You have seen the house built, you have seen it adorned
By one who came in the night, it is now dedicated to God.
It is now a visible church, one more light set on a hill
in a world confused and dark and disturbed by portents of fear
and what shall we say of the future? Is one church all we can build?
Or shall the visible church go on to conquer the world?
TS Eliot The Rock
What must the congregation of the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hampstead have thought in 1744 when, their church being in so ruinous a condition that they could no longer worship there, they had to move to a building in Well Walk and consider their options? What could they do? They petitioned Parliament for help to rebuild but, that help not being forthcoming, they set to and raised the money to build a new church themselves. It took two years, from the laying of the foundation stone in 1745 to its dedication on 7th October 1747. And they dedicated the new church to St John, unfortunately omitting from the original document which St John they meant. For this reason, perhaps, we make much of our Dedication Festival (5th October) and ignore a patronal festival which could well fall on 27th December (The Feast Day of St John the Evangelist).
It may be with that awful memory of historical neglect of a building in our background that we’ve always worked to maintain our building particularly well. Happily the Windows Appeal has progressed to the point where two more windows have been removed for restoration recently and less noticeable maintenance goes on all the time. But by no means all our effort and money go into repair and this summer we’ve turned our thoughts outwards more than usual with a collection for Christian Aid’s work in Gaza and Iraq, a blanket making project for Hand in Hand for Syria, Harvest food for the homeless and hungry locally, and many extra pleas from CARIS Haringey met, and in the background our regular commitment to our list of charities carries on as usual – this month we highlight the work of the Hampstead Counselling Service, a local charity providing affordable counselling and support.
October is stewardship month when we look particularly hard at what we do, what we give, and how we witness to our Christian faith in the community and the world. The constant plea over the last few months has been for more volunteers – more sidesmen, servers, coffee-makers, church sitters, gardeners; the list is seemingly endless and ought to be an encouragement, for whatever your talents we can use your help. But it doesn’t seem to work like that and at a meeting in September coordinators of some of the groups began to put the question ‘Why don’t more people volunteer?’ I don’t think they came up with an answer – there is no easy answer – but it’s a question we have to keep asking if we’re to maintain the life of the church without running the faithful few into the ground with the pressure of all they do.
The Suggestions Box is going to be put out again this month for your comments and questions particularly relating to Stewardship – giving in all its forms. If you want to know why we keep asking for more, or have ideas about how we might achieve our goals, please put your comments in the box.
October
Judy East