Monday Morning Mail, 7th January 2013

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Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

Good Morning and Happy New Year!


Yesterday was Epiphany, which is the time when we remember the three Magi coming to worship Jesus. It's especially striking, because so much of the focus in Matthew is on Jesus coming to the Jews as the True Israel, and yet right at the start God brings some Gentile stargazers to worship Jesus, and then at the end Jesus sends his disciples out into the world to make disciples of all the Gentiles.


It's a really helpful reminder to us, as Christmas and 2012 fades into memory and as we get used to the busy-ness of "real life" that we may move on from Christmas but we don't move on from worshipping Jesus, from laying down our lives in worship to him.


There's lots of stuff coming up that it's worth me mentioning.

This Thursday, at 8pm at Church, we've got our monthly Church Prayer meeting. Do please come along and pray for our life as a church. For those who like being organised, here's a list of events in 2013 for your diary.


10th January, 8pm Prayer Meeting

10th February, Church Bring & Share Lunch

13th February, 8pm Ash Wednesday Service

25th February, 8pm Prayer Meeting

19th March, 8pm Prayer Meeting

15th April, Church AGM

9th May, 8pm Prayer Meeting

18th May, Church Day of Prayer and Fasting

Prayer Meetings also at 8pm on 10th June, 9th July, 14th August, 12th September, 7th October, 12th November, 11th December.


Several people have also asked me about the C of E's latest pronouncement about gay bishops. It's an odd situation because in a way they haven't actually said anything new. The policy has always been that it isn't appropriate for someone in any extra-marital sexual relationship to be in a position of leadership in the church, though of course anyone and everyone is welcome to come along to church. I don't think it's helpful to talk about "gay people" and "straight people"; there are married people and single people, and marriage is always between one man and one woman. What happened this time was that the Bishops clarified that if someone is in a celibate civil partnership, that wouldn't necessarily disqualify them from being a bishop. This does raise some interesting questions, which Andrew Goddard discusses well if you're interested.


What all of that means is that bishops, especially bishops like +Paul who are committed to upholding the classic Christian view of human sexuality and relationships, really need our prayers for wisdom in leading the church well.


God bless,


John

Comments

  1. John14 January 2013 at 02:28

    Best to put comments about this sort of thing on my other blog...

    But since we're here, I might as well point out that the better people know Jesus, the more they love him, the less likely they are to believe your description of him (and the less likely they are to think that it's fiction). That makes me think your position is somewhat flawed.

    Besides which, if God is like you say he is, then wouldn't it be a good idea to get on the right side of him?

    ReplyDelete

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