_4x.png){kind=logo}
Recently, I've been excited to be part of a variety of events which included mission partnership as a thread throughout the broader programme: several Children's Day services, a prayer weekend and a couple of diocesan gatherings.
I find these events refreshing and encouraging because they are the expression of the steady and constant nature of parish partnerships.
It may seem like a little thing that children get to learn about mission because the parish has a Global Partnership... but what value it adds to their faith and their future. And what value they add to their Global Partnership as they raise funds and share their pictures and drawings!
It may seem like a little thing that parishes include their Global Partner's needs and requests in a prayer weekend... but how effective the prayers of God's people are - impacting lives in ways that funding programmes could never manage. And how much deeper goes fellowship and love when partners around the world take time to bring each others needs to the Father of us all.
It may seem like a little thing that dioceses hear reports of their global partners at their busy synods and conferences... but how important for the Body of Christ that we rejoice in each other's joys and share in each other's suffering. How important for us to know what God is doing in His whole Church, not just the part of it that we can see.
What a relief to be reminded that mission grows from all the little things as well as all our bigger efforts!
"The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed...Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
[Matthew 13 v 31-32]
