Minister's Letter: Family News: October 2023

 

Church is about many things…

Buildings…Here at AFC as the autumn progresses, we’ll start to see the implementation of some of the schemes we agreed at the July Church Meeting.  At the beginning of the month, we expect the arrival of the new sanctuary chairs and by the middle of October the amplification and Livestreaming systems should be installed.  The new car parking system has achieved what we hoped it might, and we are very grateful to those, who behind the scenes, have fielded many enquiries from the general public; for we know your job hasn’t always been easy.

Projects…We are glad, from time to time, to focus on particular projects and activities.  Recently that’s meant our celebration of Harvest and support for Operation Agri and the Chiltern Food Bank.  This month, on October 18^th, we’ll focus on our annual Bible Teaching Day, this year welcoming The Revd Dr Julian Templeton to lead us through a study of The Psalms.  Then, in November, we are thrilled to be hosting a Come and Sing Day for Advent and Christmas.  An opportunity for singers to gather together under the baton of Hilary Davan Wetton, accompanied by David Goode (organ teacher at Eton, who recently played at Peter Lawson’s Thanksgiving).

People…Of course this aspect of church life is really important.  So, last month it was a great honour for us at AFC to host services of remembrance for both Ray Norris and Peter Lawson.  This month the emphasis will change as we welcome Zoe Ellis and Matthew Green for their wedding on Saturday 21^st October at 1.30pm.  Matthew and Zoe will be delighted to see friends from AFC at their service that day, do come along and share this time in church if you wish.

And then there are the new Elders’ Lists.  Recently you will have been given a copy of the church directory from your Contact Elder.  If you have any questions or comments about church life, do speak to your elder as they are a valuable point of contact between you and the elders’ meeting.  Of course, as you get to know your elder, we hope a bond of friendship will grow between you. We fully understand that you may wish to share some pastoral news with them.  We also hope that, as time goes by, the ministry of the pastoral team will become increasingly helpful and valued among us.  You can ‘access’ the Pastoral Team either through talking to the Ministers, passing on a request for help via your elder, or approaching a member of the Team directly (their names are published weekly on the Notice Sheet).

And finally, under ‘People’, during October we will be speaking a bit about Church Membership during the services.  AFC is a ‘Gathered Church’, which means people deliberately and prayerfully ‘opt in’ to becoming members.  Well, if we are gradually becoming your ‘Spiritual Home’ we’d love to welcome you as an official church member.  Do have a word with Ian if you would like a chat about taking this further.

Of course, our prayer is that in every aspect of our church life the Lord Jesus Christ will be central.