Building a Vision

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin

Shaping the future life and spiritual health of our parish is an urgent task, especially as we face the challenge of the rising costs around maintaining ministry, the reducing numbers of clergy, the challenge to be a church which is able to speak to the challenges of contemporary living, as well as look after our built heritage in a realisitic and manageable way.

At the moment we face major challenges:

• urgent works needed to our buildings
• action on making sure we are able to pay our Parish Share

The Senior Leadership are accutely aware of the sensitivity of the issues we face, particularly surrounding the future of St Saviour's. We will do our best to care pastorally for all during this time of change and vision-building. We realise that we will not be able to 'please' everyone, and therefore it is important that we state clearly that our vision process is fundamentally not about 'pleasing people' but responding to the Mission which God places before us - it is His work we do.

The Eucharist is very much at the heart of what we do as a worshipping community:

This is because:

• it is the fellowship meal instituted by Christ
• we encounter Jesus in the sacrament
• fellowship is built when we eat and pray together
• nourishing ourselves with Christ gives us the strength to become apostles

The scene of the Last Supper at the High Altar in St James' Church