As a Vicar I mix with a lot of church goers, I also meet quite a lot of people who attend church on an irregular basis, and a few people who don’t attend at all. Of those who do not attend I find a surprising number do care about their Parish church, which is excellent because the Parish system means the church is there for everyone who lives in the parish, membership is not conferred by what you believe or by how much you participate. The Parish system was inclusive centuries before the word ‘inclusive’ became a politically correct buzz word, it recognises that people engage with the life of their local church in different ways, and it reflects Jesus’ instruction to his disciples, ‘freely you have received, freely give.’ I don’t understand why people wouldn’t want to know the living God, but I do understand that some people value their Parish Church for reasons of tradition or community or family history, and that Christ bids me welcome them.
In the spring your Parish church will be appointing members of the Parochial Church Council, the people who in partnership with the Vicar enable the life of your local Anglican church. If you care about your local church then you can be a part of the PCC even if you do not attend regularly – you do not have to be ‘churchy’. The PCC looks after a wide variety of tasks, from the spiritual to the practical, from the pastoral to the financial, if you would like to be a part of maintaining our historic buildings, or helping at weddings, or baking for fundraising, or tidying the church yard, then you would be most welcome. Just have a word with me or someone from your local PCC.
PCCs usually have two Church Wardens; the Church Wardens are the senior members of the PCC. Kirklington will soon be looking for another Church Warden. Since the sad passing of Jonathan Craddock various people have kindly pitched in and helped Derrick Potter, but Derrick will have to be stepping down from his role in the near future. It would be very difficult for Kirklington Church to continue to function without Church Wardens. Ideally one Church Warden from Sutton Howgrave and one from Kirklington would enable a strong link to be kept to both villages in the parish.
I think partly because of the apparent changelessness of our wonderful church buildings there can be an assumption that those primarily responsible for their care are not in need of any help. All of our PCCs could use some help, especially Kirklington.
Finally, in my previous article in Village Life I mentioned that the bible only mentioned 'religion' six times, for instance this splendid verse from James, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” However, on further investigation I find the original Greek word in the New Testament usually translated as ‘religion’ actually means ‘worship’, which I think is a different thing. English translations of the bible contain the word ‘religion’ but I suspect that’s not quite what was originally meant.
At its core the Church is not about a building or a denomination, it is about building community between each of us and between each of us and God. Jesus said, ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,' and '...love your neighbour as yourself.'
All are welcome.
Stephen Gamble
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