I greet you in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ who was and is and is to come: grace, peace and hope in all things as we join together to worship, witness to and serve our servant Lord.
The process of discernment that has brought us together has truly encompassed a wide and lengthy consultation within that part of the community of Christ which is the Uniting Church’s Synod of NSW & ACT, the New England North West Presbytery and the Armidale Congregation. Although at times the journey has been wearing, the outcome has indeed come from the discernment of the call of God in community, the appropriate manner for the church to seek God’s guidance. We can now rejoice together in the affirmation of the church (Congregation, Presbytery and Synod) that our immediate future extends together. We can also give thanks that that same discernment process has allowed Will Pearson to accept a call to the Broken Hill Congregation and the Presbytery of Macquarie Darling. He will be fulfilling a vital ministry in that place.
I give thanks to God for the work of those who have been involved in the discernment process for this placement: the Joint Nominating Committee, the Presbytery Pastoral Relations Committee, the Synod Placements Committee and you, the Congregation. It will now take some time for us to get to know one another better and to learn how our strengths and weaknesses may all work together in the purposes of God. That journey is sure to be an exciting, frustrating, daunting, challenging, fulfilling one. On the way, we are called to constantly seek God’s will for our lives in God’s service.
In the busyness of our contemporary world, I am constantly reminded by the resources of our faith that God’s time is not our time, nor are God’s ways our ways. It is as important for us to rest in God as it is to work for God. Resting in God keeps us in touch with God’s mission for the world in Christ and the way in which that mission continues to unfold through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful, awe-ful thing that we are incorporated into that mission as the body of Christ, the people of God, the communion of the Spirit. Celebrating this miracle of grace is the first call on our lives and the one that will set us free to be the people whom we are called to be in Christ.
I would like to acknowledge those who have travelled some distance to be here today—particularly those from Sydney and Toowoomba; and also those many others who have sent their greetings but have been unable to be here. Many of those who are absent of been an important part of the discernment process in affirming my move into congregational ministry as an appropriate one at this time.
I also acknowledge the presence of a strong contingent from the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress. It is significant that, in this placement, I serve on Kamilaroi land as my step-daughter and step-grand-daughter share this heritage. I look forward to working with Congress in Christ’s ministry on this land.
So, as you have just invoked a blessing upon me, may I invoke one on you:
The God of the Ages give you peace;
Christ Jesus, Alpha and Omega, guide your path;
and the Holy Spirit who brings past and future
together in Christ
in this present moment
grant that you may rest in God’s time
and God’s purposes
for the reconciliation of the whole Creation. Amen.
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