Great is Thy Faithfulness  

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to
them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord and you are right,
for that is what I am. So, if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash
one another’s feet. John 13:13,14
Jesus also washed the feet of Judas, just before he left to betray Him.
The question remains for us today. Do we care for others without exception? Do we accept our
own vulnerability and allow others to care for us?
The challenge of this session was community outreach, how can we share our faith in our local
community. A daunting prospect for many of us, but it turns out that God i s already at work in
Rustington, as Rowan Williams put it ‘Mission is finding out what God is doing and joining in
So now we have to keep our eyes open for what God is already doing. In developing mission in the
community, we are not going into hostile t erritory, God is already there waiting for us to get on
with it. A great lead into talking about our faith is the evidence that 44% of the population in UK
say that they pray. That is an amazing statistic, so, are we open to pray, if someone unexpected
ask s ‘will you pray with me’? We must not be hesitant about sharing our faith if someone asks,
‘why do you go to church?’ Are we ready to
The challenge extends to us as a church too. Laura asked if we saw St Peter & St Paul’s as an ark,
separate from , but offering help to the poor people outside, or are we part of this community,
giving and receiving help, learning from others while sharing Christ with them. As The Message*
puts it, "The Word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood. "
How do w e find out what is going on in Rustington? Bolders regularly invite local people such as
the scout leader who talked about sleeping rough one night to gain insight into
homelessness. Waffle and Men's Fellowship regularly attract non church members and ha ve
speakers with interest and expertise locally. What opportunities do we have as a church? Perhaps
an opportunity might arise when we could invite someone to come to the whole church service to
tell us of, say, Turning Tides, or Worthing4 Refugees.
There are at least five churches in Rustington, are they doing things we could all share or signpost
others to? Discovering the wealth of experience and God’s love already at work here is a wonderful
way of growing the church.
As we near the conclusion of this wonderful and challenging course we will reflect on our learning,
sift through the ideas it has raised and present suggestions to the PCC as they consider the
direction that our church will be taking into the future. We value your thoughts and contributi ons
to this process.
Sue Clark/ Di Kearsey
a version of the Bible in modern vernacular by Eugene H Peterson