Thoughts From The Cottage
Dear Friends
If you were in church on Sunday 20th May, Pentecost you will know the significance of the train. It is a train of the Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) that I rode on 19th May 2018 and it shouldn’t be here. The predecessor of the WHR started in 1863 and went through various mergers and led a very troubled existence eventually being bought by the Ffestiniog Railway in the 1920’s. The last passenger train ran in 1936. The company went into liquidation in the 1940’s, the rails were lifted and station buildings sold off but because there was no buy back clause in the lease the track bed lay dormant, largely untouched. In 1961 a group set about restoring the line. Eventually after a series of false starts the Ffestiniog Railway acquired the new company and in 1981 trains began running over a short stretch of line. A change of management saw a plan produced to reopen the whole line and to extend it north into Caernarfon and at Porthmadog into the Ffestiniog Railway station. Steam engines would be restored, carriages restored and new ones built. In 2012 the impossible happened and trains began running over the whole length of line.
The story of the WHR is a lesson for us. We can either allow decay and ruin to set in or we can set about restoring. I plan to retire in 2020 so I have two years left and I do not want to waste those two years marking time or treading water. I am not interested in the survival of the Beacon Church Centre as a worshipping Community. I am only interested in its growth.
How that growth will happen I do not know but I do know that if we co-operate with God’s Holy Spirit it will happen. As a beginning we will not talk about decline or downsizing and we will always speak positively of our church and its people. Beyond there I want to hear your ideas for growing the church. But, of course, we will pray, read the scriptures and worship together. There is good news, we don’t have to do it all ourselves. We have been offered the services of the Synod Evangelist, Nick, for a sustained period through the Winter and next Spring. Nick will meet with the Pastoral Support Group later in the year to dream dreams and formulate plans which will be put to the Church Life Meeting. Put alongside this the work our Outreach Worker, Louise, is doing and the fact that I will soon be free from the pressures of running Barnes Close as CfR sells it and we have a great opportunity. God is clearly trying to do something, we must discover what it is and work with him. New initiatives such as Messy Church & Café Church will continue to develop and our engagement with the community around us will continue through activities on our premises.
I am sure there will be challenges and obstacles on the way, but they will be overcome. Remember negativity, talk of decline and downsizing is not allowed – we are going for growth and all our energy will be put into it.
Ian
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