Issue 07 Preaching JusticeBlog | The bigger picture
The bigger picture
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 13.06.16
I am the vicar of three rural churches in North Nottinghamshire. Not a lot happens here. Whenever I listen to one of my lovely congregation do the intercessions this is often brought home to me.
W hen I arrived here five years ago the prayers were always very similar and, well, how can I put it? Very local: the prayers would focus around the issues of our community. Nothing wrong with that, but we even struggled to pray for the nation let alone those countries in the developing world. Even when we did pray for peace and an end to war, it was usually in the context of praying for ‘Mr and Mrs Smith’s son in the army in Afghanistan’. I vowed to try in a small way to try and move this on a bit. One of the ways I thought we might tackle it was through my preaching.
And so I found myself just last week trying to communicate to 12 people at my smallest church why it might be the right thing to do to support a local charity working in the city of Nottingham with Syrian refugees. Brian, our local dairy farmer, wasn’t convinced. Now Brian is a kind and generous man. He raised over a grand for the church roof
