I remember the first time I came to St Paul & St Barnabas; it was a cold, wet, wintry night in February 2022, and I was so blessed to spend that evening chatting about this wonderful church. I left that night with a strong sense of what might be, and as I sit and write this thinking about the fact that nearly four and a half years have passed since that first night, I am forever thankful to God as I wonder where the time has gone!
We can only be faithful because he is.
It has been one of the greatest blessings of my life to have been called to serve this church, and in this part of the city, and that sense of privilege has never lessened in all my time here. In fact, it has only increased: for me there is no more exciting place to be as I think both about what has been and what could be. This month sees St Paul’s mark 175 years of worship and witness in the city of Belfast, and as I look back and think about all that happened within the streets that God has called us to serve, it makes that faithfulness, presence, consistency, and boldness all the more admirable for those who have gone before us, and those who are still with us who have served through those seasons in the life of the church. There is much to be thankful for, many people to give thanks for: so much and so many people that there would not be enough pages to list all who have given something of themselves to maintain this worshipping community through some of the most challenging days in the history of our city and nation, and that is something to be commended and celebrated. That through the most challenging of cultural moments, world wars, economic depressions, the Troubles, and all the days in between, this parish has been open, alive, worshipping, witnessing, and helping and shining the light of Christ into the community around it consistently, every day, week, month and year since September 1851, says much about the people who have been here, their faith and faithfulness. Yet, through them it says even more about the God who has sustained our life here: we can only be faithful because he is.
Belfast today is almost unrecognisable from the city into which St Paul’s was first planted in 1851.
And faithfulness has never meant standing still. The streets have changed, industries have come and gone, whole communities have moved, buildings have disappeared and appeared, and the rhythms and patterns of life around us have changed again and again. Even now, we find ourselves ministering in a part of the city that is changing rapidly before our eyes. New homes, new developments, new students, new neighbours and people from nations and cultures that those who first worshipped here could scarcely have imagined are becoming part of the life of the streets around us.
The message itself remains unchanged, steady across every generation and every shift in the life of the city.
And as the city changes, inevitably some of how we do mission must change with it. How we reach people, how we build community, how we use our buildings, how we serve our neighbours, how we create places of welcome and belonging, and even how we communicate with the world around us cannot simply remain frozen in another generation. What served the people of these streets fifty or a hundred years ago may not always serve them today. Every generation of the Church has had to ask again what it means to faithfully bring Christ into the particular place and moment in which God has placed it. But while the means of mission change, the message itself remains unchanged, steady across every generation and every shift in the life of the city.
For 175 years the heart of our witness has remained the same: that Jesus Christ is Lord, that in him there is forgiveness, life and hope, and that through his death and resurrection God is reconciling people to himself and making all things new. That was good news in Belfast in 1851. It was good news through war, poverty, upheaval and the Troubles. It has been good news through every change these streets have witnessed, and it remains good news for the people who live, work, study and raise their families around us today.
That was good news in Belfast in 1851.
Our task, then, is neither to abandon what has gone before nor simply to recreate it. It is to receive faithfully what has been handed to us and ask how we now carry that same unchanging gospel into a changing city, to honour the faithfulness of previous generations by being equally willing to serve the people God has placed around us in our own.
St Paul & St Barnabas · WWW.SPBBELFAST.CHURCH
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