter’s.
Now none of these things by themselves are guaranteed indicators of things moving in the right direction. Together, though, they hint at a change in the spiritual atmosphere around the place. This was confirmed when I spoke to our cleaner the other day. She wouldn’t call herself a Christian, and I was speaking to her about the new council. She said she knew something had changed – she used to come into the building to do her work and feel tense, wanting to leave as soon as she could. Now she doesn’t want to leave when she’s finished.
