In Touch – Newsletter from the Rector
Home-run to Advent & Becoming and increasingly Child, Family & Youth Centred Church
Dear Parishioners,
We have had a truly blessed and informative Season of Creation and we are now on the home-run to Advent! The next two months are administratively busy months as we prepare ourselves for Dedication Sunday (25th October) and our Annual Vestry meeting (AGM) on the 22nd of November. Our council members will begin the process of consolidating their portfolios in preparation to hand their management functions over to newly elected councilors and we will begin drafting our annual parish calendar and service duty rosters for 2016 (e-mail me any suggestions for inclusion in this regard).
Dedication Sunday – 25th October
Whereas we, as a church, do not legislate around the issue of financial giving, we do consider ‘tithing’ to be a very important component of our worship. Though I will send out a basic teaching on dedicating resources (financial and other) to the work of God in the church, we leave the details up to individual consciences.
On Dedication Sunday, parishioners will have the opportunity to pledge contributions for next year. Most people give on a monthly basis, but some give quarterly; every six months or an annual lump sum. The pledging is very important because, in preparation for Vestry, our parish executive will be drafting the budget for 2016 which is directly dependent upon dedicated giving pledges (as opposed to weekly offerings).
We rely heavily upon our parishioner’s fulfilment of their pledges to God in order to remain financially sustainable. God has blessed us tremendously through the generosity of our parishioners in the past; we are praying for this to continue into the future – for the growth of our church and the benefit of all involved in the life of our church.
All members on the parish roll will soon receive a formal letter and a voluntary pledge forms to this effect. Apart from when people default on their pledges (which has happened quite a bit in the past), this is the only time in the whole of our church year when we raise the issue of giving with our parishioners.
Please consider prayerfully, the tremendous impact your generosity in this regard will have on the effectiveness of our church’s ministry. We as a church believe in setting an example on tithing. This year we have contributed a total tithe of R95 663.00 to other outreach projects and charities chosen by our parishioners, including our own in-house, Starfish outreach project which we support with great pride and joy. We thank God that we have been able to do this.
Vestry – 22 November
Our Annual vestry meeting will be held for about 45 minutes between our two services on Sunday 22 November. I invite all our parishioners to attend this important meeting where a new council (church leadership team) will be voted in for 2016. In our Anglican model of leadership, this group of about 18-20 people are appointed as a representative government with significant authority in regard to parish management.
The priests are not allowed to be involved in the process of nominating and appointing these people so we are solely dependent upon you as parishioners to appoint the right people. I will soon e-mail you all the job descriptions for the candidates that we will need for five portfolios next year – Worship; Fellowship; Discipleship; Ministry (Pastoral Care); Outreach (Evangelism) and Fundraising. Though you may nominate as many consenting candidates as you like, only two for each portfolio will be appointed based upon a ballot vote.
We will also be appointing an alternate church warden as Paul Maistry will be stepping down from the parish executive having served his three-year term faithfully. Outgoing wardens must remain off leadership for a year before they become eligible for reelection either to council or to the parish executive. Nomination lists will go up on the notice boards soon.
All Saints/All Souls Services (1 November) and Remembrance Sunday Service (8 November)
We are fast approaching a very important time of annual commemoration of the saints of the church and our departed loved ones. We will be holding special services to this effect on the 1st of November, where we will especially commemorate the passing of parishioners on our parish roll during the past year.
We also invite all of you to bring along photographs, small bunches of flowers and reminders of your deceased loved ones to be placed at the altar during a time of special prayer and commemoration. More information will be provided closer to the time.
On Remembrance Sunday (following Remembrance day [5 November]), we will pay special tribute to any who have fallen in any form of battle. I would like to invite you all to participate in these events to the full and make suggestions as to how we could improve on these festivals.
Becoming a Child, Family and Youth-centred Church
St. Michaels has long been a family orientated church. We are truly blessed to have had 28 new families join us as formal members over the past 18 months. Many of these families have small children. The young people and children of our parish represent almost 50% of our constituency – out of the 550 people on our parish roll, 230 are under the age of 35. What an inheritance!
Une and I have spent many hours brainstorming around the issue of becoming an increasingly child-friendly and family and youth-centred church. We have brought a number of proposals to council which have been graciously approved and we have begun making a concerted effort to restructure our children’s church program for maximum impact.
We piloted our ‘Tree House’ Friday evening youth program and have enjoyed exponential growth and exciting parent buy-in; we have dedicated four services a year to our youth as a platform for mutual inter-generational ministry; we have rewritten course materials for our baptism preparation and preparation for admission to communion courses; we have restructured our children’s church teachers model and brought in a new curriculum.
The number of children and young people attending our services and youth programs has increased. I would like to encourage you all to support us in this very important focus and to participate and contribute towards the needs that are advertised. We are in the process of finalizing quotes for a new jungle gym which our children will begin fundraising towards. They will need roughly R17 000.00 to make this dream a reality.
We have allocated specific spaces (throughout out premises) to all our children’s church age groups. We will soon be starting an outreach ministry to mom’s with newborns which will include visiting and reaching out to our moms, upgrading the cry-room and providing better facilities for changing babies.
We will be establishing a dedicated teen-church on Sunday mornings to complement our vibrant Sunday evening teen ministry. We would like to tile the teen-church area and will begin thinking of youth fundraisers to this effect. If you would like to volunteer to help us bring about these changes and fulfil our dreams for a vibrant family and youth ministry, please contact Une ().
Love Chris
Important Dates:
18 Oct – Social Justice Sunday
25 Oct – Dedication Sunday
1 Nov – All Saints/All Souls Sunday
5 Nov – Remembrance Day Service (Thursday)
8 Nov – Remembrance Sunday
15 Nov – Mission Sunday (Youth Services)
15 Nov – African Service at 11am
22 Nov – Annual Vestry Meeting (between services – starting 8am)
25 Nov – 10 Dec – 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women & Children
29 Nov – Advent Begins
12 Dec – Carols Service
24 Dec – Midnight Mass
25 Dec – Christmas Day Service
Christopher Luyt
Rector
St. Michaels Anglican Church
E:
T: (013) 752-2570
F: (013) 752-8396
C: 072 124 7016
www.stmichaelschurchnelspruit.co.za
Towards reconciliation, reverence, simplicity & kindness