Dear Friends 

Christian greetings and Easter blessings as we celebrate the risen Christ and the joy he brings to us all.

I take this opportunity to share with you an important aspect of our work together which will be exciting as well as challenging.  The key will be to partner together "Shoulder to Shoulder" (or "Bega Kwa Bega" in Swahili which refers to "fund-raising") and make it happen

Why this Project ?

A few years ago the Parish celebrated the 350th anniversary of St.John's Church as a place of worship to the Almighty God.  Certainly a fitting realisation of its rich historicity and a continuity of 350 years of ceaseless worship and praise.  It is this kind of legacy that we want to treasure and pass on to the next generation.

In the year 2001 as a Select Vestry we carried out a comprehensive review and acknowledged that something needed to be done to  this magnificent Church building.  It has been said "the medium is the message"; needless to say a dirty and unkempt church building is no witness to our majestic creator of the whole universe.  No-one will take us seriously in a cold and deteriorating church.

We are challenged to keep buildings to a good standard whilst maintaining a balance between building people as a community of believers and the needs of the wider world.  The Church also belongs to the whole community as can be explained by the words of William Temple who said, "The Church is the only co-operative society, which exists for the benefit of its non-members".  Let us continue to strive towards a Church with open doors and big windows into the needs of the world.

We are God's sacred building, and without people there is no church.  St. Paul says, "You are God's temple." (I Corinthians Ch 3 v 9 and 16).

Let me use these 3 points to elaborate what it means to become God's buildings:

1. our life and work must be centred on Christ.  I would like to emphasise that buildings don't change people - it is friends and families who bring others to Christ or to Church.  The Chief Architect and builder is Christ himself and he says, "I will build my Church and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." (Matthew Ch 16 v 18).  Christ is the foundation of the building and therefore we need his guidance and direction.  We do not build simply because the building is listed or not. 

2. Christ is the Cornerstone - "Come to him that living stone...chosen and precious; and like living stones yourselves built into a spiritual house..."   Architects will tell us that the cornerstone of a building in the foundations set in the corner and walls their line.  Each one of us has a right place and usefulness in God's building when moved and controlled by Christ.  In Tanzania near Mt Kilimanjaro there is a retreat and a place of quietness - it is awesome to feel its spiritual atmosphere.  That area of 200 acres was a donation from one ordinary individual - an amazing example of giving for one's Church in an area where land is scarce and valuable.

3. We are a community created by the Spirit -  As God's temple there is a presence of the Spirit in us.  It is the Spirit who makes the Church alive.  He helps us to listen to God, to obey him and to yield ourselves to him and all that we have belongs to him.

This is certainly an exciting moment !  Certainly the biggest project  that will have been contemplated since renovation in 1940.  It will be a project that demands a lot of patience, energy, time and finances.  The whole project will also bring rewards in terms of co-operation, fellowship and renewal of vision for the work of God in the Parish and beyond.

We therefore need your partnership focusing on the 3 "P" areas -

People - Each one of use has an important part to play.

Prayer - Please support this project by praying regularly and in groups.

Pounds - Money that we offer; and even the money in our bank account belongs to God.

Together we can make it happen by standing "Shoulder to Shoulder" ("Bega Kwa Bega") !

Yours sincerely in Christ

Jerome Munyangaju