A challenge to our stewardship
Ordinary Sunday 21: 24th August, 2008
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Today we are providing some important information for everyone present and asking for a response. We will have this material available over several weeks. We have two goals here: the first is to put together a renewed parish database that is as comprehensive and as accurate as we can. If you are new to St Peter's or if you have not got an envelope at the back of the church that has your name on it, we would very much appreciate some more information from you. We would like to see you included in this community of faith in this way. If that sounds good to you, please take one of the blank envelopes also available and take a little time to fill in the requested details. But everyone is asked to fill in the data base form, unless this is a once only visit here today. If this is in any way your spiritual home base, then all this material is for you.
Our second goal is to do with money. You will see in this material that we are also asking everyone to consider their financial stewardship. We do this each year around this time as a vital part of the preparation of our parish budgetary planning for the new church financial year, which starts on October 1st. This is of course a fact of organizational life that needs to be addressed honestly and directly.
The challenge is to respond in our Christian stewardship to a degree that is actually representative in financial terms of what St Peter's means to us and what St Peter's means in our overall scheme of things, insofar as we are able.
These are very basic issues. It starts with an assessment of the place of God and the place of the spiritual in our lives. It moves from there to a consideration of how and where we would wish to live out and to explore those core issues. Thanksgiving is at the centre.
The question is this: how and to what degree we are able to commit a regular proportion of our own resources into this particular community of faith at St Peter's Eastern Hill. Do we want to do this? A considerable number of people here are already doing this. It is as it were a co-operative venture and we can see the results around us. This is the way a voluntary association like a parish church works — that is obvious. There is life and growth here to the degree that we are living and growing and making our commitment, in God's good grace, in all our variety. We share in the spiritual life and work here. We enjoy, we grow, we serve, we pray, we welcome. As we come to the end of winter and approach our springtime, we again look to see things here blossom and flourish. Individuals, groups, ministries.
Our request and the challenge to each of us who value what we do here and what we stand for, is a request and a challenge once again to commit ourselves to make a firm financial commitment to the ongoing life of this place week by week, whether we are able to be present or not. This can be done by planned giving envelopes or by direct debit. There is an excellent arrangement available through the Anglican Development Fund, which we commend. If you indicate on the stewardship form that method as the one you would prefer, all the necessary information will be provided for you directly by our Stewardship Secretary in time for October 1st.
According to our ability, we are asked to consider these money matters as they relate to this place. We know and honour the Lord's teaching about the widow's mite. We remember that her very small gift at the Temple was accounted more than the spare change offered by some of the very wealthy. We know what our own financial circumstances are. For some at this time things are very tight and everyone faces a whole range of demands for attention. But difficult times are actually the times when we most want and need a place like St Peter's Eastern Hill to be flourishing.
What is happening here today is that I as the incumbent priest and leader of the ministry team invite each one of us to consider. I ask us all to consider again how, in thanksgiving for all that is so special about this place and this community, we as individuals can renew our financial support for another year. Or do it for the first time. Shared across a lot of people this is actually not at all burdensome. Shared across even more people it might just become pleasurable. The response to this annual challenge over the past few years has been very encouraging indeed and we give thanks.
We know what we value and love. St Peter's Eastern Hill is very special. It is a particular church in a particular tradition. Just now, all that this place represents depends on us. Much is expected of this place and its people. Our Parish Vision Statement acknowledges ministry and service that reaches out well beyond. Because of the extra resources we already have, we are looked to for leadership, for reinvigoration, for encouragement. We are God's stewards and custodians in this particular generation and in these particular and troubling times. We are surrounded by the prayers and the example of all the faithful generations that have gone before and the material fruits of their labours, but now it is our turn.
We are choosing to do this in a particular way. Faced with conflict and controversy, we are not saying circle the wagons and put up the barricades. We are rather saying that the lights are on and the doors are open. Come and join us. You are welcome. God is worshipped and God is worshipped with great care and beauty, in ways that with joy and reverence reach across the centuries. The needy are served and we seek to engage more and more with the community around us here at this end of the City. We enjoy good times together; we offer care to each other when things are tough. We have responsibilities and we would like to do things better than we do. We need continuing and growing resources to do this.
That is the crunch. What is necessarily involved is a still larger group of people than at present making a firm commitment to giving week by week to the work and witness of this particular community of faith. We need this to happen. It is as simple as that and as hard as that. Even another 20 or 30 people embracing the hopes and needs and vision of this fine place and fine community, in this particular and very practical week by week way, would make a very significant difference. So I guess what I am saying is how about it?
This is again a time to stand up and be counted. This is a time to renew or to claim for the first time your real connection to this city church, the parish church of the City of Melbourne since 1847, this anglo-catholic city church that has contributed so much through the generations. As I said, it is now our turn.
This is a time to make a renewed and generous commitment to what we do and offer here. Our tradition and our community will indeed live and thrive and be passed on to the next generations, with God's grace and with our active participation. This is a great time to be part of the community of faith here at The Hill. I commend the material you are receiving today to your prayerful and thankful consideration.
The Lord be with you.
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