Dear Friends,
It is Christchurch Heritage Week again, and the extensive programme sponsored by Beca and promoted by the City Council is in full swing. There are many good opportunities to learn more about the history and the people of our settlement. In the widely distributed brochure, S. Michael’s is represented with a full-page photo of our belfry. Unfortunately the Fr Burton Centenary Seminar which is advertised opposite has had to be cancelled because of the move of the Diocesan Synod meeting to the same day, Saturday 30 October. Throughout the week we are trying to keep our church open, and today our Sung Mass is a celebration of ‘heritage’.
‘Heritage’ is not just about old buildings. It is about everything that we have received and that we pass on: everything in our history, environment and culture.
Faith perspectives are therefore very relevant, and Christian faith perspectives no less than others. For each of us the basic questions of identity are to do with our ‘heritage’, knowing and accepting ourselves as a ‘gift’ of God to be nurtured and developed and eventually to be given back to God. Applying this attitude to others, and indeed to everything that is a given part of our experience, gives meaning to the living of our life.
The saints and heroes of faith are people whom we can admire for what they have managed to do with who they are. They are truly heroes of heritage, their grace-filled lives joyfully received and lovingly passed on. And in Jesus Christ we see uniquely a life received from and given back to God in perfect trust. We also see the likely cost of such a life.
It is for this reason that at Mass, week by week or day by day, we offer ourselves as honestly as possible, and we put our trust in the loving God whom we find in the liturgy of word and altar. We look to be transformed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; receiving Christ’s body, we become his Body.
Next Sunday we shall celebrate the festival of All Saints, and then on the Tuesday following, the Solemnity of All Souls. Please help us prepare accurate lists of names of the departed to be remembered on that occasion.
At its meeting on Tuesday, the Vestry will consider making a gift on our behalf to the Bishop’s Thanksgiving Appeal for Haiti, where she has personal church contacts. I am suggesting that we make an equal gift to a local post-earthquake need as well. It would be good to add any contribution you may wish to make personally. Please use the envelopes provided today, and leave them in the offertory plate or at the office.
May God bless you all. Fr Peter Williams
