Council Meeting 24th April

The meeting was attended by 50 people from 16 churches. Jane Still represented FCCT.

 

Canon Anthony Whale welcomed us to St Joan’s and opened the meeting with a reading from Ephesians before leading us in prayer and reflection.    

Nine were received and recorded.

The Minutes of the AGM on 16^th October 2007 were approved.

In her opening remarks, Acting Chairperson Jenny Floyer introduced to the meeting the members of the Steering Committee, who had been asked at the AGM to form a committee.

 

She reported that the hard working Steering Committee had had a busy six months. They had met on three occasions and always began the meeting with an extended time of prayer and reflection in seeking the Lord for the way ahead. Events and activities included the One World Week United Service in October 2007, hosted by Farnham Pentecostal Church; the United Service to celebrate the Centenary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January 2008, hosted by All Saints, Tilford; and the collation and publication of a leaflet with details of the various Lent courses provided by member churches. A number of people had taken advantage of this opportunity to share resources. Other events and activities would be referred to in separate reports to the meeting.

Jenny Floyer handed over the chair to the Revd Desmond Parsons for this item and on his proposal the acting Officers appointed by the Steering Committee were elected en bloc. They are Jenny Floyer (Chair), the Revd Desmond Parsons (Vice-Chair), and Benedict Parsons, Gwen Mansfield and Mary Clarke (Secretarial and Publicity team). Andrew Marriott had already been re-elected treasurer at the AGM in October.

 

There were no matters arising.

6.1 Treasurer: Andrew Marriott recorded the Steering Committee's gratitude to the 14 churches who had given £20 each to CTF funds in response to the Steering Committee's appeal for donations. He said this was enough to keep things going for the time being. This funding had been needed in particular to cover the cost of public liability insurance for public events such as the Good Friday Walk of Witness.

 

6.2. Christmas Day Lunch: Michael McDonnell said this event was very much appreciated by the guests, and for the volunteers and catering team it was a privilege to be involved. For the 2008 Christmas Lunch there was need for volunteers - in particular for a co-ordinator for transport to take over from Rob Heasman, who had done a magnificent job in this capacity, and also for a co-ordinator for the volunteers.

6.3. Library displays: Michael McDonnell stated that the Manager of Farnham Library welcomed proposals for displays at the library. However space for displays was already booked until November.

 

6.4. Christian Aid: On behalf of co-ordinator Sadie Blankleyit was reported that Christian Aid Week would be from 11th-17th May this year. The opening event would be a joint service at St John's, Hale, on Sunday 11th May at 6.30pm. Other events for Christian Aid were a plant sale at St Thomas-on-the Bourne on Tuesday 6th May at 10.30am, a lunch at Rowledge Methodist Church on 7th May (first Wednesday of the month) and a quiz night in the Leverton Hall at St Peter's, Wrecclesham, on Friday 9th May at 7.30pm.

6.5. Friday Focus: Gwen Mansfield arranges for articles on Christian themes to be contributed week by week to the Farnham Herald and compiles the rota for churches to write this. The Chair reported on her behalf that there had recently been a number of occasions in January and February when contributions failed to appear. However, following contact with the Farnham Herald, Friday Focus had been published regularly for the past two months. Jenny requested that churches are diligent in sending in their contribution and suggested that Representatives also invite other members of their church to help.

6.6. Good Friday Walk of Witness: The Chair reported that this annual event, competently organised by Stewart Dakers, had taken place successfully. For two years now the walk has proceeded to St Andrew’s without stopping at the Woolmead. This is considered to be a better arrangement time-wise and for the police / traffic flow. The Steering Committee had considered a suggestion that at future Walks of Witness Palm Crosses, possibly with daffodils attached, could be handed to some of the bystanders along the route. Several people in the audience supported this idea and the Chair said the Steering Committee would look into it further. 

 

The date for this event is Sunday 19th October. The theme will be 'Growing Together'. As it is the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it was proposed that the event has this in mind and perhaps work with Human Rights organisations such as Amnesty International. Responding to a request from the Chair, the Revd Andrew Tuck offered to host this United Service at St Andrew's. His offer was gratefully accepted.

 

 

Organiser Ann Scrase gave a short presentation. She spoke of the success already achieved by the campaign, now celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Birmingham Human Chain in 1998. Many people from Farnham, including several present at this meeting, had taken part in that event. The benefits of relieving some of the burden of debt on poor countries were already being felt, with the proceeds being ploughed back into education and health, but it was as essential as ever that pressure should be maintained. A coach would be travelling from Farnham to the campaign's Journey to Justice event in Birmingham on 18th May and she urged that as many as possible should take part.

 

 

 

  

As there was no immediate response from the meeting to this proposal the Chair said the Steering Committee would think about it again at a later date.

 

10. Network Farnham and CTF Websites:

(www.networkfarnham.org.uk & www.churchestogetherinfarnham.org.uk)))))))))))) & )

A report was given by Richard Wimbush who manages the above websites. Substantial resources are available online about events, activities and issues relating to local churches and to a wider field. These include a detailed quarterly Events List, compiled by Benedict Parsons. Richard Wimbush encourages anyone who has events for promotion, to refer them to him as the web enables a broader reach than is obtainable via other means of publicity.The address for submissions is: admin@networkfarnham.org.uk

 

 Benedict Parsons said the Steering Committee was conscious that all the member churches were praying about many things but shared prayer would be a wonderful way of bringing them all together. This could relate both to individual and to wider needs for prayer. With support from the meeting, the Steering Committee agreed to explore this matter further.

 

 It was agreed that the Steering Committee would think about this prior to further discussion at the AGM.

 

13. A.O.B.:

It was announced that Churches Together in Surrey was celebrating the Centenary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with a Special Service and activities for all ages at Guildford Cathedral on Sunday 18th May at 3pm.

 

The Chair stated that this would be held on Tuesday 14th October in the Lantern at St Thomas-on-The Bourne Church.

 

15. Talk: A Vision for the Church in Farnham 'All One in Christ Jesus':

 

Kenton Sparks gave a compelling talk exploring his vision for an all-as-one approach to the problem of bringing Christianity to a secular society.

He said: "I feel I am on a journey, experiencing a place and a time when society is changing radically". Most of us grew up in a very different society - then it was Christendom. We were brought up with a framework and a set of values. We now lived in a secular society with very different values. For most younger people today their only experience of church was at baptisms, weddings and funerals. At two out of the three the main participant was either unaware of what was happening or dead! The majority of people today had no other experience of Christian worship. They felt about as comfortable in church as we might feel in a mosque or a Sikh temple. In 1900 55 per cent of children went to Sunday School. In 2000 it was under five per cent Most children had little or no idea what Christianity was about. They had no framework. Children might wish to push against a framework, but if the framework was there, they would return.

Kenton Sparks said his focus was not on what we in our various different churches did on Sunday. It was on what we could do together from Monday to Saturday to reach out to the generations that had grown up with no knowledge of Christianity. He was convinced that this was the direction in which Jesus Christ was leading us. In Jesus's ministry it was 'Go to them.' There was very little 'Come to us'. We can get very depressed about it, or we can feel challenged and excited. How do we connect with this space? We know we are on a journey and it is a journey of faith." 

 

Kenton Sparks said his story was very simple. "I was very happy being a Baptist - I was happy that as a Baptist I had the best version of the truth. But God challenged me about this ... I felt I had to do something that I didn't want to do. I heard God say: 'When I look at Farnham I only see one church because I only have one body. How man has organised it is not how I see it.' God is saying: 'I want to reach the Monday to Saturday of life in our community.'

 

"The world does not make sense of our disunity - our tribalism. We need to show unity in our diversity. For me this journey is about the Monday to Saturday space - this is the space that God has called us into. That which distinguishes us should not divide us. We are on a journey of relating to one another."

 

Everyone was asked to form into small groups and each to tell of a way in which contact with a church other than their own had been important to them.

 

Kenton Sparks then closed the meeting with prayer after which we all joined hands to share the grace.