Emmanuel Church - Pokfulam Priest's Report, as presented at the AGM by Fr. Nigel Gibson on
Sunday 12 September 2010.
The other day I came across a church joke that made me laugh and from what I've seen in many churches, I think it's only a slight exaggeration!
The Perfect Priest preaches exactly 10 minutes. He condemns sin roundly, but never hurts anyone's feelings. He works from 8 a.m. until midnight, and is also empties the church bins.
The Perfect Priest makes only $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church. He is 29 years old, married with six kids, and has 40 years' worth of experience. The Perfect Priest is also very handsome with beautiful blonde long curly hair.
The Perfect Priest has a burning desire to work with teenagers and yet spends most of his time with senior citizens. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humour that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church. He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office and available when needed.
The Perfect Priest always has time for church meetings and committees, never missing any fundraising events. And he is always busy evangelising the unchurched.
The Perfect Pastor is always doing something else, and usually in another town!
If your priest doesn't measure up, simply send this notice to six other churches that are tired of their priest too. Then bundle up your priest and send him to the church at the top of your list. If everyone co-operates, in one week you will receive 1,643 priests. One of them should be perfect.
And have faith in all of this. One church broke the chain and got its' old priest back in less than three months!
I hope you'll forgive me but I always like to inject at least a little humour into an AGM so that we don't all nod off and find the process a bit humdrum and boring.
This AGM is a rare chance for me to offer my sincere thanks to you all for the warmth of your welcome and for your support and encouragement since I arrived in mid-May. I am especially grateful to churchwardens Colleen and Jeremy for the hard work they carried out so efficiently during the vacancy on your behalf. They have also been most helpful and encouraging to me personally, and I am learning a lot from their experience and insights into the Emmanuel family. We are all richly blessed by their enthusiasm and dedication to their duties.
This is also an opportunity to once again offer my sincere thanks to Fr. David Pickering for his role as locum priest-in-charge and for making the hand over run so smoothly. Fr David's ministry here was exemplary and I know he realises how grateful you are for all he achieved during his time 18-months here.
I officially became your Priest in Charge on Sunday 20th June. Many of you will remember Archbishop Paul presided over an impressive service and Dean Andrew preached a splendid sermon. The occasion marked the end of a long period of interregnum and the beginning of a new chapter in Emmanuel's 30-year history. Following the service the entire congregation enjoyed a magnificent reception which members of the congregation had so generously provided.
During the festivities I was presented with a Welcome Cake adoringly inscribed with the words of Psalm 100 and a creatively decorated Welcome Banner made by my new Sunday School kids. I was deeply touched by these thoughtful gifts and the memory of linger to this day.
Now, four months into my ministry, I can confidently say that it still feels very good to be here. I have no regrets about coming to Emmanuel and I believe we will achieve much for the Kingdom of God in the years' ahead.
Before the usual summer exodus got fully underway, I gathered the church committee together for our first meeting and we recognised a number of our strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
One of the pressing issues on the agenda was the ongoing development of the Sunday School and how best we might deal with the challenges of educating a large number of children of differing ages and backgrounds week by week.
Since then I have met with the Sunday School teachers and we have agreed to introduce a new syllabus called Seasons of the Spirit, a lectionary-based resource created by an international team of writers representing denominations from Canada, the USA, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. I strongly recommended this downloadable package because of Emmanuel's international mix, with so many of us coming from different parts of the world and representing a variety of different church traditions.
Seasons of the Spirit is an inclusive program integrating the learning, worship, and serving ministries of the church and includes resources for the whole church. Our Sunday School teachers will find a wealth of creative ideas to help them prepare for each session.
I believe Seasons of the Spirit will serve our children very well over the next few years. It should also make life much easier for those charged with their care and education. And, as a bonus, this package will also be a valuable tool and resource for our mid-week group meetings.
Alongside the new syllabus, the Sunday School teachers and I agreed to drop the name Sunday School and replace it with Emmanuel Kids! This new name will give our children a new identity and a much stronger sense of belonging to our parish family. It's been my experience that most kids have had enough of 'School' by Sunday and that changing the name from Sunday School to Emmanuel Kids will be well received.
So, from the first Sunday in October our Sunday School will go by the new name of Emmanuel Kids. And it won't be too long before we see the kids wearing their new Emmanuel Kids T-shirts which are currently in preparation.
It is also my hope that during the first Sunday Family Service we will see an even greater involvement by the Emmanuel Kids! To facilitate this, I have constructed a new liturgy for the service which we will start to use from October. In this service there is provision for a variety of different options, ranging from a talk by me, an Emmanuel Kids' presentation, a testimony, a baptism or even a congregational activity. The new liturgy has also been put in an easy-to-use laminated format – so, no more announcements about page numbers! Flexibility is the key here and the whole service has been designed to last about 50 minutes, which I think is about right for a Family Service with a short Holy Communion.
The 09:00 Holy Communion on the first Sunday of the month and our principal 10:15 Sung Eucharist continue to go very well and the fellowship at the end of these services is impressive. Special thanks to the many of you that provide food and drinks for us all to enjoy. Later in the year I will update the liturgy for 10:15 service and introduce a new music setting. Bryan Carter and I are already considering what will work best at Emmanuel.
Recently I introduced a Sanctuary Bell into Emmanuel. Why did I do this? Simply stated, it's what the Committee and I agreed to do during our first meeting. Its purpose is two-fold:
to signal the formal start of our services and
for the elevations of the bread and wine during principal Eucharistic services.
The bell also helps to streamline the way the service starts, especially here at Emmanuel where visual contact with the organist is virtually non-existent. And can I say here that there is nothing uniquely catholic about the use of a sanctuary bell. The use of a bell or bells in worship is an ancient practice that, to this day, is used by a great many denominations around the world. Moreover, I repeat what I said a few weeks ago, I have absolutely no notion of introducing incense to Emmanuel.
The Four Books. Those of you who know me well know that I keep one item very close to me. It's what I call the Red Book. The Red Book is special and dear to me. It's special because it has many of your names in it and I refer to it daily. It's a book that records any special need or concern of your own that you have mentioned to me privately– and I use these special requests in my own daily prayers. So please, if you would like me to pray for you or for any special friend or family member then never hesitate to let me know. I am always very pleased to include your concerns as part of my own prayers and devotional life.
I also keep close to hand another book…. this one is the Black Book - the attendance register! Now, I'm pretty good and remembering who comes and who doesn't come to church, and you make it so easy for me because many of you sit in exactly the same seats every time you come. So, when you are not here there is either a gap or there's someone else sitting in your favoured spot. Don't worry, I don't really keep a black book, but as your priest I DO keep a close eye on attendance for no other reason but for your spiritual welfare. I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I wasn't concerned about that.
But there are two other books I hope to bring to Emmanuel over coming weeks. The first is the Book of Remembrance. The purpose of this book is to record the names of our friends and family members who have died. On the nearest Sunday on the anniversary of their passing, their names will be included on our Sunday Pew Sheet for use in our intercessions. Having a book of Remembrance will be of great assistance to the person leading our prayers, and it will not be long before I start calling for the names of the people you would like recorded in this special book.
Now to the fourth book. Every so often a parish priest has to ask for special assistance from his/her people. Today is one such occasion. One item this community is certainly lacking is a service edition Common Worship Lectionary. This is a large volume containing the complete three-year cycle of Common Worship Readings for every Sunday and principal feast day of the year. To be honest, I am not quite sure how Emmanuel has survived without one. This book is indispensible and a God-send to those who read our lessons each week. No one here should be reading the word of God from photocopies – it looks so tacky and unprofessional. Moreover, I believe this is one of those items we as a community should buy rather than go cap-in-hand to the cathedral. To this end, I am calling for voluntary donations to raise $1,500 which the Cathedral Bookstore says is the cost of a new service edition lectionary. If you would like to make a donation to the appeal then please see the Treasurer.
On the horizon. Next Saturday I will lead a short course on preparing intercessions from 10:30-12:30 at the Cathedral. The two hour session (which has now been opened up to the entire Cathedral family and daughter churches) will offer help and guidance not only to existing intercessors but to anyone who feels called to lead our Sunday Prayers.
Sunday 10 October is the date the Committee and I chose for our annual Harvest Thanksgiving Songs of Praise, followed by a Bring and share Brunch. Please start thinking about what non-perishable items of food you will bring to the altar for blessing. That weekend coincides with the CCEA regional Bishop's meeting and, along with many other Anglican churches in the province, we will be hosting a visiting bishop and 3 other delegates from the conference.
The next Ceilidh will be held at West Island School from 18:00 on Saturday 13 November. A fun evening for the whole parish family!
On a Sunday before Christmas Mr Phil Soden, Director of the Academy of Performing Arts will come to Emmanuel to give us a talk on the history of Béthanie. Colleen and I had the pleasure of meeting him recently and we were amazed at the depth of his historical knowledge of this chapel. Without Phil's enthusiasm and commitment to Béthanie it is doubtful we would be worshipping here today. I shall also be asking him to give us a tour of the whole site which will be of great interest to everyone.
The Mid-Week Group is about to get going again and more details about that and all other up-coming events will be in the Pew Sheet and on the website as they get closer. Regarding the latter, Peter Burton and I have already made a few cosmetic changes to our site and we have plans to develop it even further over coming months. This community is extremely fortunate to have the benefit of Peter's expertise in this field.
That is probably enough for now, especially as I am mindful that in April we will be doing this all over again!
Final thoughts:
Today I want to assure you that I will not do or change anything unless I think it in Emmanuel's best interest. Over coming months we will try out a few new things out – it's a necessary part of growth and outreach as we move forward. And if we find what we are trying out doesn't seem to be quite right then we will find something else.
Footnote:
- At the end of his address, Fr Nigel also raised growing concern over the way the Greeting of Peace is exchanged at Emmanuel. Some members of the congregation believed it was now 'over-the-top' and that was interfering with their worship, particularly during the 10:15 Eucharist. Fr Nigel mentioned some of the history of the Greeting of Peace and its scriptural basis in an Anglican context. After a show of hands, there was a small majority who felt that it was now too excessive. Fr Nigel said that the Committee will discuss the issue in the near future and that he may preach a sermon on the issue.
- Fr Nigel's appeal for a new service edition Common Worship Lectionary was obviously well received. By the end of the day the $1,500 had almost been raised. An order has now been placed with the Cathedral Bookstore.
Fr. Nigel Gibson
Priest in Charge Emmanuel Church - Pok Fu Lam
Emmanuel Church - Pokfulam Treasurer's AGM Report
Presented by Chris Erving, Hon. Treasurer on
Sunday 12 September 2010.
We have been fortunate during the interregnum in that Father David's cost to us and St. John's was less than a permanent priest would be.
However, now that Father Nigel has thankfully arrived our monthly expenses will increase. We also have to pay rent for the use of Bethanie, this is currently circa HK$16,000.00 per month
.Monthly Stewardship receipts amount to just under HK$37,000.00 and service collections average about HK$12,000.00. This means that we carry a monthly deficit of about HK$4,000.00 per month. Annual income is slightly down on last year.
32 members of the congregation have signed up for monthly stewardship but we now have more than 50 regulars so that if the additional 20 or so signed up we could easily meet our budget.
The advantage to Emmanuel of contribution through Stewardship is that we receive the same amount each month whether or not the contributor attends church. The advantage to the contributor is that he/she receives tax relief on the annual sum paid.
Stewardship forms are available at the back of the church or it can be downloaded here: Emmanuel Church Bank Standing Order Form.
Chris Erving
Hon. Treasurer Emmanuel Church - Pok Fu Lam
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