St Albans Uniting Parish

Readings

Acts 8: 26-40

The Ethiopian in this episode is most likely what was called a ‘God-fearer’.  These were people who found the many gods of the pagan world an unlikely reality and whose spiritual focus was directed toward one God.  They took an active interest in Judaism as a religion of one God and studied the scripture but race and willingness to have the operation limited their full involvement. 

We can at least be sure, William Barclay says, that as we are told he went on his way rejoicing he would not have kept quiet about his new faith. [1]   Bill Loader concludes his commentary by saying:

There is a major Christian church in Ethiopia still today which traces its roots to this event as its legend of origins.[2]

John 15:1-8

This is part of the farewell discourse which begins in chapter 13 after the departure of Judas and concludes with the prayer in chapter 17. Then Chapter 18 begins with them moving across the Kidron valley to the garden where Jesus is arrested. 

Again, Loader makes an important contribution writing that the image of the tree, vine or plant invites us to sense the divine as beneath us, rising up. The simplicity of the image of life from below suits John’s spirituality well, where relationship is what matters, and how we live is determined solely by that relationship, and what flows from it.  [3].

Sermon

In Further commenting on the Acts reading Bill Loader writes that ‘Small apparently insignificant chance encounters filled with the Spirit of love can change the course of history’.[4]

The random selection of a house in Hamilton meant that it was inevitable that I encountered the Rev Alan Leadley who was the minister at St. Albans Cooperating Parish in Hamilton.  Furthermore, his first parish was one of the churches which made up what is now St. Albans Uniting Parish in Christchurch.  After Alan retired he came and worshiped with me at St Stephens and became a good friend.  During that time, he told me that Rev Dr Bill Loader was coming to see him and I should ask him to preach.  Of course I agreed. 

Therefore, when Bruce Baillie pointed out Bill’s online New Testament commentary I regularly checked it out for our notes on our readings. 

Not only are those a few of the many Spirit filled chance encounters that have stimulated my ministry, they also illustrate the interconnected weaving of the Christ vine. 

The two most significant chance encounters began with a closing remark from the Rev Myrtle Rough. ‘Perhaps one day you will be a wee minister Hugh’ It was as I drove back to work from that meeting I realised that my calling to the photographic industry was coming to a close and a new chapter in my life was beginning.

The other change encounter was perhaps more calculated by the Rev John Hunt but certainly surprised me.  I returned to the parish office to discover a voice mail message from John asking me to phone him back before evening.  Those of you who were on that settlement board will remember exactly what John wanted to talk about and I had a pretty fair idea.  The fact that he wanted a reply that very afternoon caused me to suspect that he was the convenor of a settlement board and he had left his homework until the last minute. 

I did not want to return to Christchurch, but John deserved the courtesy of a reply.  Not only did I not want to return to Christchurch, but St Albans was one of the parishes I did not want to return to.

John’s attempt to persuade me on the basis of having family in Christchurch was unsuccessful.  Furthermore, the suggestion that three parishes wanted to come together on one site reminded me that parishes that do that usually end up with one parish that is slightly smaller than the smallest of those combining.

John paused in our discussion, then said ‘Ah well Hugh, it would seem that God has a task for you here in Christchurch’  

That made the conversation much more serious and I agreed he could send me the parish profile.  The rest is history.  I consulted colleagues and read through the material eventually deciding to meet with the board and the congregation. 

The idea of bringing the three congregations together and using the surplus capital for community facing mission appealed to me.  Certainly, I was suspicious of the outcome of combining the congregations.

But one of the significant little niggles in my head was ‘how would I feel if the strategy works but it is someone else that does it.’

It did work, but most importantly we did it together.

There was a drop off in numbers, but we have stabilised that drop and held our own as other parishes have declined, but that is not really the point.  An important part of my contract finishing, and new ministry beginning is that we all must replace ourselves for the mission of the church and this church to continue.

That is what Jesus’ farewell speech is about and we would have to say that his succession plan worked extremely well.  The portion we read this morning talks about Jesus as the vine and in my time here the network of people we have created is a vital part of what we have been able to achieve.

Very early on my contacts with Presbyterian support lead to their social worker, Anna Mowat, using an office in our Knowles street building.  Under the direction of Peter and Ruth, Anna and some of Anna’s contacts helped set up our community garden.  I will never forget the woman who was amazed at the idea that the potatoes that Peter was putting in the garden would grow.  The Jesus vine was even more apparent when at our first meeting I said to Anna that I wanted to start a Music and Movement group and Anna gave me the phone number of someone she thought would help.  I phoned the number and left a message and eventually a very apologetic Jody Keehan replied to the message.  Because we are all part of the vine Jody knew the people who ran Mainly Music at St Stephens in Hamilton.  In terms of the outreach of this parish the Movement and Music part of the vine has thrived and produced much fruit. 

It was through the Movement and Music vine that we grafted on the Breakfast Church, a cutting I obtained from an address at Assembly from the Rev Barry Kelk, another ex-photographer and therefore part of a much older network of tangled connections.     

We also grafted a couple of ideas from the community network meeting into St Albans.  A further graft onto the Music and Movement branch was Christmas in pyjamas.  I will never forget that first event.  I bought a children’s Christmas story from Philip Garside who was not only Mr Epworth Books at the time but is married to Averil’s daughter.  We promoted the idea among the Music and Movement people and then, on Christmas Eve, we waited and waited.  We had a small group here, but it really looked a bit of a disappointment.  Then with a few minutes to start time I looked out the door and saw a procession of parents and small children heading our way.  Not only had the graft taken but some of those families were successfully budded onto the Breakfast Church Branch. 

The City Council’s Community Network meeting was something I had been involved in while in Hamilton so when I found a notice about the Shirley Papanui meeting I went to it because if the Jesus vine is truly going to be fruitful it must reach out into the community and to the unchurched. 

After all it was on a journey from Jerusalem to Gaza that Philip had a chance meeting with the Ethiopian stranger.  In the ensuing conversation Philip gave the Ethiopian a cutting of the Jesus vine, which was successfully smuggled past the Ethiopian biosecurity.  That part of the vine became so well established that members of that church now rent our parsonage.  I know that because I met up with their Priest at a function organised by local MPs.  Poto Williams introduced him to me because he was sitting by himself not knowing anybody.  We must always remember that the St Albans Uniting vine is connected to a much greater tangle of networks. 

At one of the very early Shirley Papanui Community Network Meetings I attended Barbara Roper from Papanui High School’s adult education department said that they wanted to establish a men’s shed. 

In my community networking in Hamilton I had learned about men’s sheds, so I volunteered as a start-up committee member and conspired with a couple of our men to graft the Men’s Shed onto our vine. 

Another encounter happened when Ruth came to me and asked if her daughter could say a few words to the congregation when she was home from Geneva.  I knew Jill Hawkey from the time she was with Christian World Service so my response to Ruth was that I didn’t just want Jill to just say a few words. Through Ruth I asked Jill to preach and tell us much as possible of her work with the international Christian Aid agency ACT.  The Holy Spirit subsequently brought Jill home to run the Methodist Mission and she has become a good friend of St Albans Uniting. 

When I was first ordained in Hamilton one of my colleagues from a neighbouring parish who offered support was the Rev. Nancy Jean Whitehead and I regularly came across her daughter Liz who worked for Christian World Service. 

There were parts of what I saw as the mission of this parish that were beyond my capabilities and while we had excessive building money invested we advertised for someone to fill that gap.  Along came Liz with her extensive experience of working with young people and certainly another connection in the networking of the Christ vine.

It is now time for me to be pruned off from this branch of the vine and new talent be grafted on.  My own experience also tells me that the Holy Spirit will also graft me somewhere else. 

When I first went into ministry a person I met by change, he was Japanese not Ethiopian, asked why I would give up such a neat job as a photographer.  I flippantly replied that I wanted to change the world.  Soon after I met Poto Williams I expressed my concern about something and she gave me a friendly squeeze and a peck on the check and said, ‘Don’t worry Hugh, you and I will change the world.’

That bothers me, but it is after all the purpose of the way Jesus used the vine metaphor.  To encourage his disciples to change the world. 

Christ’s words are to abide in us and we are to share those words with the chance encounters we have along the way.  In our reading Jesus makes it clear that is the purpose of our tangled journey, our connection to the vine.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. (John 15:8) 

So now the master gardener takes the branch that is the Rev Hugh Perry and painfully winds him onto a different wire, like Peter Mears’ berry fruit vines behind the Menz Shed.  My prayer is that you all continue to nurture the part of the vine that is St. Albans Uniting because

It is my abiding faith that God’s realm is lived into reality and the world will change as we all abide in Christ and Christ abides in us.