Christopher Frith
St Thomas' Brampton and St Peter's Holymoorside, Chesterfield
Rector's Letters February 2001-January 2002
Our vision statement: Sharing the love of Jesus
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The Rector's letter is printed in each edition of the Church Magazine

February/March 2001 April/May 2001 June/July 2001
August/September 2001 October/November 2001 December 2001/January 2002
February/March 2001

During the year 2000, our PCC worked hard on seeking to clarify what our church is called to do. It came up with this:
SHARE THE LOVE OF JESUS

It's rather stark. It's clear. It's practical. Our prayer is that it will make a huge difference to the life and witness of our two churches and all our members, to the benefit of our whole community.

To help us, we have three things.

First, there is a sentence which goes with it: we aim to become more like Jesus every day as we respond to his love for us and as we share the good news of him with others.

Secondly, we continue the tradition of adopting a motto from the Bible for the year. In 2001, it is the call to everyone: Jesus said, "follow me". If we manage to do this we won't be able to help sharing the love of Jesus.

Thirdly, the PCC have agreed (and they don't find it easy to agree on anything!) what our "CORE VALUES" are. Our Core Values set out the things that really matter to us:
  • The Love of God shown in the Cross of Jesus, inspiring our wholehearted love for him.
  • Communion with God in praise, prayer and the breaking of bread, through the working of the Holy Spirit within us.
  • The Family of God welcoming and including all as of equal importance regardless of age, gender and status, as we meet together and share our lives together.
  • The Word of God which inspires and sustains our faith, guides our lives and encourages us to become more like Jesus.
  • The Concerns of God for the poor and downtrodden, the lost and imprisoned, the suffering and those who mourn, the little children to whom His kingdom belongs; and for justice, mercy and peace for all.
  • The Mission of God that all people may come to know Him by receiving Jesus and His love for them. However we realise, it's one thing to put things down on paper. It's quite another to put them into practice!
Christopher Frith

From the February 2001 edition of the magazine

April/May 2001

A special loved one has died. The family are gathered in the sitting room with cups of tea, reminiscing. Occasionally there is laughter, occasionally there are tears and sometimes both come at once. And there am I, amazingly privileged, sharing in something of the experience, seeking in some way to "share the love of Jesus" who Himself understands and shares all the emotions.

We need to plan the funeral. When the person who has died was part of one of our Churches, that is a particular joy. Three St Thomas' members have died in recent weeks and one particular approach has been common to each family. They have asked for a short, private ceremony at the graveside or the crematorium where they can say their unhurried farewells. Then we have gone to St Thomas' for a service of Thanksgiving, to which many have come.

The services for Jill Robinson and Horace Totterdell were both amazing, true celebrations both of their lives and of God's promise of eternal life for all who trust the Lord Jesus. As I write, something very similar is planned for Wilf Bates.

The advantage of this approach - which certainly wouldn't suit every family is the opportunity for grief to be privately expressed by those who were closest, and the greater feeling of thanksgiving and celebration to follow in the company of any who wish to come. The disadvantage may, however, be the absence of a coffin at the Thanksgiving Service as friends and acquaintances seek to come to terms with what has happened.

The wonderful fact is that Jesus has overcome death. Good Friday and Easter Day together have completely transformed death. As the Apostle Paul wrote, Jesus Christ "has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel". That is why a funeral service can become a celebration.

Christopher Frith

From the April 2001 edition of the magazine

June/July 2001

By Petra Owen, Curate

It doesn't seem like two minutes since my first Sunday in June 1998 when I arrived at St. Thomas' to take up the post of training curate.

Three years later and it's time to move on. I move with much sadness and lots of excitement. Any change in life gives us a sense of loss and gain.

Most readers will have heard that my next appointment will be as associate minister in an Anglican church in a place called Federal Way, just outside Seattle, N.W. America. I will be working alongside the Rev. Dorian McGlannan, Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd. I will do the usual clergy ministry but have special responsibility for discipleship and teaching, and youth and children's work.

Many have asked why the States? How did you get that job?

When you know that you have to move from your first post you start to pray earnestly to find where God wants you. I had felt that I didn't want to become an incumbent straight away, but rather explore discipleship training and continue in Youth and Children's work but also remembering that God had called me to be an ordained minister. At the same time 5000 miles away a church was praying for an ordained minister to join the staff team who would be involved in discipleship, teaching, youth and children and who would be good at drama! (as a bonus!).

This was for them to be a work of God as the church is thought to be too small for a second clergy person to be employed. But they believed that God could take the impossible and make it possible. So they prayed!

In the meantime I was praying too! And God started to answer these prayers. He gave Angie McGovern four pictures. The first three involved me in the water leaving one shore and swimming to another shore which Jesus was quite clearly calling me to. The fourth involved a completely accurate detailed description of one of the church buildings in Federal Way. It became clear that this was where God wants me to serve Him next.

This was confirmed when I went out for my interview in February and accepted the offer of the new post. Undoubtly it is a big change, a big move, leaving family and friends and going to a different country, culture and church. Sometimes it's overwhelming but most of the time I have a deep sense of peace, purpose and calling because the God who has called us is faithful.

I have undoubtedly learnt so much and grown so much over the last three years at St. Thomas' and I have especially valued your love and friendship, challenge and support as a church family. I shall miss you, but hope to see many of you in Seattle for your holiday!

Our God has a perfect plan for each one of us and we never know quite where He will led us next - He asks only that we trust in His wisdom, love and provision. He is so worthy to be praised. I finish with one of my favourite verses from the Bible ...

Psalm 63 v 2-3 "I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live." Lots of love

Petra Owen

From the June 2001 edition of the magazine

August/September 2001

I am convinced that Churches are meant to grow, numerically and in various other ways. This is one of my passionate concerns for St Thomas' and St Peter's - and it is why I get agitated at those times when we seem to be standing still or even contracting.

How do Churches grow? It's a science, which has occupied many worthy people and spawned much literature. I recently came across "TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHURCH GROWTH", produced by Joel Edwards, Director General of the Evangelical Alliance, and they contain a lot of good sense.
  1. Don't just have a welcome mat: Be welcoming
  2. Get the building to say "Hello"
  3. Worship like you really mean it
  4. Make everybody feel important
  5. Make the kids happy and they bring their parent along
  6. Act generally as though you expect "outsiders" to come in
  7. Preach about things people talk about
  8. Take the Bible more seriously than you take yourself
  9. Talk about God as though He's turned up
  10. Make Jesus a mid-week Man
My question to readers of PLOUGHSHARE is this: how are we getting on at St Thomas' and St Peter's with these commandments? Please let me know. I have a hunch that the answers will be significant.

Christopher Frith

From the August 2001 edition of the magazine

October/November 2001

I have been privileged to work with some wonderful curates in this parish. Readers who remember them will agree. John Cook, Jonathan Jee, Pete Wilkinson and Petra Owen are all supposed to have been trained by me - although I guess that, in truth they have trained me. Others came to us ready trained: Peter Allan, Sheila Pite, Judith Henderson, Brian Porter and Andy Broom. Wonderful ministers of the Gospel each one.

None have been more remarkable, more gifted or more used than Petra Owen. At her farewell, one of the teenagers said "If you ask any of us who we think of as being Jesus with skin on it would be Petra". She has handed on a wonderful youth group. They all love Petra and are learning to love Jesus even more.

Since I was ordained I have always been aware of Jesus' words of warning "Woe to you when everyone thinks well of you". Petra as ever seems to be the exception to the rule. Everyone does speak well of her (as was evident at the farewell) but it doesn't stop her speaking out when it's called for, risking being unpopular, and neither does it go to her head - as it would for most of us.

She has been a genuine friend to so many and best friend to an amazing number of them. We shall remember for a long time her drama, her love for the Bible and her knowledge of its Jewish context, her laughter and her tears, her prayer, her fondness for Wales ("God's own country"!?), her cat Charlie Brown, who has emigrated with her, and much, much more.

We pray that God will help her to settle quickly in the USA and use her there as He did here. And we pray that God will take us forward without her, for. hasn't left us.

Christopher Frith

From the October 2001 edition of the magazine

December 2001/January 2002

St Thomas' is changing shape.

The building, of course, has been reordered, highly successfully. We hope, before too long, to continue this development, replacing the temporary tatty portacabins with a permanent structure.

But St Thomas' isn't the buildings; it's us. The year 2002 will see us restructured. In short, all that we do will be contained in six different teams –“Mission and Ministry Teams". Each team will have a leader appointed by the PCC who will supervise and support all that goes on within it. These leaders, together with the Rector, will form our Leadership Team (Mission and Ministry Leadership Team to use the full title.) They are to be commissioned by the Archdeacon of Chesterfield on Sunday 20th January at 6.30pm.

I'm excited about all this. There should be many gains. For example...
  • Everyone serving the Lord in St Thomas' will have a clearly appointed person to whom to relate and to be accountable.
  • The PCC, which will be smaller, will not have to be concerned with so much detail but will be able to pray more and to be concerned .with vision 'and policy’.
  • Leadership will be shared as the Bible implies it should be. Blockages caused by the Rector's inability to be everywhere at once should be removed.
It will take a year or so to get used to our new shape. We are praying for patience, a sense of humour and the advance of the Kingdom of God in West Chesterfield.

Christopher Frith

From the December 2001 edition of the magazine

Rector's Letters 2002