‘Everybody is deserving of joy’, said Mungi Ngomane commenting on one of the chief values her grandfather, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, held dear. This was a value which inspired his work in human rights and the setting up of the Truth and Reconciliation Council in South Africa at the end of apartheid, understandably a time of great upheaval and liberation.
What has brought you a moment of joy this summer?
One moment of joy for me has been the annual Turton Moorland Team Garden Party at the Rectory where over seventy people squeezed into the garden for afternoon tea. We had great weather, live music, and just enough cakes, cups and chairs to go round, brought from all four corners of our parishes. The afternoon was another great team effort and went by all too quickly!
This amazing team effort has also been plain to see in a very different setting – the parish share discussion and review meetings. Here, we combed through attendance figures, income and outgoings, giving and fundraising, and discussed at length the financial challenges our parishes are coping with. (Parish share is the contribution churches make towards the cost of clergy and diocesan staff. It’s calculated from the total needed, divided by the 256 parishes and taking into account the parishes ability to pay. There’s a good summary of how parish share is spent here: www.manchester.anglican.org/support/for-parishes/parish-finance/parish-share/
The Diocesan Team take great pains to understand the individual financial pressures facing each parish and to negotiate a workable solution. In more general terms, we are all caretakers of the rich heritage that God has given to us in terms of the people, buildings, hymns and prayers, and the promise that God hears us. While at times, the needs we face as church communities are pressing and it can be easy to feel bogged down by them, we continue to offer our five loaves and two fishes. And we’re encouraged to give joyfully and to trust God will do something with all we offer.
Everybody is deserving of joy.
Rowan Williams again: ‘Ultimately, joy is about discovering that the world is more than you ever suspected, and that you yourself are more than you suspected. The joy of God… projects us into this new and mysterious realm in which victorious mercy and inexhaustible love make the rules. (Easter Sermon 2011)
‘Everybody is deserving of joy’, said Mungi Ngomane commenting on one of the chief values her grandfather, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, held dear. This was a value which inspired his work in human rights and the setting up of the Truth and Reconciliation Council in South Africa at the end of apartheid, understandably a time of great upheaval and liberation.
