On Sunday 21 March, we will hold our Annual General Meeting. This is an opportunity to hear of God’s work in and through us over the past 12 months. We will hear reports from various ministries, as well as a financial report from our Treasurer. At this meeting, we have the privilege of electing Wardens and Parish Council. For your information and to help in decision making, here are the responsibilities of each:

The role of the Wardens includes the control and administration of all money and property of the church, preparation of financial statements and property maintenance.

The role of Parish Council includes conferring in the initiation, conduct and development of church work and authorising payments and determining matters of policy in the control of the funds and property of the church.

In terms of a Parish Council, we will first vote on whether we should have a Parish Council. We then vote on whether to elect 3, 6 or 9 members of Parish Council (and, as Rector, I am allowed to appoint 1, 2 or 3 additional members accordingly). As the church has grown and the number of congregations multiplied, it is important that we have congregational representation on Parish Council. Of course, there are pros and cons of a large or small council. I would ask you to prayerfully consider who you might encourage to stand for these important positions. Maybe read Acts 6:33 and 1 Tim 3:8-10 to assist in looking for servant hearted leaders. If you would like to talk to me about nominations, please feel free to contact me this week.

On a separate issue, I am deeply thankful to Barry Newman for his teaching on the Lordship of Christ at Getaway last weekend. His love for Jesus, his humility, his wisdom and his willingness to tackle tricky issues was of great benefit to our church. I have been made aware that there’s been much discussion on a very small part of the teaching, namely the comments made about marriage and dating. It would be deeply sad if we ignored everything else that was said, and simply focussed on this one issue. However, given the number of emails, phone calls and Facebook discussions that have sprung up on the specific issue of dating an unbeliever, I have asked Barry to clarify what he said (knowing that our hearing can be selective!). He writes:

“The absolutely best course of action for a Christian is to marry a fellow Christian. The wisest way forward is for a Christian to determine to marry a fellow Christian. The situation where a Christian marries a non-Christian is fraught with difficulties. The Christian is placing his or her commitment to Christ in serious jeopardy. However, I do not think that the text that is often quoted in defence of the position that a Christian should only ever marry a non-Christian has marriage in mind (2 Corinthians 6:14). I think it has to do with idolatry. However, one may think it has implications for the matter of marriage. Marriage is a social institution, not a Christian one. God intends that people marry.  He has written it into the world of humanity, whether people are Christian or not. Where marriages don’t occur, families don’t come into existence (I was speaking with “societies” having a commitment to marriage and children born within marriage in mind).» Barry goes on to talk about situations in which a Christian chooses to marry an unbeliever – including the possible pitfalls and necessary discussions.

I do hope this is helpful in clarifying that choosing to marry an unbeliever is unwise & fraught with difficulties. I am aware that the issue of dating, marriage, divorce, remarriage is particularly relevant to congregations in our demographics, and given the amount of discussion this week, my suggestion is that we run a ‘Hot Topic’ night later in the year.

With love in Christ

Paul Dale
Senior Pastor