Monthly Message from our Rector - August 2026
How Many?
Getting off the plane at Cochin airport, in India, I was picked up by a helpful person from the church. I'm sure he had as many questions about the church in England as I had about the church in India, but I cannot forget his opening question. He simply wanted to know the size of our congregation, but it was the way he asked it. “How many families do you have?”
It stopped me in my tracks. And it was a thought that I came back to again and again, that we in the West have become so individualistic, even in our churches. Yet in contrast, the lowest unit of church membership that he used was family, and even then an extended multi-generational one.
Rather ironically, I was on my way to speak at a conference about how we think about God and Church through the lenses of our own culture and how it is often only in dialogue with other cultures or writers across time that are eyes are opened to truths of scripture.
I was reminded that the Old Testament talks about the nation, the 12 tribes, the clans that formed the tribes and at the lowest level the extended family, exactly as my driver was talking about.
Community is at the heart of scripture, and family language is the way New Testament writers describe the church. So as the western world 2 faces an epidemic of loneliness and individualism, and yet people long for true community, what might this community look like today? This is exactly the question we will start to explore in our August sermons across all three of our churches.
As we start to think about community, take a moment to reflect. When have you felt a strong sense of belonging to a particular group or community? And what made that experience memorable for you?
Revd Peter Francis (Rector)
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Address: The Rectory, Walkley Hill, Rodborough GL5 3TX