Welcome to The Pastors’ Pen – an update for life at Southern Cross…
As you will now know, we have called a congregational meeting on Sunday, December 4. Yes, that’s right at the start of the silly season!
We are certainly not trying to overwhelm people’s calendars at that time of the year, rather, we are aiming to complete the call process for James. As some of you may know, within the Presbyterian Church of Australia, a ‘call process’ (or more specifically the ‘preach for a call’) usually takes place over a weekend. This is where an ordained Pastor and their family arrive in the town for a weekend, preach, meet with the session (Leadership Team) and Committee of Management, stay around for morning tea following the Sunday gathering, then madly jump back onto a plane after their flying visit. In light of all that, I joked at our Northern Rivers Presbytery meeting on October 5 this year that James has done the longest ever ‘preach for a call’! As he had led our church family through the book of Ephesians in Term 3 this year due to my absence on Long Service Leave. James notes he received nearly forty messages from our church family on how encouraged they were through the series. Praise be to our Father God!
Therefore, the two likely motions which will be available for the church family to peruse at the preliminary information session on November 27 (following our Vision Sunday gathering) would be along these lines:
- A motion to insert the Rev James Ritchie into the vacancy at SCPC.
- A second motion to endorse the financials for Cameron Bryant’s Ministry Apprenticeship in 2023-2024.
It all makes for a very complicated and harried December don’t you think? What, then, are we to do as we consider these changes in a still-fractured city?
We desperately need to turn to Christ, don’t we! So much upheaval, so much sadness and fatigue in our broken city… How does Christ call to us in our weariness? Well, it is exactly where we are headed for our Carols and Christmas Day messages which James will present from Matthew 11:28-30. What a message and such a rich promise! What tremendous hope for our weary souls this Christmas!
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.
Stew
on behalf of LT & CoM Exec.
