APCM report on the Mission and Ministry of St Andrew's in 2024

(Also known as 'the Vicar's report!' Given by Lucy to the Annual Parochial Church Meeting on 11th May 2025.)

I love this Church.

Someone asked me recently; ‘When you look at your diary for the day ahead, what sort of things make your heart sink?’

‘Nothing,’ I replied, ‘absolutely nothing.’

I love this Church, and I love being your Vicar. Each day is a privilege.

Don’t get me wrong, it is not always easy. People are not always easy, are they? And difficult things happen, but I love this Church. Every day as your Vicar is different; although on the surface things may look the same week to week and year to year, underneath, the Spirit is moving and shaping and changing us. And I love that.

John 3:8 says ‘The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.’ I love that unpredictability of the Holy Spirit. The things that, when I stood here last year, we had no idea would happen this year, the places and people the Spirit has moved.

The thing is that the Holy Spirit needs space. She needs to be given room to blow. If we are buttoned up and boxed off, the Holy Spirit has little chance of moving. Our job is to drill the holes for the Spirit to blow through.

The first place we let God into our lives, individually and as a Church family, is in worship, in the rhythm of gathering to encounter God in prayer and scripture, Eucharist and music. Day by day this community worships, not just on Sundays, but every single day of every single week. There are some great high moments like Choral Evensong, and some quiet, faithful acts like Friday evening prayer, but each helps us as God’s people here to tune our hearts to the beat of God’s heart. Worship isn’t just important, it’s what we were created for, and we need to thank every single person who aids our worship – not just the ministry team, but the intercessors and readers and servers and flower arrangers and choir members and sacristans and musicians. But worship in and of itself should never become an idol; only God is perfect, and our worship will never be perfect until we stand in God’s presence with the saints and angels in eternity. We need to be able to let go of perfection in the here and now, and let people have a go. Think about members of the Toastie club reading. Were they brilliant the first time? Maybe not, but rather than drill them and rehearse them, we trusted them and valued them, and now they not only read brilliantly, they know that they belong, that they are valued for their contribution to worship, just the way they are. The Spirit can certainly blow through that!

So we drill holes for the Spirit to blow through when we let go of our own need for perfection. How else?

We drill holes for the Spirit when we let go of things which have come to an end. Oh, and yes, I am talking to myself here. I am really bad at goodbyes. I do not like having to stop things. I hate saying farewell to people. It always feels like loss, like grief, and it is rarely easy to see the Spirit at work in the moment of closure. When in February 2024, Karen Parrott retired from her admin role in the Church office, after 8 years of wonderful service in our midst, it was quite a wrench to say goodbye to her from that particular role. After a year long process of discussion and discernment, and following a celebration in September, the Fairtrade shop sadly shut its doors for the last time in December; we are so thankful for all it achieved and for all the support it received. After the celebration of Joseph’s ordination as priest and first Mass in June, it has been difficult that he has not finished his curacy here, but he has had a fresh start in London Diocese at a traditional Anglo Catholic Parish. I would like to thank everybody who supported Joseph during his time with us; we continue to pray for him and his ministry.

In 2024 we said farewell to a number of our Church family as they went to glory, including:

Marie Buchanan

Tony Brown

Dorothy Yerrill

Edna Stringer

Michael Ferdinando

Raynor Crowe

Sheila Sunley.

We are not the same without them, and we mourn their loss even as they enter Christ’s resurrection life.

Those are some of the losses we have seen as a Church family, and while I believe in resurrection (you’ll no doubt be glad to hear that), it is not a straight line thing in the life of a Church. It is not the case of a new shoot immediately springing up where we have been, sometimes painfully, pruned, but more that the Spirit will blow in through the gaps, and new things of God will emerge somewhere we are not looking.

Sometimes new life is literal; among the baptisms celebrated at St Andrew’s in 2024 was that of the then youngest member of the Church family, James Gibson.

It is wonderful to accompany members of our Church family as they take public steps in faith and invite the Holy Spirit into their lives, notably last year as three young people were admitted to communion before confirmation, and six members of the Church family were confirmed. These events are significant in the life of the individual, but also a sign of something happening in our common life.  The Holy Spirit seemed to blow a stream of newcomers in through the doors of St Andrew’s, and it is wonderful to see new faces in the congregation almost every Sunday, of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities. This is not accidental, people do not blow in and then stay to become part of the faith community by chance, we have to drill the holes for the Spirit to get through. A large part of the reason people stay is the quality of the welcome they receive, from our sidespeople and welcomers, but just as importantly from you, the whole Church family. So often at the end of the service, I cannot get you to leave Church because you are making sure that newcomers are spoken to and looked after. And then after coffee I can’t get you to leave the Hall because you are having such good conversations. Thank you for that.

We have worked hard as a Church over the last few years to unpack theologically what it means to be welcoming and inclusive. 2024 saw us observe Racial Justice Sunday for the first time, with Rev Indira Broschat returning to preach a moving sermon from personal experience; this was followed by a feast for the taste buds as we enjoyed refreshments ‘beyond biscuits’ in the hall. Grace Hunting also returned to us to lead an Inclusive Church study group about ethnicity, again sharing generously from her own difficult experiences of exclusion, and giving us much food for thought. Another part of our Inclusive Church strand last year were PCC discussions about prayers of love and faith, and the decision to offer the services now available to same sex couples.

An important reason the Spirit can act and draw people into our fellowship is because of the staff in the Church office, who do the routine work of updating the website, printing the pew sheet, producing the parish magazine. These varied pieces of communication work; they let people know who we are, what we value, and the things we do, and people are drawn in to find out more. We have a huge debt of gratitude to Kelly and also Caroline Isles, who joined the team in February as our admin and comms assistant, and has added her considerable design skills to our digital and print media.

Trying new things is always risky; by definition we can never foretell the end point when we step out in faith. Yet so often, when we have listened carefully to the Spirit’s whisperings, those risks, both individual and communal, bring rewards we cannot have imagined. What’s that saying about casting bread on the waters? Last Autumn, our PCC supported Sue Ambrose in training as an Anna Chaplain, and working together with the St Andrew’s visitors, this ministry is already bearing much fruit with the older and house bound members of our Church family. At the other end of the age scale, Elisabeth Sutcliffe was invited to speak at a national conference on evangelism in the Summer – scary for any of us! Afterwards, Bishop Ric Thorpe wrote to Elisabeth: ‘The story (of St Andrew’s) is a beautiful and inspirational example of how you have adapted to ensure that children and young people are at the heart of your vision and I thought it was particularly helpful for our delegates to hear you say that the change happened not by what you did, but in the how you did it. Thank you for your contribution, we are so grateful.”

I am very aware at this point that my report to the APCM is foreshortened this year. And that is because I spent three months over the Autumn on extended study leave. My huge thanks are due to the Wardens, Staff Team, Ministry Team and PCC who made this possible. I love this Church, and I love the team that wraps around all of us, supporting, enabling, encouraging and serving. You are just astonishing.

My final words are not from Scripture, but from Bishop Ric Thorpe; ‘The change happened not by what you did, but in the how you did it.’ I love this Church, but in many ways what we do is not remarkable; it can be seen in parish Churches up and down this land. What is I think remarkable is how we do it; how you do it. How you are prepared to make space for the Spirit to blow and welcome in the new life she brings. And that is why, I say it again, I love this Church.