October 2019
“Here’s the church and here’s the steeple, open the doors and
here’s all the people”
I imagine that you know this children’s rhyme with its hand
actions (tricky for little ones!) It’s
not perfect - most churches around here have towers, not steeples - but it does
at least make clear that the church is the building with its people and not
just the empty building. We have a beautiful
church building here in our village but if you really want to see the
church then you need to come when the church is in the church. And you would be very welcome too! In the same way it can be interesting to
visit an empty football stadium or theatre but to really see what the building
is for you need to be at the big match or enjoying the play.
The word ‘church’ in our Bibles translates a word (Ekklesia in Greek) that means ‘assembly’
or ‘congregation’. Buildings often get
named after the people who meet there: ‘synagogue’ means ‘assembly’ and ‘parliament’
means the people who talk together to make our laws but we think of these as
places too. ‘Church’ properly means
those who discover that they are called by God to belong to him, to serve and
love him and to gather together week by week in his name. The place where we do that also gets called ‘the
church’.
That said, we are pleased that our church building is valued
and appreciated by so many in our village, not just by those who gather each
Sunday and if we are to be able to maintain it for the future we are going to
need the help of a good number of you. So
if you might be willing to tackle some DIY tasks, wield a paint brush or even
to organise contractors to get on with some of the more serious repair projects
then do please get in touch with me, a Warden or anyone from the congregation. Thank you.
We also have Boon Days when we encourage as many as possible to join in
the fun of maintaining the grounds and deep cleaning the building – all in
return for a cup of coffee! Burton’s is
on 12th Oct; we’ve just had one in Holme but there will be another
in the spring.
Sincerely
Graham Burrows