“It is not right that we should give up preaching
the word of God to serve tables...” Acts 6:2
It has been a privilege to be able to preach consecutively on the two beautiful Easter accounts, the first involving Thomas and the other on the Journey to Emmaus. There is a flow in the lectionary in keeping with the liturgical season which can help us to enter more fully into the Gospel stories. You can also follow this more fully through Bishop Rennis’ midweek sermons.
One interesting outcome of the circuit breaker season is the simplification of life and work. Bishops and Vicars who are normally busy with management and leadership matters, can now focus on the ministry of the Word and Prayer. The church functions along with the society she is a part of, embracing the pace, high standards of management and financial processes. These often mean that it becomes unavoidable for the men of the cloth to spend considerable time on these issues.
Take the Easter period for example. If not for Covid 19, we will now be busy with preparing for AGM. And this means writing reports, ensuring the Phase 2 project is being updated and made ready for a second presentation to the body, ensuring that the new church budget is finalised etc. All these generate a train of work involving many parties, of which clergy often need to be involved and provide the needed leadership. I cannot imagine that myself or Bishop can spend this much time preparing well for the Easter sermons. I doubt that I will have the time to lead the daily noon prayer.
This season has been one huge pause button. We need to do a lot of prayerful reflection and deeper conversations on what church ministry means and what the Lord has called her to do and be. Reflect with us. Pray with us that we may find wisdom for a new season.
One interesting initiative which we are providing for this Sunday morning from 10.30 -11.30 am is a Zoom channel for prayer and ministry. If you would like to share your need with members of our pastoral and ministry teams and receive prayer, please join this room through this link HERE.
