The Body of Christ

REALLY GOOD STANDING COMMITTEE meeting tonight. Largely bread and butter stuff like photocopier maintenance, a parish share questionnaire, new pulpit falls, finances, communications, Council Agenda – that sort of stuff. Not earth shattering, but important. And the Standing Committee itself is important – albeit that too many ”meetings” in Church life can prove to be the Achilles Heel.

When I was in College 30+ years ago I had a wonderful joke poster on my study wall. After the style of a traditional “Last Supper” tableau at which the disciples were depicted “going at each other”, hammer and tongs, the poster text beneath read:

God so loved the world that he didn’t send a Committee!

I can still enjoy the joke, though I’ve learned to enjoy and appreciate our standing committee here, and a host of others, not all of which I attend, too. For I take my hat off to the people who are able to offer specialist know-how in the area of finance. And I’m hugely grateful to others in the team who maintain our fabric and buildings with dedication and real skill. And the work of the pastoral ministry in this patch requires the active involvement of dozens of people – a lone priest trying to “do it all” would be a hopeless case here – and we’ve some fabulous pastorally-minded people who give of their best day-in, day-out. And then there are the artists, the embroiderers, the musicians, the children’s carers, the group leaders, those who want to “give something back” to the older generation who, in their turn, worked hard to pass on to us the myriad reasons we have to be astonished and grateful.

In short, there are many members of the Body of Christ in this place, and I’m day by day humbled and delighted, in equal measure, by all that so many people give to our work and our way of living. It IS a holy communion.