Eagle March April 2018
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St. John’s Burns Night Supper, Saturday 27th January 2018 Photograph by Michael St. John’s Burns Night Supper, Saturday 27th January 2018 Photograph by Kirsteen 2 From the Rectory It is indeed my great pleasure to meet you through 'the Eagle'! A little over a month has passed since I was licensed and installed as Priest in Charge at St John's and I am encouraged that it's been a good first month! I was ordained in the Church of South India and have been involved in the ministry of the church in various ca- pacities in India and in the UK over the past twenty years. My wife, Grace, is also an ordained minister and we are blessed with three children: Felina, Erina and Darshan, who are settling well in their schools and nursery. My doctoral studies at the University of Nottingham brought us to the UK in 2011 and seven years on, I am delighted to have received the call to serve as Priest at St John's Forres. It's a privilege and joy to join in the long-standing and continuing Christian witness and heritage of this place. We are grateful for the warmth, welcome and goodwill extended to us. Evidently, a lot of work has gone into preparations, particularly the redec- oration of the Rectory and the work in the gardens. With the unpacking now completed, we are delighted to have this beautiful house as our home. We are enjoying getting acquainted with the beautiful surround- ings and friendly people of Forres. We look forward to getting to know you all and participate in the vibrant community spirit obvious both in the church and in the town. I do wish to thank Dean Alison for her thoughtful leadership during the interregnum, the clergy and lay ministers and members of the congrega- tion who helped foster a renewed enthusiasm during this period. It is in 3 this context that I begin my work. While looking for a new priest, St John's has also identified several areas of ministry which were laid out in the parish profile under 5 categories for the development of the mission and ministry of St John's. I see these as the blueprint of the congrega- tion's vision for the future of St John's. In the months and years to come, we will endeavour to discern God's direction for us and to journey to- gether in worship and service towards realising the vision for St Johns' ministry for its members, for Forres and beyond. It was refreshing to have the opportunity to engage with children of the community in my first month in Forres. A group of students from Ander- son's Primary School visited St John's on Ash Wednesday as part of their Religious and Moral Education. We've got very encouraging feedback about the visit. Planning is underway for a visit from Hop, Skip and Jump Nursery just after Easter. But before getting to Easter, we are in the season of Lent - a season for introspection and returning to God in pursuit of the restoration of God's image in all of us. I pray that we have a meaningful season of Lent as we await the celebration of Easter - the dawn of the hope of new life. I look forward to your participation and involvement in the services planned for the season and Holy Week. May the dawn of Easter - of life, in all its fullness - amidst and be- yond suffering, guide our reflections, motivations and actions as we navi- gate through this sacred journey of rediscovering the image of God within us! Hamilton and his Family at In- verness Cathedral in 2017, pho- tograph by Michael 4 Bishop Gordon’s Sermon The following sermon was given by the Rt. Reverend Gordon Mursell at the Installation of our new Priest in Charge, Reverend Doctor Hamilton Inbadas on the occasion of his installation on Saturday 20th January 2018. Several congregation members asked if a copy of his sermon could be published in Eagle. Bishop Gordon was born on 4th May 1949 and is a retired British Anglican bishop and author. From 2005 to 2010, he was the Bishop of Stafford in the Church of England. He was educated at Ardingly College and Brasenose College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1974 and began his career with a curacy at St Mary Walton, Liverpool and was then successively Vicar of St John's East Dulwich, a tutor at Wells Theological College, Team Rector of Stafford (1991– 1999), Provost (1999–2002/3)and then Dean of Birmingham (2002/3–2005) [6] before his ordination to the episcopate as the suffragan Bishop of Stafford - a post he va- cated in June 2010. A prolific author, he is also a keen hill walker and had the sur- prise of meeting again with Deacon Anthony. {Information from Wikipedia) THE SERVANT KING {Luke 12:35-44} A bishop who was a former colleague of mine tells the story of how, soon after retir- ing, he went to a cathedral (in mufti) for some big service; and as he was leaving, a lady came up to him and said “You’re Bishop Mike!” “Yes, I am,” he said, pleased to be recognized. And she said, “You won’t remember me [which is just as well, because he didn’t], but you confirmed me, many years ago, and I’ve never forgotten what you said in your sermon then - it’s stayed with me and helped me ever since.” The bishop was, not unnaturally, flattered, and asked when and where the confirmation had been, not remembering anything about it; and then he said, “What was it I said that impressed you?” And she said, “I will never forget it, it helped me so much. You said, ‘Every cloud has a silver lining.’” Now I have no doubt that Hamilton’s sermons will have much more to say than “Every cloud has a silver lining.” But that story does underline one of the many para- doxes of ministry – that our weakest efforts, or what we feel to be our least effective words, may end up bearing more fruit than our finest achievements. This should not surprise us, for all ministry is Christ’s, not ours, and through the work of his grace our weaknesses and even our failures may do more for him than all our gifts and abilities. And what is true of Christian ministry is true of the Church as a whole. 5 It’s not our job, or Hamilton’s, to convert or change the world. Only God in Christ can do that. We are called to help him in whatever ways we can. And what that means is the subject of today’s Gospel reading, which offers us three vital ingredi- ents of a genuinely Christ-centred, life-changing church: it will be an outward- looking church, an expectant church, and a serving church. Let’s look briefly at all three. First, we are called to be an outward-looking church. Today’s Gospel reading begins, “Be dressed for action…” (12:35). That translation is a bit of a paraphrase: the Greek verb there is περιζώννυμι (perizonnumi), to put a belt or apron round oneself. The old KJV is much more accurate: “Let your loins be girded about.” It’s very practical, down-to-earth. We are to gird ourselves for action because Christ is doing the same thing. We will come back to this at the end; what matters for now is to notice the language Jesus uses: belts (or aprons), lighting lamps, wedding parties, people knocking on doors. It’s the language of the world out there, not remotely churchy. Jesus could have said something like “Be dressed for action in anticipation of the eschatological advent of the Son of Man,” and he’d have bored everyone rigid. In- stead, he told it how it is. He made connections. He did with his teaching what he did with his life: he earthed it, made it come alive in flesh and blood. And that’s one of the reasons why we need priests. We need people who, by their lives, their preaching, and by the way they lead worship, can help us make connec- tions between the holy and the everyday, between St John’s church here and the town of Forres out there, and also between the local and the global. That’s not easy. Hamilton will need fellow-Christians who will work with him (not leave everything to him) so that together you can connect the real presence of Christ in here with the real presence of Christ in the world. Lonely though it can often be, priests are people called, not to be ecclesiastical functionaries, but to inhabit the borderlands between the holy and the everyday, to be at home in the street as well as the sanctuary, not so that the rest of us don’t have to, but precisely to give the rest of us the confi- dence to do the same. An outward-facing church; secondly, an expectant church. Today’s reading is suffused with a sense of quiet expectancy. “The Son of Man is coming at an unex- pected hour” (12:40). “Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes…” (12:37). This is not optimism, a vague hope that things will turn out all right. Nor is it a spurious activism, like the T-shirt with the inscription “Jesus is com- ing. Look busy.” Rather it is an active, subversive expectation that Jesus longs to come into our lives, day after day, and to open us up to new and surprising possibili- ties.