St Paul’s, Holgate

My summer visit to York saw me staying in the parish of St Paul’s, Holgate. Curiously, the modest hotel at which I lodged had once been the vicarage. The Church of England is a mixed bag, though St Paul’s looks pretty good judging by its website. Its building was not open to inspect, and it is only Victorian anyway. It claims:

We think the words to best describe our purposes at this time are:

To Know; To Grow; and To Go.

Mission Statements and Vision & Values documents tend to bore me, often being the product of enthusiastic young clergy who wish to be seen leaving their mark. Sometimes they have just been borrowed from the corporate world with all its clichés and meaningless soundbites. Nevertheless, St Paul’s three purposes are Biblical and helpful. We need to know Jesus for ourselves, we need to grow in faith thereafter, and we need to go out to others and share the good news. Although the members and officers of Salem Chapel will be pleased to learn that I am not planning a whole season of focus meetings and seminars in order to thrash out a Mission Statement of our own, St Paul's would be the one I would have. In the meantime, let's read the mission of the actual Saint Paul, a set of goals to which we should all aspire:

…and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:9-11, New King James Version