Please help us to publicise the Tea Party with any friends, colleagues or neighbours. If you need to, download a copy of the Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file. and pass it on to anyone else you know who might be interested, or pin it up on any suitable notice boards.

If you would like to contribute self-made English specialties/cakes for selling or to offer a helping hand please contact Tim at missions[at]christchurchanglican.de Thanks.

We are currently using “CLICK”, Sunday school teaching resources that provide guidance to run the classes. A typical Sunday school lesson includes games, Bible story, sharing and craft work. Each class usually consists of a teacher and a co-teacher.

The more we teach, the more we learn! It’s a wonderful experience to see our kids growing in the love of our Lord!

It would be very helpful if you could let Wendy know if you are coming: Please inform her at lunch[at]christchurchanglican.de or on tel: 0211 418 4119.

Hope to see you on Sunday.

Wendy

• 1. Opening prayer
• 2. Electoral roll
• 3. Minutes of last AGM
• 4. Presentation and discussion of annual report
• 5. Accounts for 2011 and budget 2012
• 6. Approval of trustees’ actions in past year
• 7. Election of representative to Deanery Synod
• 8. Election of church wardens
• 9. Election of chaplaincy council

Anyone seeking election should complete a nomination form and hand this to one of the trustees, Steve Proctor or John Evans asap. Please address any questions regarding enrolment as a member, nomination or election to the council, or about the AGM to either membership[at]christchurchanglican.de or to one of the church wardens or trustees.

Ursula

The first answer in any realm of public responsibility lies in the model Jesus Christ set before his followers, as the Lord of all who nevertheless came “not to be served, but to serve”.

Yet this can apply to financiers… The guiding principle here should be not “How much money can we make?” but, “How can I best be of service?” In every occupation and relationship, those who claim to follow Christ should follow his example of being “the servant of all”.

After that, there are the basic principles of honesty and integrity, which should not be confined to private life. “By justice a king gives a country stability,” says the book of Proverbs, “but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down” (29:4). In the end, bribery, corruption and greed destroy businesses and communities.

But someone will say, “This is impossible — in the hard world of business, it’s dog eat dog.” To this, we can only reply, do you want to live like an animal, or like a human being made in the image of God? Do you want to follow the herd, or follow the Master? If people ask what the Christian ‘take’ is on something as profound as global finance, they must not complain if the answer turns out to be simple to define but hard to apply. Maybe that’s life.

Excerpt taken from John Richardson’s blog, printed in Cross†Way No.123, p.14

The disciplines of Lent, which begin on Ash Wednesday, are not intended to be burdensome, but to open our lives more fully to the transforming power of the gospel. Our mission as the Anglican Church of Kenya is simple, yet powerful: it is ‘to equip God’s people to transform society with the gospel’. This is an holistic transformation much deeper and more lasting than any government or international agency can bring because it addresses our deepest need, that of a restored relationship with the God in whose image we are made and whose workmanship we are.

The glorious truth of the gospel is that we are justified freely by God’s grace alone, but far from making us complacent about doing good, the abundant grace and full forgiveness we have through the blood of Christ should be a great spur to Christ-like living, to walking in those good works ‘which God prepared beforehand’.

Imagine the transformation if our nation heeded this call. As we prepare for general elections which will test the cohesiveness of our civil society, Christians need to model what it means to live in peace, practicing tolerance and forgiveness, with a new sense of urgency. Moreover, the foundation of our civic life is the family so it is vital that the love of Christ deeply infuses family relationships and that the shameful violence being reported in the media, not only of husbands towards wives but now even of wives towards husbands, is replaced by the kindness and gentleness of Christ.

Our Christian faith can also have an impact on the scourge of unemployment; although the immediate causes often lie with economic forces beyond our control, the Christian values of hard work, thrift, enterprise and honesty have the capacity to bring long term prosperity.

These things are not easy. They call for the spiritual depth which comes from a real and growing awareness of Christ’s presence in our personal lives. Otherwise, the good works God calls us to do will simply feel like burdens and we will not sustain them under pressure. During this Lenten season, whatever particular disciplines we adopt, our first aim should be to draw near to God in prayer and through his Word, beseeching him to make in us new and contrite hearts, hearts that will desire the things of his heart.

Without this joyful discipline, we will be vulnerable to taking short cuts that lead us away from the truth of the gospel. Some church leaders seem to think that the transformation of society will simply come through commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and at home in Kenya, the Vision 2030 initiative and the new constitution. While it is obvious that such good things as feeding the hungry, fighting disease, improving education and national prosperity are to be desired by all, by themselves any human dream can become a substitute gospel which renders repentance and the cross of Christ irrelevant.

Moreover, we need to be discerning about the values behind these visions. For instance the Millennium Development Goals have grown out of a secularised Western culture which is pushing Christianity to the margins and uses the language of human rights and equality to promote irresponsibility in social life and diminish personal responsibility.

So this Lent, let us seek to experience a renewed walk with Christ in those good works that God has prepared. The good news of the gospel is that transformation begins with ordinary men, women and children, however sinful or insignificant we may feel. It is not a responsibility we can leave to governments and agencies, but a challenge to fulfil the purposes of Almighty God in our place for our time.

May the Lord establish your hearts in every good work as you trust in Him

Amen

Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Anglican Church of Kenya