Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb

Seven years on

Sunday 31 August, 2003 · Posted by Philip Bassett

Today, 31^st August 2003, is the seventh anniversary of my induction as the Rector of Toongabbie Anglican Church. In some ways the time seems to have raced past and I'm amazed that it has been so long. In another way, Margaret and I feel like we've been here forever. We're part of the furniture.

Wednesday, when I was writing this, was my 61^th birthday, which means I have only 3 years to go until retirement. Where has the time gone? It seems to be slipping away faster than ever.

In the last seven years we have seen changes in our world, our country, our community, our church. Sometimes when I look at the world I wonder if there has been any progress. I once heard that an optimist believes that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and a pessimist is afraid that he might just be right.

We have certainly seen changes in our church in that time. The FEC was built. We've had Roger and now Neil as full-time associate ministers. We've introduced the use of the video projector in our services. Our church web site is a thing of wonder. We've seen youth and children's ministries grow. We've had two Lifeworks programmes. We've seen steady growth in the numbers at all services. And some people have left, some have died and others have come.

But the change that really matters is the change in people's relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Yes we have seen people come to faith and take that step of Christian commitment and yes, we have seen people grow in their Christian maturity.

My prayer for Toongabbie Anglican Church is the same as the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:16-19, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

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