Ascension & APCM
“And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on”
Summary
Every year each parish church is obliged to hold an Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) before the end of May. At this meeting we receive the accounts and reports for the previous year and elect those who will serve us in the year ahead.
We hold the APCM within the Parish Eucharist service so that we can look back at all we have done and look forward to all that we hope to do; show our gratitude for everyone who works to serve God and our community; and pray for those committing to serve in the year ahead. The essential business items are covered in the first part of the service and, in place of a sermon, members of the parish will give a brief overview of last year.
This year the APCM falls on the Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Ascension. The story of our salvation begins with the Incarnation when Jesus brings God to be with us in the heart of human life. At the Ascension Jesus takes us with him into the heart of God. This does not mark the ending of Christ’s earthly ministry but its new beginning in us: Our concerns are God’s concerns and God’s concerns are ours. In Luke 24: 44-53, Jesus addresses his disciples: they will no longer see him as one particular person, Jesus of Nazareth, but he will now be present in all those who follow him. “See, I am sending you what my father promised” you will be “clothed with power from on high”. Christ is not absent; Christ is present here with us and in us as we commit ourselves to take God with us into the life our community and bring a little bit of heaven to our patch of earth.
GOSPEL
Luke 24.44-53
‘ Jesus said to his disciples, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.’
