Christ for you
By Douglas
Hello you!
Yes you, beautiful, glorious you!
You are loved.
You are amazing. You are priceless.
God delights in you!
God’s Love
Poor and rich, sick and healthy, broken and whole, marginalised and mainstream, strangers and friends, hurting and healing, enemies and allies, foreigners and locals…God loves you, God loves us, because we are so worthy of his love, us Children of God, us vessels of God’s grace, us images of God.
Every. Single. One.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Because we are created by God, in the Image of God, we have a connection to the Divine in each of us; a soul, a sense, a universe of possibility, all too often drowned out by the noise of life, the anguish of pain, the pursuit of pleasure.
Christ Jesus
There was teacher, the Son of God, a man who spoke with the sick, the poor, the suffering, who two thousand years ago preached in the sunbaked towns and countryside of Israel to his fellow Jews. He revealed this message of love and taught us to follow this path of love, this Path of Christ, this Way to God.
His teachings are in the Gospels, the New Testament. He is Jesus Christ.
But he was more than a man, he was the Son of God, and he revealed this by being human and dying for us, rejected, tortured, stripped, whipped and horrifically crucified.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven
Constantly forgiving all, constantly loving all.
And overcoming death, he rose again and walked on this earth as the Son of God..
This we know, and invite you to know this too.
The Grace of God
Accepting God into our hearts means that we receive God’s Grace. His infinite love, infinite forgiveness and infinite compassion. This is offered to everybody, all the time, anytime.
And it is good.
Sin
And yet still we sin, us humans.
But the Divine does not sit around keeping a score sheet of our sins, naughty and nice, no Christmas pressies for some, lots for others.
Because remember that infinite love? It is always there, it is the nature of the Divine.
Sin is what we do or think that takes us away from the Divine, away from the Path of Christ. And once we have experienced the Grace of God it is something that we really want to live in, its spiritual truth.
So sin is something that we choose to undress ourselves of, and we do this by noticing our sins and repenting.
Truly, truly, I say to you, every person who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Repenting does not mean saying sorry, though it might include that, it means changing our world view, changing our habits and beliefs as we understand what keeps us from the perfection of Christ.
Easy? No.
More valuable than all the riches of the earth? Yes.
First we change our lives, then we change the world.
Faith
And this, for us, is faith.
A certainty, a truth, as vast as a galaxy, as strong as the stars.
And the path it takes us on, our journeying on this path to be closer to God.
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.
Our father, our mother, our all.
Our Christian life, our faith, is not just a state of being, it is a state of change, a journey that we have chosen and delight in, as hard as it sometimes is.
Join us on our road if you will, as you will, as God wills. Come to one of our churches, talk with our priests, meet your fellows, share in our activities, just come, drink from the waters of the Holy Spirit as you wish.
Welcome
You are always welcome, Christian or not, we make no distinction.
Most of our churches are open every day if you want to just come and sit or pray.
Our clergy are always available to chat, just ring or email them. Here is the contact info.
Some of our parishes also organise various activities and meals, which you are very welcome to join. There is an up to date list here.
Our services are always open to all, and friendly to all. Just turn up. Here is what to expect at a normal service.
Here is a list of our services by parish.
