Final night of the Bishop's Bible week
The Bishop's Bible Week concluded on Thursday evening as Christina Baxter taught from the final chapter of Habakkuk. It was encouraging to see Willowfield Church again filled with several hundred people eager to listen, worship and respond to the word of God.
The reading on the final night was given by [if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif][if gte mso 9]><![endif] <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} @font-face { panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; font-:11.0pt;"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault { mso-bidi-"Times New Roman";} .MsoPapDefault { margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page WordSection1 {:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> [if gte mso 10]><![endif]Arlene Foster MLA, Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and the prayers taken by Revd Adrian McCartney of Wells Church.
Adrian was at St John's Nottingham from September 84 to June 86 before going to the Divinity Hostel in Dublin. Christina was on staff, lecturing in doctrine, and was his "personal tutor" - a first port of call for any pastoral or educational question. Adrian sums up very well our speaker and the way in which she taught us each night:
"Christina Baxter is a rare mixture of good theology, good spirituality and “good living”. She has somehow managed to integrate her life so that what she believes is what she is and what she says is what she does. This is totally obvious in her Bible exegesis and application. It is never just a theory nor only an idea. It is worked through into life. Christina’s humanity mingled with her encounter with the Divine have been an inspiration this week."
The final act of the Bishop's Bible Week was to proclaim together that 'Jesus is Lord' over the whole diocese, taking each Area Deanery in turn. We left taking heart from the final words of Habakkuk's prayer that, though much is wrong in our lives, in our churches and in our society, nothing is beyond the grace of God:
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
(Hab 3:18 &19)
A prayer from the last evening, that God would strengthen us to overcome evil in our time:
O God of our salvation, O God who came in Jesus Christ to live and die and be raised again to save us to the uttermost.
We pray that you would so fill our hearts with the assurance of your power, your mercy and your grace, that we might always begin by looking to you.
And we pray that you would give us confidence and strength to face all that is wrong in your world and in our lives and in the life of your church, that we might continue to trust you day by day and watch for you to work.
We pray that you might help us to say, that, even though the worst befall us, "yet we will trust you".
And we beg you that you would strengthen us to trample down evil in our lives, in the lives of our churches and in our society.
That we might see Jesus vanquish all that dishonours you and that we might be filled with praise and adoration as we see the knowledge of the love of God fill this earth as the waters cover the sea.
We pray in Jesus name. Amen
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