Dear Friends,
On my bookshelf I have a book entitled ‘How to read a church’. It is full of fascinating facts and figures about architecture and the significance and use of various pieces of church furnishing. Like many people, I enjoy visiting churches of all denominations when I am on holiday, for you can learn a great deal about the history of communities from the church buildings at their centre. Or at least, you could in days gone by. These days so many churches are closed that this particular pastime is not so easy to pursue.
And actually of course, the church building is really only the home for the people who are the living church. So, you could learn about the history of the church in that community from the building, but you cannot learn about the activity of the church of today from it. And now that so many buildings are closed it is hard to know whether there is an active church in many communities or not.
All this places a huge responsibility on those of us who are the active church in our own day, no matter which building we occupy. We have beautiful buildings which people like to visit for all sorts of reasons. But in order to visit, the buildings need to be open. And in order to keep them open we need active and faithful Christian people who are willing to spend time in them, and willing to share their faith and knowledge with those who want to visit. Is this something to which you could give an hour or two every so often? If it is, please speak to the minister or the session clerk.
We will be drawing up rotas for Welcomers for the coming year very soon, and we would like to be able to keep our doors open for as long as possible. Our buildings are not just wood and stone and symbols of our history. They are the home of our living, active and faithful congregation, and that is each and every one of us.
With love and blessings,
Marion
Categories: Minister's Blog