A new ministry for the West End A new stage of United Reformed Church ministry and witness in the West End of Newcastle began on February 7th 2009, with the commissioning of Ann Honey as Church Related Community Worker at Robert Stewart Memorial Church on Wingrove Road. The service was presided over by the synod moderator, Rowena Francis.
The United Reformed Church sees Church Related Community Work as a vehicle for affirming the Kingdom of God in human affairs. Church Related Community Workers are commissioned to care for, to challenge and to pray for the community, to discern (with others) God's will for the well-being of the community, and to enable the church to live out its calling to proclaim the love and mercy of God through working with others in both church and community for peace and justice in the world.
So there was an atmosphere of joyful anticipation at RSM Church as members of the congregation and from other churches in the Mission Partnership joined with Ann's friends and family members and others who had encouraged her over her years of training to celebrate her commissioning to this ministry. Northern College Principal John Campbell preached the sermon, reminding the congregation that the injunction to seek justice is worked out in the stories we are told and continue to tell one another about Jesus. His compassion lies at the heart of all Christian ministry.
Following this, a statement by the local church spoke of the desire of the congregation to find more effective ways of relating to the ever-changing community around them, and a statement by Ann herself affirmed her own sense of calling - noting the lesson she had learned through years of training that God does not call the well-equipped, but equips those he has called.
The celebrated words of Teresa of Avila used at the end of the service summed up much of what had already been said and celebrated -
Christ has no body now on earth but yours;
no hands but yours;
no feet but yours;
yours are the eyes through which is to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world;
yours are the feet with which
Christ is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which
Christ is to bless now.
The afternoon ended as the large congregation moved across to the various church halls, where the reputation of RSM for generous hospitality was seen in the fine tea that everyone enjoyed.