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Rosey's Letter - May 2008 Dear Friends, Whenever I read the story of how the Holy Spirit came
to that fearful group of Jesus’ early followers, gathered in a locked room
after his death and resurrection, I am struck by the fact that in their sudden
joy and excitement, their first instinct was not to remain locked away
together, basking in this new glowing warmth; instead, they rushed to the door,
unlocked it, and ran down into the street to share the good news with everyone
in the street below. This was too good to keep to themselves! I don’t like ‘holy huddles’! There are far too many
interesting people outside our church doors, and I’m glad that some of my best
friends are people who don’t go to church. Sadly, we have too often ‘kept
ourselves to ourselves, over the years, comfortable with the company of ‘people
like us’. But such an attitude is very different from that of those early
Christians on Pentecost Day. The reason for the Church’s renewed passion for
seeking to find ‘fresh expressions’ of our Christian faith is the realisation
that we constantly need to discover new ways in which to communicate our faith
to ‘outsiders’, and to be inclusive, rather than inward-looking. As a former
Archbishop of Canterbury (William Temple) put it: ‘The Church is the only human institution which exists
for the benefit of those outside itself.’ There’s a challenging test for everything we seek to
do as a church! Well, we shall try to put that saying into practice as
we launch the appeal for our Cross Tree Centre. On Tuesday 6th May
at 7.30pm., this month, we shall put on show the plans for our new Cross Tree
Centre, at an evening event in All Saints’ church. Our architect George Chedburn will be present, and there will be an opportunity
to discuss the scheme and ask questions over a glass of wine. One of the aspects of the new parish centre which we
have emphasised from the beginning is that this is not just for us, it’s for
everyone – for the whole community – and we hope that all the residents of
Wraxall will feel that they have a stake in this enterprise, and will therefore
support it. At present, there is no meeting place within our parish – we hope
that the Cross Tree centre will help to meet that need. So in a real sense, we
hope that this building will be, like the Church, ‘for the benefit of those
outside itself’; and we hope that many people will find that this is a place
where they can feel ‘at home’. Do come along on 6th May and have a look at
the plans. This is an exciting development for our whole community, and we hope
you’ll all want to be involved. With love, Rosey |