The table is a place of sharing, food, conversations, insights, stories and laughter.

I write on Bank Holiday weekend following my first experience of Holy Week and Easter as Priest in Charge here in Snods Edge.

When I was a theological student in the mid sixties the idea of what was called shared ministry was being discussed as the ideal basis for securing the future of a Church, which even in those days, was beginning to experience decline.

I think partly because of the ministry of my predecessors here at Snods Edge, partly because of the long vacancy that the parish has experienced, I have found in the relatively short time that I have lived in the parish, a ministry that is shared with Churchwardens, with the Parochial Church Council and with the Lay Reader.  

Already since my licensing in December this has been of immense value and support to me as I have been settling in and finding my feet.

Holy Week and Easter elevated that experience to a new level. The reflections / meditations in Holy Week jointly planned with the Local Ministry Team, the Good Friday walk to St Andrews Church on Grey Mare Hill and the Dawn Service were each in their special way co Celebrations.

Certainly in the Diocesan strategy we will over time begin to see this idea of shared ministry develop and I might say that it seems that though St John’s is not specifically mentioned in the ‘re-imagining Rural Ministry’ report that I have seen, we do appear to be ‘ahead of the game’, partly through circumstance I imagine but also through a real sense of shared commitment to one another, the life of the church and the wider parish.

The Diocesan strategy describes a church that is generous, engaged with those with whom we share our lives, open to each other, open to God and the future.

A word that I return to frequently when I pause to consider the ministry at St John’s is conviviality.

There is no doubt that the Church and Hall are convivial places: music, film shows, Bar Church, parties and receptions, the Church and Hall are places for meeting, sharing, being open to one another. 

But conviviality is not just a social concept Christian folk are called to participate in God’s mission to redeem the world, called to share a vision where all are included and all are cherished. 

The implications of this are immense, from welcoming strangers, addressing the inhumanity too often visited on those who seek refuge and asylum and to build better lives for themselves and their families to praying the news every day for climate change protesters as well as for the world we are challenging with our policies.

Each of us has gifts that we can bring to the table to be used to build better community, as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American has it on its website: 'walking together to achieve things on a scale and scope that we could never do otherwise'.

When I broke and shared the loaf at the Dawn Service on Easter Day I recalled the disciples on the road to Emmaus who recognised Jesus when He broke the bread at table. 

The table is a place of sharing, food, conversations, insights, stories and laughter. It is also a convivial place where it is possible to envision what community might become in the future.

Above the Altar in St John’s is a picture of Jesus and his disciples at the last supper. It was from this table and this fellowship that the Christian story was gossipped around the world.

It is a table around which all are invited to share.



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