From the Parish Priest

What have all these things got in common:

 a Baptist Church in Hereford

 the Woodpecker

 Cantrelle Singers

 a packet of seeds and

 roast chicken?

In April the annual clergy dinner for the Havant Deanery was held. It was a good dinner - excellent chicken with fantastic roast potatoes and then double chocolate gateau for sweet.

It was a truly slimming meal, which was followed by a couple of us going to "The Woodpecker" - the pub in London Road. A man in the pub saw our dog collars, and said: "You shouldn't be wearing uniform in here - this is a place for relaxing, not to be frightened."

Right from the start of the Church - from the time of Jesus himself, Christians have used all kinds of ways to proclaim the Gospel and to evangelise. If the presence of a priest in a pub frightens someone - well how good is that! At least it made the gentleman think, and who knows what results that will bring.

For most of us most of the time our evangelism is very low key, but what we're often good at without realising it is planting seeds - seeds of faith. You'll never know when a comment you've made, or a small cross which you're wearing, or something you've done will drop a seed of faith into someone's life. That seed will grow - possibly not obviously, possibly not at St. George's, possibly not in your life-time, but grow it will. Dropping seeds is a good way to spread the good news, the Gospel of Christ.

At the dinner, we watched a film showing Churches doing unusual things to evangelise. There was a skate park run by a Church at Benfleet in Essex; the "Messy-Church" put on for children in Cowplain and a soup kitchen hosted by a Manchester church. The one that impressed me however, was Hereford Baptist Church.

Every Friday and Saturday night, youngsters pour out of the city clubs and sit around with nowhere to go and nothing to do except cause trouble. Most Churches, facing onto the main city square, would make sure the doors are locked and get security lighting installed. Not Hereford Baptist Church. Instead of guarding their building, they opened it up and now serve tea and coffee right through the night. It's been incredibly successful - and the key? Well, it's so simple. After a night clubbing, what the youngsters want is somewhere safe and dry to go, some food and drink, and someone to talk to. That's it - and it works.

This Church - St. George the Martyr - is sitting in a fantastic position. Literally thousands of people walk past here every day having parked in Matalan's and then walk to the shops and offices. Now I'm not going to suggest that we open at night for coffee - not yet anyway, but I do think we need to grasp every opportunity which comes our way, to raise our profile - to proclaim the good news of Jesus. Like Hereford Baptist Church, that proclamation doesn't need to be traditional preaching. Our bells, the procession on Easter Day, the notice boards, items in The News - all these are gentle ways of evangelising - of planting those seeds of faith.

In just six weeks time we're being given a really great opportunity to raise the profile of St. George's Church, and indeed of Christianity itself. St. George's is hosting the Waterlooville Music Festival. It's not happened before, so it is something new. We've got 16 different concerts in the space of just 8 days- and all of them are happening in Church. It's not only the profile of St. George's that will be raised, but also of music as an art form and of the town centre of Waterlooville itself. What a great opportunity this is! Let's grasp it and use it.

There are several things you can do to make sure this evangelistic chance is not missed.

 We need to publicise the Festival

 We need to sell tickets for the performances

 We need to welcome visitors and performers when they come into Church

 We need to feed them and serve them drinks

 We need to support the concerts themselves

Whether it's coffee after the nightclubs in Hereford or a dog collar in a Waterlooville pub.

Whether it's a poster in a Hambledon Road shop or soup and rolls at lunchtime in Church.

These are all ways of preaching the Gospel, of being evangelistic, of planting those small, fragile seeds of faith. Don't lose this opportunity for St. George's to make its mark right in the heart of Waterlooville. Please support and encourage the success of our Music Festival in June.

Fr. Mike
Parish Priest