Posted Wednesday 3 November 2010
On Sunday I baptised young baby Emily.This is my favourite task in the Church; getting to know another different person made in the image of God. Welcome, Emily!
Such an occasion always makes me think about the growth of the Church and our responsibility to share our faith.
Christian’s don’t come ready made, neither are they made once and for all by completing a course of study.
We are always in the process of formation and the new birth of baptism is an essential part of that process, at whatever age.
Our faith and beliefs change over time, and are influenced by practice, tradition, culture and language. The Christians of
each generation share many similarities but we are not molded for all time. (Thank goodness!)
You may want to think about your own relationship with Christ as a growing one, a questioning one rather like the disciples’ relationship with
Jesus. When we engage with this idea of formation it allows us to articulate better our thoughts and feelings with those around us who may have some serious questions about what makes a Christian faith community. The media can portray certain religious stereotypes that may offend and are unhelpful. Therefore, it is very important that we are projecting, communicating and working out a healthy consideration of what it is to be a faithful and good, wise and loving human being; and as we do this evoke in others our faith in the God-made-human in the best way possible.
One of the ways we can do this is by appreciating and embracing “difference” and “other”, as Jesus did, and being enriched by realizing our human interdependence so that our lives are “being-in-love-for one another”. Think of the times when you have questioned whether someone actually cares about what you think, feel or say. Maybe it’s because you haven’t identified, or taken the risk about displaying, what really matters to you and understood equally what matters to them. It’s the same within any community or family. If the “Diocesan Growth Strategy, develops as Bishop Gregor desires it to do, then we have to be very clear about how each one of us can take a risk and be understood by the other for the person we appear to be and at the same time accepted by the other for the person we are becoming.
The risk, of course, is sharing our faith as “Good News” and acknowledging that this formation is taking place within each one because of the difference knowing Jesus Christ makes to our daily living and our humanity. By his Holy Spirit, a person or a people is able to change and grow. I hope all of us in the Diocese can grow in this way for when we take such a risk of saying what the Good News is about, especially locally, then the idea of a “Diocesan Growth Strategy” will develop and help us to grow in many ways and in number too.
We will be seen as a warm, welcoming, attractive and a tolerant church that has a clear sense of God’s story, purpose and value in each one of its members. I sincerely hope that Emily will grow in this way, but that will only happen if the faith journey and formation is understood as a shared endeavour. It begins by coming to know a person and the person of Christ in each one of us.
The Very Revd Ian Barcroft
Dean
Category: Thought for the Month
