Stewardship

Stewards are managers of property that does not belong to them. Their management occurs on behalf of someone else—a landlord or property holder; a company or a whole community. Stewards may be a part of a larger entity to which the property belongs, but it is never their sole privilege to claim “ownership” or connection with that which requires stewarding.

As a congregation, we have stewardship of the buildings and property which “belong” to the wider Uniting Church. We are part of the larger entity, but we are not the whole and we are asked to make our decisions in relation to these resources with a mind not just to the whole Uniting Church, but the whole church catholic (universal).

Personally and individually, we are stewards of property which, in Anglo Australian culture, is seen as very much “belonging” to us. We receive income in some form. We may “own” a house or land. And yet even these are not “ours”. They pass through our hands. What we do with them affects not just us, but our community and the future of our community… and indeed our globe.

Climate change has been very much on the global agenda this week (and not just this week, but especially this week in its global focus on climate). The idea of “ownership” has tended to promote the attitude that we can do what we like with what we’ve got. When we think about what we have in terms of stewardship, we begin to notice just how our use of resources isn’t just about us, but about everybody and everything.

Our congregation of Armidale Uniting Church is richly blessed by the stewardship of its members—in gifts of money and time, skills, talents and other resources. Truly these gifts are not “ours”—they are given to us as stewards. Truly also they are not “ours” in that they are given for the sake of God’s realm, God’s mission and God’s call on our lives. Thank you for your generosity, for your gifts and for your stewardship of those gifts for the sake of God’s commonwealth of justice and peace.
May God guide us as we continue to exercise stewardship of the resources to which we have access!