St Peter’s, Kirkcaldy today – a congregation which has a wonderful group of lay leaders working with their new Rector, Christine Fraser. We were marking the third anniversary of the launch of their Mission Action Plan. They have kept at what they committed themselves to. Not everything has worked – far from it. But some things have moved forward. And, in the mix of thinks that worked and things that didn’t, you can see a steady movement and a growth in confidence.
I visited and had a meal with the Vestry during the week – we had one of those meetings which is actually enjoyable and encouraging.
I tend to stick to the readings of the day. That means that you end up looking at a passage of scripture and wondering what it might say to the situation. The Gospel reading today was about dealing with conflict and disagreement – and this is what I said about it:
It’s about how the church manages relationships and conflict – for every community that has people will have conflict. And every community that has passionately-committed people will have conflict. What matters is how the conflicts are resolved. That’s because – as Jesus says – ‘where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them’ It’s in the meeting of people at the deepest level that the presence of the risen Christ is discerned and experienced.