Ministry Team Letter
Dear Friends,
It's amazing to think that the last time I wrote an article for our magazine was about a year ago!
And what a year it’s been!
Starting with my ordination as Deacon and the installation of Neil and Deborah as our Rectors, it’s included getting to know each other; making friends; broken boilers; flooding and sharp learning curves. There’s been tears and laughter; frustrations and joys, and undergirding it all has been your support, love and understanding.
The writer to the Hebrews said: ‘Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it,’ (13. 1-2).
In Britain, we think of hospitality as entertaining family and friends to dinner or coffee and cake. But, in the time when these verses were written, hospitality was so much more than that. It was the process of receiving strangers into your home and accepting them as guests. As soon as you, the host, welcomed them, by washing their feet, they were brought under your protection and thus became part of the community.
It is interesting that hospitality is also talked about in Romans within the context of brotherly love – ‘Be devoted to one another in love … practice hospitality’ (Romans 12. 10, 13) which suggests hospitality is part of what it means to go above and beyond our natural inclinations. That it is a way to respond to the compassion Jesus demonstrates to each one of us, reminding us of his words in Matthew 25:40, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Now, I am not making any claim to be an angel, far from it! But I am so thankful for the way you extended true hospitality by welcoming this stranger into your midst and making her feel truly at home!
As I write, we stand on the brink of another chance to extend hospitality, this time to the Revd Jenny Nightingale and her husband, Chas. I know it is one we will seize with both hands.
However, maybe there are others who are already here, or poised to arrive, that feel like strangers or outsiders. They may have arrived with no warning, quietly under the radar, unsure of their welcome. We need to be careful to look for opportunities to extend the love and care of Jesus to all those he brings across our path. ‘For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,’ (Ephesians 2:10).
Let us all be vigilant in looking for opportunities to ‘Let brotherly love continue’; welcoming strangers as guests, so that they may become friends who are integral to the community of Christ’s family in Wareham and thus making Jesus known.
Shelma
The Revd Shelma Vaughan
Assistant Curate of Wareham
