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St Mary's Church Banbury

Sharing Review 2005

Click here for a copy of the Review (PDF file)

Articles on the Review can be found in the July 2005 edition of In Touch

The following sermon on the Review was preached by the Anglican Priest-in-Charge in June 2005
Trinity 4 Proper 7 (19.6.05)
Gen 21 v 8-21, Matthew 10 v 24-39

O how good and pleasant it is, when a family lives together in unity so said the psalmist .. (psalm 133v1)
For examples of dysfunctional family life just turn to the Bible especially the OT todays lesson from Genesis one father, two mothers, two children and jealously and hurt and exclusion. But even Jesus made clear that following him was not a recipe for sweetness and light at home, far from it. Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth but a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, etc etc. Following Jesus does mean working through tensions and choosing loyalties a happy family life is by no means guaranteed!

And it is sometimes similar with church life.
And how similar Abrahams household is to our own church situation one father Abraham ( for us God), one home (for us this church), two mothers and children, (for us two different denominations CofE & URC). And at times family life is happy & purposeful and at another time there are tensions. But on the whole well let me quote part of the sharing agreement review Two families in one house is what it feels like. This is a positive image theres no sense of two families being in one families house. Afterall like Abrahams household we all have the same Father.

Over the last few months weve been reviewing the sharing agreement weve had with the URC for the last 12 or more years. The results of the review were presented to the PCC and the elders last month, they have now been formally accepted it and agreed we explore the recommendations further.

We have here for you today a summary of the review. The full review it will be on the church web site from tomorrow and there is a copy in church in a purple folder. Im not proposing to take you through the summary line by line but highlight just a few of the issues and developments we are working on.

First, it is important to say that overall the review was very positive about life at St. Marys. It recognised that the Joint Church Council does a good job of overseeing the management of the building. The work on the Appeal launched in 2001 was very much a shared exercise; Stewarding the church and Livearts@stmarys are jointly run and are both central to our ministry and service to the community.

I also want to stress that both denominations pay equal amounts towards the upkeep and running of the church currently thats 575 per month and whilst we find that hard enough to pay, for the URC congregation it is even harder to find as their congregation is smaller.

So, the review team did find much which is good about our sharing together at St. Marys. I think on the evening of the presentation it felt a bit heavier than that - perhaps a some anxiety and a realisation that there are always challenges (& the purpose of the review wasnt to give us all the answers! Since there has been prayer, discussion and the beginnings of development. Last Saturday, Giles and I, and Neil & Rosemary Shadbolt travelled down to Reading for a day conference on ecumenical working. The pea & lettuce soup was excellent and we came back feeling much happier learning of other church experiences we found we are not alone in the difficulties we face and things could be a whole lot worse! O how good and pleasant it is, when a family lives together in unity and generally we do!

Undoubtedly the biggest strain we experience is on Sunday mornings the change over time between this service & the 11am. Twelve years ago the size of the 9.30 congregation was such that it didnt take long to leave church but alleluia we have grown significantly & it has been taking longer & longer. Those of you who were here last week will have experienced something of a solution. We left by the south porch door, leaving the glass doors & hymn book zone free of congestion for the next service.. those setting up for 11am were delighted. Well done everyone. so remember come down the central aisle and up the south one & just leave hymn books etc on the tables.

Another suggestion that has been made is that we pray together more this comes out more clearly in the full review than the summary. It doesnt mean we have to set up lots of joint prayer groups though we could but for a start the ministers have produced a prayer we could all pray at home and in our different services over the next few months as we work on the review. Weve also taken this as an opportunity to update the church prayer calendar, with a suggested prayer topic for each day of the month. So please take it away and use it & Andys going to set us off on this track by using the prayer on the front in the intercessions.

The review team also wondered whether we could worship together more, though it recognised that each denomination very much values its own traditions. At this stage looking were not planning more joint Sunday morning services but perhaps build on the joint healing ministry & Taize worship as well as some of the joint special services weve introduced in recent years such as the Industrial Harvest and Business carol service. Indeed in the short term it might look as though we will be having less joint worship as in August, for this year, the JCC decided we wont have joint Sunday 10am service but well stick with our 9.30 service and the URC have a variety of plans for their service.

Finally, one thing of which I have become increasingly aware is that the Church of England with its canon law can make a more flexible denomination such as the URC feel as though they dont have an equal voice . weve got to do it this way say the Anglicans.. and then perhaps the URC can identify with Hagars feelings when Sarah didnt want Isaac to play with her son. We havent had what is called mutuality of ministry. What we have had is a situation where the URC recognises my ministry fully and I am automatically authorised to lead any of their acts of worship, including communion but the reverse has not been true.

However, the nationally agreed Anglican- Methodist covenant has resulted in a look at canon law and the production of a set of guidelines which can also be applied in our situation. To cut a long story short (and I will say more about this soon) Bishop Colin has this week, been pleased to give permission to Neil & Lynda (the URC ministers licensed to this church & only them) to lead a common worship communion service occasionally under the terms of Canon B43. There is more to be said about this and we wont be rushing into it but I, personally, do see it as an excellent step forward in recognising that we do all share the same heavenly father, we do all follow the same Jesus, and whilst we do have different understandings of communion we do all recognise that sharing in communion is both about sharing in communion with God and with one another. It is complex and I promise you more on this .. but not now.

So, I hope you agree that the sharing review certainly hasnt been a paper exercise but real developments are coming from it. In the autumn well be looking towards drawing up a shared mission statement but for the meantime we pray for Gods guidance and his blessing on our life together as the shared church of St. Mary in Banbury.