One of the interesting things about Church Annual Meetings is that, even though they invariably fall during April, they don’t cover the fiscal year from April to April, or even the Church calendar year from Advent to Advent, but simply the ordinary secular calendar year from 1st January to 31st December. And so it is that this report covers the year of Our Lord that was 2009.

Looking back at my report this time last year, when I had only been in office for six months, I noted that the date of my licensing by the Bishop of Edmonton had been the 10th of the 10th 2008. In John’s Gospel Chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life – and have it in abundance!” and that is why it seemed to be a good scriptural quotation to put on the homepage of our website together with that other inspirational quotation from the 2nd century, Bishop, St Irenaeus, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive”.

Well, looking back over 2009, it has certainly been a year lived in abundance here at Emmanuel. The Electoral Roll of adult church members being presented to this meeting now stands at 176 and, despite a number of members moving away, it represents an almost 25% growth in the parish family in the space of twelve months. As politicians of every hue are fond of reminding us in the run up to a general election, statistics are not everything, but this is something which we can genuinely rejoice in.

It was Archbishop Temple of Canterbury who famously said in the first half of the twentieth century, “The Church is the only society on earth which exists for the benefit of its non-members”. That is surely an aspirational and apostolic statement- for any church should always have as one its principal objectives not only growth in number, but also growth in the way it serves and connects with its local community.

Allied to growth in number, should also be an increase in depth, in prayer and spirituality. This has been one of our principal aims in 2009 and so I have greatly enjoyed being joined for Morning and Evening Prayer each day, where through psalms, canticles and scriptural reading we place ourselves into the broader horizons of God’s redeeming love shown to people throughout the ages. It is good, too, that the Eucharist is being celebrated almost daily in a quiet and more meditative way.

The Eucharist is our principal service of prayer in and for the parish each day and so these services are not just an optional bolt on for some kind of spiritual elite or for those who like that sort of thing, but rather the focus and seed-bed out of which all else flows and in which we commend our whole life to God. The Eucharist each day has been supported by a small and faithful band and what would be really great during 2010 is to see attendance at these weekday services grow.

Our most popular service has undoubtedly been the First Sunday of the month 50 minute Family Eucharist, where our children and young people play a full part in the service, singing, serving at the altar, reading and leading the prayers. Indeed this service has become so popular that the amount of time that the administration of holy communion takes, means that it is harder and harder to do it in exactly 50 minutes!

As I said earlier, numbers are not everything, and one great enrichment of our spiritual life has been the monthly service of Choral Evensong from the Book of Common Prayer on the evening when there has been a Family Eucharist in the morning. Sincere thanks are due to Mark, Matt, Sukey and the Choir for the many ways in which Evensong and indeed all our liturgies are enriched through their ministry of music. As one who has been involved in church music virtually all of my life in a variety of settings from Parish Church to Cathedral to Monastery, I know just how much effort and preparation goes into producing such consistently good music, not only at the great festivals of the year but Sunday by Sunday too. It was that great giant of the early Church, St Augustine of Hippo, who famously said, “the one who sings, prays twice!”. In the coming year we look forward to how we might increase the musical provision here at Emmanuel in further expanding the range of liturgy and worship here to respond creatively to the needs of our growing and increasingly varied congregation.

Of course every specific ministry in Church exists not for itself but to point beyond itself to the God of love who reveals himself most beautifully in Jesus Christ, and so to enable others to enter more fully into that mystery of love and praise. In this connection, I would like to thank also our Churchwardens, PCC members, altar servers, our readers and our Sunday School leaders who also put in large amounts of time to enable so much to happen here at Emmanuel.

The Greek word from which we derive our English word “church” means literally a body of people called and drawn together, through their love for God and one another, rather than simply the church building – and so I would like to thank each and every one of you for all that you individually bring to our life together and for which we are so grateful.

That said, of course, the church building in terms of bricks and mortar, is one of our major resources. Emmanuel Church which has stood in its prominent position alongside West End Green since 1897 is something which should rightly be at the heart and service of the local community of West Hampstead. Over the past year we have been looking into how we might rectify our undulating floor and at the same time add more rooms, including a disabled toilet and baby changing facility and a purpose-built kitchen and servery. These new rooms will be a resource to the local community and will be able to be used – we hope – for a whole range of community activities and so enable the church to be kept open more throughout the day. Detailed chemical and geological surveys have been made to the ground under the church and we await laboratory results as to how best we proceed so that the solution we carry out lasts for many generations to come. In this regard I reminded of Jesus’ parable of the man who built his house on rock over and against the one who built it on sand! Watch this space for further developments…

Our desire to look outwards has also enabled us to connect more fully in supporting various charities – most notably Christian Aid and the Bishop of London’s Lent appeals for our link dioceses of Angola and Mozambique. We were also fortunate to hear an inspiring presentation by the Revd Ken Jefferson about some of the work that his charity the ‘Claypotts Trust’ does in Swaziland, one of the poorest countries of the world and where the incidence of HIV/AIDS is among the highest in the world. We look forward to exploring how we might cement links with this charity in its work specifically with children and schools in Swaziland.

During the past year, as you know, we have been working hard on our own school expansion project. Many thanks to all of you who have attended the various public meetings and consultations in what has been slightly choppy times. The application for planning permission has been submitted but, because local government goes into ‘purdah’ in the time leading up to local and general elections, we await the outcome of the application. An expanded school at the heart of West Hampstead would be a significant community resource in a Borough with such a crying need for extra primary school places.

In September we welcomed back to the School Sheila McCalla-Gordon as Executive Head of both Emmanuel and Ss. Mary & Pancras Schools, Tracy Kilkenny as Head of School and Melanie Miller as Assistant Head. We are aware that there has been quite a significant turnover of staff in recent years and so we much look forward to both a period of stability and exciting growth in all that lies ahead. The collaborative partnership between Church and School is a key one in the life of the local community and one for which we should be rightly proud.

Some of you will know that the Church Hall in Broomsleigh Street has been let for many years to Camden as a Community Centre. Not surprisingly, a building erected in the late 19th Century had become somewhat dilapidated. Camden very much want it to continue as a Community Centre, but in order for them to inject the significant sums needed to bring it up to specification for a 21st Century Community Centre, they felt they needed to acquire the freehold of the property and so it is that last year we sold it to them. The monies raised have been wisely invested to provide a continuing source of revenue to support the ministry, mission and outreach of Emmanuel Church. Initial results show that the investment income far surpasses what we were receiving in rental income and so this sale has positively benefitted both the Church and the local community. I am meeting regularly with the new community development worker so that we might ensure that the Church is a key stake-holder in seeking the common good of the local community.

Some years ago in the late 80s and early 90s I drove up and down Fortune Green Road into West End Lane many times to visit friends, without ever realizing that there is a Church here, nestled as we are slightly back from the main road and behind trees. During 2009 there have been a number of working parties to thin out some of the thick foliage of the trees to make the Church more noticeable from the road. Through the great generosity of a former parishioner we have been enabled to get new sign boarding in the church and school livery companies of blue and gold. As I’m sure you have noticed this has involved a new illuminated sign of Lyncroft Gardens and a new community notice board facing West End Lane and Green. All of this is part of a conscious aspiration to raise the profile of the Church in the local community and to let people know all that is going on here.

On your behalf, the PCC went on an ‘envisioning’ away day to Edgware Abbey last October, where we were facilitated by the Revd Anne Claridge, to look at the ways in which people have come into the Church in recent years and to explore still further ways in which we might attract others. This is crucial to our ministry and mission. Our congregation has a refreshingly young age profile, but it is vital that we do not neglect the needs of our older members who should also rightly be at the heart of our corporate life. Other further areas of development might be what more we do for teenagers or for adults, single or partnered, who are without children.

Well, it’s invidious to single out any particular person for especial thanks in an Annual Meeting, for fear of offending others, but I am very aware that this is Emma’s last Annual Meeting before she is ordained and goes to serve up the hill at Hampstead Parish Church. It is the policy of the wider Church that those who are serving in stipendiary curacies always go to another parish to begin ordained life and ministry.

I first met Emma when she and Anne Clarke gave me a guided tour around the parish and the “interview before the interview” for the post of Priest in Charge at Emmanuel Church. Ever since I have been here, Emma has been an enormous source of encouragement and support to me in my ministry. She has an innate and natural pastoral heart as well as an encyclopaedic memory for names. She served the parish especially well in the time between Fr Peter leaving and me arriving. It has been a joy and a delight both to work alongside her and to see her grow and flourish during her training at Cuddesdon. It has also been a welcome reminder to me of all those theologians and philosophers that I had forgotten about in seventeen years of ministry! We are going to miss Emma, Jeremy, Hugo and Guy enormously when they go up the hill in the summer. Emma’s final service with us will be at the Patronal Festival on Sunday 6th June and so we will have a proper opportunity for expressing our sincere thanks to her on that occasion.

Emma will be ordained in St Paul’s Cathedral on Saturday 3rd July at 3 pm and we hope as many people from Emmanuel as are able will go to that. At the same service Emma’s friend, Alysoun Whitton, will also be ordained and Alysoun will start with us here at Emmanuel the next day, joining Mothers Annette, Claire and I in privilege and honour of serving as your clergy at Emmanuel.

So there’s much to give thanks for today in the year of Our Lord that was 2009 and, as under the grace and unbounded generosity of God, we forge onwards in all that is to come.

In the words of Dag Hammarskjold, the Swedish born Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961.

“For all that has been – thanks!

For all that shall be – yes!”