October is a month which is ushered in by angels (the feast of St Michael and All Angels on Sept.30th) and ends on the eve of All Saints. Angels are traditionally seen as the messengers of God – spiritual beings who can convey the thoughts of God. Though at the time of Jesus angels were described in terms of a strict hierarchy with guardian angels at the bottom, Jesus, as in so much else, reversed the order of things and put the guardian angels of children closest to God. All saints on the other hand are human flesh and blood, not able to think the thoughts of God other than through analogies, symbols and images (we cannot pictures spiritual beings like angels and have to make them look like ourselves). The feast of All Saints is the day on which we give thanks for all the men and women and children who have shown in their lives something which enables us to imagine just a little of the life that Jesus lived. October is a good month for named saints in whom we celebrate the Jesus in Francis of Assisi and Teresa of Avila, and St Ignatius, bishop and martyr, in St Luke and Sts Simon and Jude. But by the end of the month we are bidden to think of saintliness in people like ourselves, people who may not be remembered by name, but people who could nevertheless manifest the gifts of the Spirit in their daily lives, alongside a lot else which might seem less than saintly. But after all a saint is not necessarily someone who is conspicuously good, but someone who can be honest about his or her sins and failings and in struggling with them enable goodness also to come to the surface often unaware.
October is also the month in which we as members of the community of St John’s think about the way in which we belong to the church and what the church does for us and what we can do for the church. This year we have a new Mission Action Plan which all of you should have received by the time you read this. It sets out the things we hope and pray we might achieve in the next three to five years. It comes at a significant time in this church’s life. October is what we call stewardship month – because it is also the time when we think about what our church needs in terms of money and volunteers. You will also be receiving a communication spelling out our needs in detail. And this also comes at a significant time in this church’s life.
Over the twelve years I have been here our financial situation has been kept steady by our treasurer, Inigo Wolf, to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude for many more years than that. In various ways we have been enabled to do what we have needed to do, supported not only by regular giving, but also by generous special donations and loans and legacies. We have now, however, for the first time, reached a stage at which what we hope to be able to do cannot be done without a significant increase in our income. We have over the years seemed to be on the verge of not having enough for these needs, and then by clever management just making it with a little left over. But our life at St John’s is changing; some of those who have been generous in the past have died or moved away; a new generation is developing here, who though they are often quite affluent have many calls on their disposable income; nevertheless it is to those who have joined the church over the last five years or so to whom we must chiefly look. We have done our best to get everyone’s view of our church life in the research which you can read about in the Mission Action Plan. It tells us what you like about your church and the ways in which you would like us to develop. But to do that we need a greater income. We will next year not be able to support the diocese and its poorer parishes as generously as we have in the past. We need to put money by, to grow our fabric fund for maintenance and decorative work to be done on the building. We need to maintain and perhaps to increase our paid staff if we cannot get the volunteers we desperately need to help with the organisation of various essential parts of the church life we take for granted. And inevitably we need more money to maintain all that we already do in our worship, our care and nurture of children, and present staffing.
We shall need those of you who already support us generously to see whether you might be able to give something more; we shall need those who have not come onto the regular giving scheme to consider doing so; we shall need those of you who can give a few hours a week to the church to let us know so that we can point you in the direction of where we think you could best help us.
There are many ways in which the church in London is growing in spite of the message of decline we get from the media. There are many ways in which the church is needed in our society not only in the pastoral care it gives to individuals but also through private initiatives like food banks. The church has an important part to play in the conversations our society needs about the way in which it is developing and the religious, moral and social issues which confront us. The message of angels still needs to be heard; the quiet service of the saints still needs to be nourished; the church still depends on the sacrifices which all its members can make in providing the time and money, the prayers and love it needs to sustain all its work for the greater glory of God.
The Vicar Writes
Stephen Tucker