Dedication of Church Hall
All Saints’, Denmead
Sat 31st Jan 2004
Readings: I Chr 29:6-13/Mt 7: 13-14, 24-27
Today marks the end of a long, long process, that has involved planning, negotiating, fund-raising, and the kind of eagle-eyed scrutiny which the Church attracts, especially when it is trying to do something new. There will be a huge sigh of relief between the lines of this service from those who have expended effort, imagination, persistence, determination to get us where we are now. And as the son of an architect who used to do some work for the Church (but he didn’t always have a high opinion of the clergy as clients!), I relish these occasions: there may be the smell of wood shavings, plaster, and a newly-installed heating system. Some people easily remember the smell of other places, like a doctor’s surgery or a school; a new building has one of its own for me, and it’s good to be here.
But today also marks the beginning of another process, which we hope and pray will be considerably longer than the one that has seen this Church Hall being built. For you now have a fresh challenge: you’ve got this Hall – now you must use it. It will be painful to see the first mark on the floor, the first stain on the carpet, or have the first row with people who have not cleared up properly after themselves. When I was a Curate, one of the surprising jobs I was given was to chair the Hall Management Committee. We had not one but two halls, and it was a bit of a nightmare. Both were in constant use, one of them during the daytime by the local Church School, and then in came the youth club, and, of course, the congregation wanted to have a lots of young people coming to services, but they weren’t always inclined to take them on anything but their own sometimes rather proprietorial, cautious, middle-aged terms.
So my main advice is – don’t be too cautious. A Church Hall is an important point of access for many people who are far more shy about coming into the Church itself than many of us who are used to it all sometimes realize. If we want the Church to have a place in the community where people can bring their questions about life and their sometimes painful experiences, then every point of access is of vital importance to our onward mission. Of course, the best points of access are not buildings (though it helps if they are friendly in that respect), but people. When I come into a Church or a Church Hall as I do most weeks in this job, I can always tell whether the community is friendly and open to strangers (without being overwhelmingly so), or whether it is really a nice little inwardlooking group of people who are not interested in any one else.
Let me end with a brief look at today’s two readings. First we have Solomon dedicating the temple – the dream of his father David. Solomon takes care to offer it to God, as God’s possession, not ours. It is almost as if the temple were being offered to God in order to stop it belonging to any human institution. A Church Hall is not the private possession of a local religious club – it belongs to God, because it is part of his mission, which is about saying that life concerns far more than what is obvious. Then we have two snippets from the latter part of the greatest sermon ever preached – the Sermon on the Mount. Enter by the narrow gate – we are told. Yes, it is narrow, but its narrowness is nothing to do with the barriers and prejudices we sometimes put there. Its narrowness is about the demands which God makes upon all of us. God is not exclusive – only the Church appears to be so now and again. Access is for individuals – but it is not a difficult process, just a challenging one. And that leads, finally, to the second snippet, the very last words of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus contrasts the house built on sand with the house built on rock. Heavenly planning permission has its own building regulations, which are about preventing us from trying to put up our spiritual dwelling-place on anything other than firm foundations. Jesus is that foundation, and on him alone do rely. May this new Church Hall be a worthy point of access to God for this community, and may you richly enjoy the challenges that face you in its effective use in the exciting years ahead!
+ Kenneth Portsmouth
