The Christmas Tree Festival brought great joy to many and the St John's family excelled at providing hospitality to many visitors.  Once again the building proved adaptable and capable in our ministry of outreach to our local community.

Mission and Evangelism takes many forms in the life of the Church.  One of the ways which gets neglected sometimes is that of 'Hospitality'.  This is not just about welcoming people into our homes but, more importantly, welcoming them into our hearts.  We see in the Gospel many incidents where Jesus shares hospitality with others, often found around a meal table.  he chose all sorts of people to eat with, many of them outside the normal social circle.  They invited him into their homes and then discovered that they were no longer the host, but had become the guest.  They discovered that Jesus opened a different home to them - the home of his heart and there they came face to face with the love of God.

When we invite people into our Church through the services, gatherings and occasions we put on, we are inviting them not just to share our building (our communal Christian 'home') but to share in the love and warmth that God provides through us and it.

In monastic communities the most important building, after the Chapel, was the 'Guest House' or hospitium - the place where pilgrims and visitors find a welcome, a place to rest and eat, and even sleep. 

The care of guests has long been part of the Christian way.  The 'Rule' of St Benedict, the classic rule of life for monastic and, by extension, Christian communities, has something very important to say about how we should receive guests.  He says:

Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, "I came as a guest and you received Me."  - see Matthew 25 v 34ff.

Benedict adds that to all must honour be shown.

We receive each of our visitors as if we are receiving Christ.  This is at the heart of hospitality.   The word itself means to be welcoming and generous and caring.  Our word 'hospital' has the same roots, but we are not just to care for the sick and needy.  Everyone who visits our church deserves to be welcomed as 'Christ in disguise'.

Hospitality is a form of mission because often it is the way we treat someone that determines whether them come to see us again and if they do they are likely to be caught up in Christ's own hospitality.  Our Lord's hospitality is about him 'making his home  with us' (John 14:23).  Opening our home (our church building) is about being at home to others.  We are sharing in our Lord's work of loving people and through that love, opening their hearts to the love of God which draws them out into His Kingdom.  What we are doing, therefore, is Mission.

One of our hopes is to extend our building so that it can become a better equipped centre for this Mission.  We are not extending our facilities for ourselves but in order that we can carry out a better mission and ministry to our local community.  We are here to service them and to lead them to the heart of God.   I hope that we can grasp this Vision because it is this which will lead to our Development Project being fulfilled.