Growing in good faith

Faith is the deep sense that God - who Christians experience as our Creator, Rescuer and Sustainer (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) - is the source of all things; all that is true, good and beautiful. It is an expression of profound gratitude to God and has been, and continues to be, the wellspring for countless expressions of kindness, courage, art, music, science and poetry in our world.  Faith nurtures our relationship with the Divine - 'in whom we live, move and have our being' - as well as with other people and our beautiful but broken world. A living faith encourages our God-given curiosity and questions, too.

In other words, faith helps us to love. One of the deepest insights of the Bible is that 'God is love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them' (1 John 4:16).

Growing in good faith is the opposite of bad religion, which can't help but exclude and condemn people who are different. Nor does it settle for the tame respectability of 'Churchianity'. God invites us to share our lives with him, in good times and in bad, and to savour the goodness of 'the community of Creation' of which we are a part. This journey of faith is not meant to be a solitary or smug thing: we need one other (which can be frustrating at times) in our God-given diversity. We need to help one another to show as best we can God's passion for the world, embodied in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Pilgrims come in all shapes and sizes and all are welcome here at St Mary's, because for God there are no outsiders.