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Our vision is to share the love of God in
Worship and Service and Grow Together as a Community of Faith in the
Spirit of Jesus Christ. Message from the Rector
Some years back the then Rector of the Anglican Parish in East London
where I worshipped with my family took me aside and invited me to meet
with him the next day in his office at the Rectory. You can imagine the
anxiety that coursed through my whole body! I immediately wondered what
I had done: could it have been something in the Youth Group that I was
leading—or was it something to do with his sons who were amongst my best
friends?
After a sleepless night the hour dawned, and I reservedly approached
the Rectory only to be warmly welcomed by the Rector himself. I was
ushered into his office, and after a few pleasantries the discussion
went down the road of ‘Vocation’. I was asked if I had ever considered
becoming a priest in the Anglican Church!
The question came like a bolt out of God’s blue heavens, but my
honest reply was that I had, but felt myself unworthy and not really the
‘type’. This meeting got the ball rolling. It became clearer to both
the Rector and me that God was indeed calling me … and that I had better
listen and respond. Within a few months I was attending a selection
conference in Grahamstown. Shortly thereafter I received a letter saying
I had been accepted and that my training would begin in the new year of
1972. After more than 30 years as a priest I still remember with great
joy, though also with some trepidation, that meeting in the Rectory that
changed the course of my life. What began with a simple invitation to
tea and a chat became so much more for my family and for me. This
process started with a simple question, “Have you considered …?” I
would like to pose the same question to you, my reader, “Have you ever
considered what God is calling you into?” It may well be that he is
calling you to be a priest: he is certainly calling all of us to be his
faithful servants, living out our faith in the context in which we find
ourselves. Trust God, for with him all things are possible. Allow him
to deal with your fears, your feelings of inadequacy, and invite him to
empower you with his Holy Spirit so that you will be able to respond to
whatever he is calling you to be and do within his Kingdom. Listen to
the still small voice that could come from a most unexpected source, or
as the question, “Have you considered ...?” |