Issue No 159
Magazine for the Irfon and Wye Valley Churches February 2014
A Different Way to Work … “There are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given by the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. There are different ways to work. But the same God makes it possible for all of us to have all those different things” (1 Cor. 12:4-6) As Christians we affirm that we are a pilgrim people and we belong to God, who calls us on a pilgrimage. We all make a journey of discovery through our lives from our birth to our death, and our spiritual journey is no different in this respect to our physical journey. We affirm that God is at the heart of all life and of each life and wants us to constantly discover new things in ourselves and in each other. We affirm that each person has been given gifts and abilities which, when shared, grow and develop in both the person who offers, and the person who receives. And so, in our Church life we affirm that we need to release the cork from the bottle and let the God given life and gifts overflow. Following a root and branch review, the central vision of the Church in Wales has been renewed with a commitment to developing into a re-energised and re-invigorated Church; one in which responsibility for the Church’s mission and ministry to the wider community is shared among all the baptised. This new vision takes as its text a passage from the beginning of the First Letter of John: ‘Our theme is the Word which gives us life... the eternal life which was with the Father and was made visible to us... It is this which we have seen and heard that
we declare to you also, in order that you may share with us in a common life, that life which we share with the Father and his son Jesus Christ’. The creation of ‘Ministry Areas’ as part of this vision is one of the most radical changes we’re making. Traditional parish boundaries are being redrawn to make much larger areas which will be served by a team of people, both lay and cleric. Ministry Areas reflect huge changes which have taken place in our society. The parish system, as originally set up with a single priest serving a small community, was put in place when people lived and worked in the same parish. All this has now changed – the communities to which people now belong are very varied and people travel freely. Ministry Areas cover a broad geographical area. Rather than relying on individual clergy to minister to an increasing number of congregations, they are served by a mixed ministry team, some of whom are stipendiary ministers but most of whom are not. Some may be specialists in certain types of ministry, such as with young people or with those with little or no connection with the church. Individual churches, meanwhile, still have local leaders, who are part of the ministry team. Ministry Areas are incarnational in that they are rooted in local communities with local leadership. They are apostolic in having leaders with responsibility for teaching, fostering vocations and empowering others for ministry. They are missional in seeking new opportunities for ministry and evangelism. They are prophetic in that they recognise the signs of the times and plan for the future. They are visionary in that they require a new way of responding to God’s call to extend his Kingdom. The Deanery of Builth is consulting on the division of the Deanery into two Ministry Areas at an Open Meeting on February 12th 2014 at 19.30 in The Jubilee Hall, Llanelwedd. This is an opportunity for groups and individuals to have their say in how these ministry areas will develop.
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