Rector's Report 1998
From the booklet of Annual Reports
presented to the Annual Parish Meeting on 28th April 1998
The reports in this booklet reflect the breadth of the ministry of St Peters, and the active involvement and commitment of very many people within its life. They give a picture of the overall mission and ministry
of St Peters which is difficult to appreciate from the perspective of Sunday worship
alone. I also hope that the vision which informs and unifies our life and
work as a community will become apparent from reading about the work and prayer which goes
on day by day at St Peters. If I were asked to spell this out I would say that we
are committed to letting the reality of God be known in our worship and in our lives, and
through our engagement with and commitment to the world around us.
Worship
Worship is at the heart of it and is the reason for our existence. We are fortunate to
have such good resources for worship in the choir, in our Readers and the many people who
read and pray with such sensitivity and with evident care and thought. A lot of planning
goes into the preparation of worship and I am grateful to Andrew Teague, Nigel Day, Mike
Leuty and all the members of the choir for their commitment to rehearsals and to the
selection of the right music. Careful thought is given to choice of hymns and the working
out of the correct readings - the new Lectionary introduced at Advent has been a challenge
- and Eileen spends much time on this. Helen Walker has been invaluable in mastering the
new lectionary and calendar. Meg Skellern has the unenviable task of trying to fill Sunday
slots with readers and prayers and those administering the chalice. Special services,
seasonal services and mid-week worship all require careful attention and this must be our
first priority. It has been encouraging to see new people coming to St Peters over
this past year and to receive recently a comment like this one from an occasional young
attender, not a committed Christian but who writes:
I do appreciate St Peters
it manages a wonderful and healthy mix of
ancient and modern, and feels deeply spiritual in a deeply English way. Its very
refreshing.
The new Lectionary has provided the opportunity to move away from set
weekly themes and attend to particular books of the bible more carefully. You will have
noticed that in the Gospel readings this year we are hearing Lukes account of Jesus.
The new experimental Eucharistic prayers, which we have been asked to use and comment on,
have made us think a little more about what is helpful in worship, not only for ourselves,
but in uniting people of differing backgrounds, ages and tastes as the Body of
Christ. It
is a reminder that it Christ who unites us, not our like-mindedness. To this end we have
also been thinking about the place of the children of our community in relation to the
Eucharist.
The care and involvement of the children of St Peters is
something which continues to concern us. The work of Helen Walker and Gus and Vidge
Rochester with the SPOGs (St Peters Older Group!) has been marvellous but they are
not able to continue and we are looking for help here as with the Sunday School. This is
not just the responsibility of the clergy but of the whole church. We feel we are not
doing enough and yet it is difficult to provide a programme when we never know who if any
will be coming!
Outreach
The task of the church is, as one person put it, to help people to do
business with God. That begins with worship but does not end there for
worship must flow into life. The work of Wally Huckle as Commercial Chaplain is a major
expression of this ministry of service and outreach into our community. The work of The
Park Committee has helped us reach into our residential community. It is a great relief
this year not to be giving you assurances about the Marks and Spencers development
but to see it actually taking shape alongside us and sense the growing anticipation as the
date for hand-over (November 2nd) draws closer. I am grateful to Richard Davis
for acting as our liaison officer with Tarmac and M&S during the build period. There
is much work to be done by us, and them, but the potential for new and improved facilities
for the life of St Peters and in particular the Coffee Room is exciting. Mention of
the Coffee Room cannot be made without a thank you to all the helpers, cake makers and
co-ordinators. Thanks are due to Brenda Wallis who has had to give up being a Thursday
co-ordinator due to ill health and I am grateful to Jane Moore for taking her place.
The lunchtime forums of earlier years have been radically revamped this year and
emerged as The City Debate. These early evening meetings have
proved popular and effective and now have the active support and involvement of the
Nottingham Evening Post. It has been possible to attract national figures to speak. Civic
and community leaders have attended and valued the meetings as well as many members of the
public. It was interesting to see the red banner of the Socialist Workers Party
propped up at the back of St Peters during the lively discussion with Bill Morris of
the TGWU in the autumn. A working group from the congregation has been involved in
planning and arranging these meetings.
Another new initiative coming from St Peters has been the establishment of Reflection
- The Centre for Counselling and Spirituality. This has grown out of our
experience of the needs of people coming into the city centre for pastoral support and
help. The centre will provide affordable short term counselling without having to go on a
long waiting list. The counsellors will give their time voluntarily and recognise in their
work the spiritual and religious belief of those they are helping. The Centre will also
provide information about spiritual direction and opportunities to explore the interface
between counselling and spirituality. Premises have been acquired above St Marys
Parish Office on Standard Hill. As well as myself, the PCC appoints one of the Centre
trustees.
Mid-week we continue to provide an excellent service to the public
through the Coffee Room which draws people into the church sometimes for prayer as well as
cake! The Pastoral Team of Hugh Johnson, Leri Burden, Jan Huckle and Jim McLean provide a
listening and praying presence during the lunchtime period. Liz Alexander and Richard
Evans lead the Monday lunchtime meditation group and Jan along with Andrew Wallis and the
clergy plan and lead the Wednesday Prayer in the Day. On Wednesdays in Advent Desert
Island Spirituality proved popular as did In the Company of the Saints in Lent.
Desiree Warner and Brenda Powdrill have provided support and care to those who come to the
Thursday morning Communion service. The Coffee Break Concert series on Saturday
mornings have been very successful, attracting audiences of well over a hundred on most
occasions. These are now organised by a small working group supporting Andrew Teague who
arranges the performers.
Our ancient links with the Bluecoat School in Aspley continue to be
strong. Each form in Year 7 (first years to you and me!) visit the church for a morning
during the year and are met by members of the congregation to be shown the bell tower, the
organ, told about the history, and supplied with an orange drink and biscuits. Again I am
grateful to those who come in to help and make sure the pupils meet a living church of
people not just an interesting ecclesiastical museum. Keith Charter plays a very active
and significant role on behalf of St Peters, as a Governor and Trustee. I am also
involved as a Governor and Trustee.
For a number of years Betty Clarke has organised a rota of people from St Peters
to assist the City Hospital Chaplaincy in taking patients from the wards
to the Chapel service. I want to thank her for helping St Peters to be involved in
this. It has been a vital but hidden task which Betty has performed faithfully and
effectively. She has now handed this over to Lynne Irwin and I am delighted that we are
able to continue our involvement there.
Behind the scenes
Many people help in hidden ways - Myra Chilvers in looking after the altar linen week
by week, Elizabeth Thums who washes and irons the altar cloths, Sheila Belchamber who
polishes the pews, Michael Blagg who comes in to help Trevor with cleaning jobs, and the
volunteer vergers John King, John Burr, John Lord and David Marshall, who come in to cover
extra duties or when Trevor is off. We are indebted to the wonderful way in which Trevor
Simm and David Stainsby maintain the building, manage needy and some times troublesome
visitors, and respond cheerfully to the many demands that clergy, Coffee Room and
musicians make of them. We are fortunate indeed in the excellence of our vergers who set
the tone in the church day by day.
Armorel Young has continued to keep an efficient overview of day-to-day matters as Site
Manager dealing with bookings, posters, minor repairs and rotas. Joyce Savage has so many
hats that she needs a new wardrobe. Above all her watchfulness, her helpful reminders and
her willingness to do whatever is needed, is brilliant. She calls it interfering. I call
it disaster prevention. If Joyce had been on the bridge of the Titanic Britain
would have won more Oscars this year! Angela Newton continues to provide excellent and
cheerful support despite increasing pressure on the office and supports St Peters in
many other ways not least through her contribution to the magazine committee.
The Churchwardens have been busy. Hubert Gale has been revising our Terrier! Not the
Church mascot but the inventory of the churchs goods. A complex task which he has
finished in time for this years Annual Parochial Church Meeting. Lina has continued
to support the stewards and take initiatives about the neighbourhood meetings. After the
success of this years Carol Service she is involved in developing a safety procedure
for evacuating the church. Both have been a welcoming presence on Sunday mornings and I
grateful to them for their work.
Assistant Rector
Eileens energy and ability, in the area of education, Monday Group,
childrens work, planning services, The Park, T Group, Pastoral Visitors and in
preaching and teaching is outstanding. It is not surprising that the clergy and lay people
of the Deanery unequivocally commended her to the Bishop as our next Area Dean. I am
delighted that this means she will be with us for a bit longer, but we will have to
release her from some of her workload in order to enable her take on these extra
responsibilities.
The future
The future is exciting for St Peters though we face some challenges ahead. The
fabric of the church will demand our attention in the next couple of years and involve
some significant raising of funds to tackle major repair work on the tower. We need to
develop a greater sense that we are all the church - developing a sense of shared
responsibility and become more aware of Gods call to each of us to serve him. We
need to invest more time and energy in our own growth in faith so that it remains fresh
and alive, and deepens as the years pass. I hope we will go forward in a spirit of
thanksgiving for the fact that God has called each of us to be part of a city centre
community, receiving his grace and by our life together revealing and recognising his
glory in the world.
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