Parish of Llandudno North Wales, Rector's letter June 2008

September 2010

In last month’s magazine you may have read of a special weekend event taking place on the 9th and 10th October. In fact it will be three events in one – firstly on the Saturday we will have a parish open day at Holy Trinity designed to invite members of our local community to come in and see what we have to offer, and then on the Sunday we will keep both ‘Back to Church Sunday’ and Harvest Thanksgiving.

As fairly traditional Anglicans we tend to find the sharing of our faith quite difficult. We are often uncomfortable with the more ‘in your face’ evangelism practiced by our evangelical brothers and sisters. I suppose we tend to feel that our faith in Christ is best shared in a quieter way by being faithful to worship and by trying to live out our Christianity in daily life. Our ‘special weekend’ (I can’t think of a better name for it at the moment!) is an opportunity to share our faith in ways with which we can feel comfortable.

I hope that we can make the Open Day a real showcase for the many things which go on in our parish. All our organisations and groups are being asked to have a ‘stall’ or create a display. There will be demonstrations and guided tours of the church etc. Folk will be invited to come and see their baptismal or wedding records. Plans are still evolving but hopefully everyone from our congregations will want to be involved.

‘Back to Church Sunday’ is very definitely a way in which we can share our faith without too much fuss. It is such a simple idea – every member of the congregation thinks of someone they can invite to come to church on Back to Church Sunday. The particular emphasis is on folk who perhaps once were members of our church and have left for some reason and I’m sure that most of you can think of someone like that.

But you can of course also invite anyone who you may think might respond well to such an invitation. Please think and pray about this. Several weeks beforehand – i.e. towards the end of this month – you will receive an invitation card and we hope you will give this to your chosen person. On the day itself we hope that you will accompany your friend to church. By also keeping this day as Harvest Thanksgiving we have something interesting to invite people to. We plan a Harvest lunch as part of the day to which your ‘invitee’ might wish to share.

During the coming month you will be hearing more of our plans as they evolve. Please do give them your full support. During the month Sunday News and Notices Evening Prayer services will include special times of prayer for the ‘special weekend’ in which we hope to share the love of Christ with many of those among whom we live and work. Please come along to these if you can and also offer our plans in your own prayers throughout the month.

Fr John

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