Letters from the President

Dear Friends,

What image comes to me, when I ponder on my experience of membership of Sion Community? Surprisingly, my mind turns to the scene of a busy railway station: a place of arrival and departure, a place of hectic activity, a place of meeting up with fellow travellers. Many pass through but only few recognise the station to be a place of permanence and stability providing an essential service to the passengers.

In our contemporary western world, where rapid response and immediate return is the promise and expectation, we might understand a highly flexible and adaptable community to be exactly what is needed to update a rather lumbering Church. But whether such a community could be identified as a genuine fruit of the Spirit or another fruitless by-product of a burnt-out society would be questionable.

In a fast-moving world where, paradoxically, delay and frustration is the lived experience, the short-term contract and the temporary arrangement does have a certain attraction. The possibility of the next life-changing opportunity being just around the corner presents itself as a temptation to keeping all options open. The modern mindset, formed in a culture of seemingly endless change and boundless development, does not readily tune into the language of longer-term commitment.

Sion Community hopes to be a prophetic sign within the Church. We wish to keep an open mind as to what Christian community might look like as the new millennium gets underway. The contemporary concept of a network community held together by threads of email and internet connection can be part of the picture, but is not a substitute for persons meeting persons. The idea of a post-modern community being transient in its membership does challenge us to meet the aspirations of those who are searching for relationship and wanting to explore a deeper sense of belonging. However, the longer-term commitment of the few will continue to be the key element in providing a context in which others can learn and develop.

As I complete ten years of mission work in the context of life in community I give thanks to God for the longer-term relationships which have proved to be the most challenging and ultimately the most supportive. The journey from being a person ‘in’ community to a person ‘for’ community requires conversion and therefore grace. And grace is in itself an experience of God at work in our lives; an experience for which our hearts are always hungry.

In this letter please read into the information an invitation to become more involved with Sion Community and our work of mission and evangelisation. From fundraising to Core Membership we need those who can stay just a little bit longer. Are you prepared to miss your train for the Lord?

Fr Gerard Kelly
President, Sion Community
August 06

Who Rolled Away the Stone?

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

The rather inert-looking boulder which sits slightly ajar from the entrance to the dark tomb looks convincing enough to the idle viewer. However, closer inspection of the Easter garden, laid out before the altar in St Joseph’s, Salford, reveals that appearances can be deceptive. The boulder is constructed from paper mache, and would hardly have required the timely intervention of a couple of hefty angels to roll away a final obstacle to belief in the Risen Lord.

However, obstacles, whether real or imagined, have the same effect on us, in that they dampen down our enthusiasm, weaken our resolve, and prevent us from taking that final step towards living in the victory of a resurrection faith. The assisting angels in the drama of the Easter garden remind us that faith is a supernatural gift of grace which is not a product of sweat, toil and human endeavour. The rolling away of the stone signifies that the ‘work’ of bringing others to faith is essentially a Divine Initiative before it can be regarded as a divine imperative.

In so many aspects of the Christian life appearances can be at least ambiguous in that we are so adept at ascribing to the work of grace attitudes and behaviours that are yet to be converted and transformed. A passive attitude, growing essentially from a root of apathy and non-responsibility, seems, on the face of it, to be nearer to a serene attitude of trusting in God than a grace-filled real concern for others which can bring anxiety into our lives. A stubborn perseverance to a religious practice, which is not necessarily the fruit of being open to the ever-challenging promptings of the Holy Spirit, can be passed off as faithfulness and loyalty. And how easily a faint-hearted timidity, which doesn’t reflect the boldness of the Spirit of God, can be rationalised as a caring sensitivity to others!

In our own spiritual development we have to be ruthless in discerning which are the real obstacles and openings to the Spirit in our lives; the Lord will send his angels to remove the boulders we can’t budge with our own strength. However, can we expect the divine messengers to come to our aid when we allow paper mache excuses to prevent us from entering into the darkness of the tomb to encounter the Risen Christ?

In these Easter days, when the fledgling Church began to wake up to the joy and responsibility of faith, we reflect on how those first Christians came to realise the radical impossibility of responding to their calling. They needed an ongoing power of God in their lives and community which would be infinitely more powerful than a mere ‘memory’ of their Lord. We too pray that our resurrection faith my lead us on to Pentecost from where we are able to move out into the world.

The basket of envelopes before our altar in SENT reminds us to pray for you in your needs as you support us with your finance and prayers.

Yours in Christ,
Fr Gerard Kelly