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It is my humble privilege to welcome you to this act of divine worship with which we commence the 136^th session of the Synod of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago.

The 136^th session of Synod takes place at a time of global challenges which are unprecedented in their magnitude and unlimited in their potential. There are challenges in the global financial system, in medical ethics, in crime and justice, in the one that is engaging the attention of people from Alaska to Zambia – food security, in addition to many, many others.

The history of humanity shows that challenges only change, they never go away, and that same history shows that challenges are either faced or denied. Whatever else we do with them is but a variation of these primary responses. The world into which our Lord Jesus Christ came was similarly, a world of challenge, and He responded to that challenge positively.

As early as age 12 Jesus had a sense of mission – sent for a purpose, and that sense deepened at the Jordan – at His baptism. Jesus saw His mission as giving life, giving life to all who were broken by life’s challenges. That was at the heart of His statement to Nicodemus: “God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

It was the same message He gave to the woman at the well in Samaria; and which He uttered in dramatic fashion when He called Lazarus of Bethany from his grave, and which is proclaimed triumphantly in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus could say: I am come that they might have life.” Or as Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message: “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”

That was no idle statement, for countless men and women have found new life in him. Time does not permit me to dwell on many but think of Zacchaeus, the dying thief on Calvary, Augustine of Hippo – need I go any further? They experienced an “undreamed of” life.

Yes, Jesus was right. He came to give life.

But that life giving did not end with his Ascension, for in fulfillment of his promise to send an Advocate who will be with us forever, we had the Pentecostal experience which brought into existence a community of faith – the Church – the Body of Christ, and this Body of Christ, the Church has been entrusted with the very mission of our Lord Jesus Christ: to give life to all who know their need of it.

The Church is the means by which God reconciles humanity to himself so that we human beings can be what we were meant to be, people working in harmony with God’s design.

And the Parish, which stands at the heart of our theme, is a local manifestation of the Church that God has given to the world. And as to be expected each parish is different, for each parish has its own story to tell; how it faced and overcame its own trials and adversities and how it laughed at its joys. Each parish has its own tale of how it comforted its members and how it celebrated its triumphs. Each different but each having the same common purpose to give life.

But to be a body which gives life means that the very life which is being given is threatened by that which is not life. And there are many life denying forces. You see the community of faith, the Church, the Parish, cannot select the conditions in which it prefers to work. It must take that which is given. And what is given to us today is a world in which the global financial system has come under severe testing. A world in which ethical issues as they relate to stem cell research will engage our attention in the near future; which therefore means we must ready ourselves for what is coming. And then there is the global issue of food security which is causing two effects:

· Food shortages

· High prices

Both these issues affect people and must be of concern to the church.

I am indebted to the Department of Agricultural Economics of the University of the West Indies for sharing the causes of this issue with me.

They have identified:

·        Climate change

·        The use of land once used for food growing to grow crops that are now used to produce energy.

·        The use of crops that were used in animal feed production to produce fuel – so animal feed prices increase.

·        The development of Asian economic giants

·        Global population increase.

Many causes.

So food shortages occur and food prices increase, and in many cities around the world social disturbances flare up and lives are lost. Lives are lost – anything that is life–denying must be of concern to the faith community, the Church, sent into the world to give life. What is the church’s response in the face of these challenges?

To give life.

So these and all other challenges are in actual fact opportunities for the church to engage in her mission to give life.

The community of faith is set within the wider community which is shifting from being the place where people once lived, worked and shared in the life of the village to one where the residents are virtually strangers. Communities serving more as dormitories and where people have their social interaction elsewhere. Support systems disappear and people live without much sense of belonging.

The community of faith is not called upon by God to reverse this trend, we are called to work for the creation of new kinds of communities. Keeping this in mind and addressing the issue of food, the church has to work to encourage a new kind of thinking that will enable our young people to see value and dignity in agriculture.

We throughout our parish system are significant holders of land. We must put some of our lands to such use, using the wealth of the human resource with which God has blessed this church in the process. We must use the Extension Services of our Agriculture Ministry.

We must encourage the development of 4 H Clubs, as well as use our already existing Real Entrepreneurial Living For Anglican Youth programme in this effort. We must be in our several communities, communities of Hope. Another global and national issue which shows no sign of lessening is crime. The loss of the traditional community. The absence of role models. The absence in some cases of father figures. The loss of the concept of authority. The presence of addictive drugs – all these conspire to fuel a crime industry.

Since the traditional institutions for socializing children are rapidly losing influence, the institution of the street is increasing in significance and influence. Out there there is rank and respect, friendship and income and there is anger – plenty of it.

Voices of despair are loud. But the community of Faith, the church, cannot exercise that option; for despair is the enemy of life and by extension hope. The church must enable the life of Christ to reach into the surrounding communities to help its members find healing and new life.

Our Family Life Commission, which will now align itself with the newly established Provincial Commission of the same name, will be asked to find ways of developing programmes and devise strategies to reach out to homes in our communities to touch children, youth and adults with healing. To the homes where there is despair we must become communities of hope.

The Church, the community of faith must develop a certain sensitivity to the various social issues that seek to quench life: for

example, poverty, aging, abuse. These issues must be the subject of parish/regional studies so that we become familiar with their causes and their cures. And I think we owe it to God and to ourselves collectively to learn to write the Members of Parliament for constituencies in which communities of faith, churches, are located to bring our concerns to their attention and to offer them our recommendations. But such action must come out of careful study and prayer. We must never be found acting irresponsibly.

Remember the Parish is a community of hope. We are called by God to be agents of transformation, the means by which God’s purposes are made known to God’s people. We must not be tempted to attempt the spectacular, for the mission we undertake is God’s.

The circumstances into which that mission is being carried may be different from that which we know and with which we are familiar. Though the circumstances may change the message changes not – for the message reflects the immutability of God – God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and God’s love for humanity is steadfast. It never varies.

The hope which we hold up to the despairing is not ours. Hope has its origin in God. It is not a vague “all will come right in the end.” Hope is grounded in God. It is the nature of God to bring good out of evil as he supremely demonstrated in the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. That is the basis of our hope. God is sovereign, his promises never fail. Our hope is based on what God has already done in relation to the promises he has made.

It is all too often true that the Parish can become disoriented from its primary purpose by the many challenges with which it is beset.

It is therefore necessary from time to time to examine where we, as Parish, are in relation to where we should be.

And the very challenges which destabilize us provide a great opportunity for us to rediscover our mission.

It is my belief that challenges are given to us to cause us to go back to our origins and re-examine our purpose. It is often in this process that we experience a renewed vision and the rebirth of hope, that we as Parish can once more become a community of hope.