The past year feels to me to have been one of moving on from the challenges of the previous autumn into a hopeful forward looking mentality.

We have seen a significant number of people move away, as usual, some very active in our Church life, but new people have joined us, so that the typical number attending our Sunday services has risen a little. It’s been good to have a vibrant group of students with us since the autumn, after several years with only a small number. We know some of our current active Church members will be leaving this coming summer, so the perpetual challenge to mobilise new servants of God in the Church is still with us. How will you respond?

The number of children on Sundays has fluctuated considerably, but has generally risen also, such that we hope soon to restart some teaching for 3-5 year-olds. We still need more teachers and helpers and are asking parents to play a more active role, but our regular team of Loreena, David, Dona & Montserrat and their assistants has done a great job, with April undertaking the administration work. We are grateful also to those who have helped out in crèche, enabling parents to enjoy the services, whilst their children are given loving care. Here too we’ll need to replace some who are moving away. Is God calling you to get involved with our children’s ministry?

Our events committee, led by John, has organised a variety of opportunities for sharing, which have generally been well supported & appreciated. Men’s Suppers have continued, organised by Alan, to create, with the other events, opportunities to invite friends. We’ve cooperated with the other two Churches that share St Marc’s building in services & events, culminating in the celebration of the 40th anniversary of St Marc’s Centre. We have also maintained cooperative links with the other English language Church of Grenoble, and I’ve represented us in the groups which bring together the different leaders of Grenoble’s Churches.

We have continued to benefit from Howard & Dona’s presence and active input in many ways, and thank them warmly. We rejoice that they feel God wants them to extend their stay here, so we must pray with them that the necessary financial support will be forthcoming.

It’s been good to have more variety in the Sunday preachers and in those leading our music - I hope you feel this has enriched our worship & learning. We thank those who have hosted and led our home groups this past year, to Dante who has coordinated them. These groups are so important in offering us the context in which to deepen our faith and practice sharing our experiences. I do urge you to join such a group if you have not yet.

Support for Missionary work has been a major theme this year, with the Lewis family going out to serve with SIM in Burkina Faso. It is good that we have set in place the resources for their financial support for 2 years. We need to ensure our prayer support and encouragement is equally committed. We benefited from Nick Van Wingerden talking to us about Islam, and need to deepen our engagement with its challenge, especially through prayer. We continue to support Barnabbas Fund in its involvement with persecuted Christians, Tearfund in its work with the poor, ACAT in helping those unjustly imprisoned & tortured, the CITA workshop in Burkina Faso, L’Echoppe distributing food to the local needy, and ICS in its mission to bring the gospel to English speakers worldwide. We gratefully acknowledge their ongoing prayer & pastoral support of us, and our fellowship with the other Anglican churches of France and the diocese in Europe. Our suffragan Bishop plans to visit us for the first weekend of December.

Our Church Council has continued to discuss and prayerfully consider our vision as a Church. We see ourselves as a Church at the crossroads of people’s lives, encouraging one another to embrace and return the love of God for us, and to live in love with one another and those around us. In this way we can experience the fullness of life Jesus came to bring us, and learn to live lives that please God.

As most of you know 2008 was a challenging year for Marian & myself personally, not least in the fire that ravaged the Church apartment here. God has been faithful and brought good out of each difficulty, including the benefit of the complete refurbishment of the apartment at little cost to our Church finances. Financially this has been a challenging year for our Church, with our first ever deficit. This was reduced by generous one off gifts from former & current members, but we must each face the challenge of pledging our regular giving to God through the Church if we are to see the way ahead, and avoid drastic action such as evicting us from the Church apartment! May we each consider our response to this challenge and continue to pray for God to meet our needs.

It’s a privilege for me to be Chaplain of this Church, and I thank you all for your support and involvement in its life. We particularly thank David for his past six years of service as Churchwarden, as Church rules require him to stand down for the next year. So many of you play active roles that it would take too long to name you all. Indeed of the 75 surnames on our current Church address list half are represented amongst those who regularly serve us in different roles in the Church. So thank you for your contributions. Let’s pray that the rest of us will step forward too, and that God will bring new people to us to discover his love and join us in serving him. We look forward to the next year, confident in him.