Witnessing the Unexpected

by Apr 19, 2018Easter, Sermons

Luke 24:36b-48

Jesus appears to the disciples

Why don’t the children come forward as I’m going to need some help.

Now, having been on holidays, I have to admit I’ve been a bit out of touch with the world. So I’ve been trying to catch up reading news online. As usual there is lots going on; the Commonwealth games, horrific developments in the war in Syria and other news closer to home. There are constantly so many things going on around the world, we must rely on others to tell us what is happening in the world – we need to trust them to tell us. Of course doubt is also important, ‘fake news’ is out there, we hear incomplete stories, and we always get a person’s take on the story. It’s important we don’t always take people’s word for it.

Asking the children: Do you know what the Scientific method is?
– always remain sceptical.
– come up with a hypothesis,
– test, observe, measure (witness)
– and then you modify your hypothesis, and test again

Experiments have to be repeated, and our knowledge builds up from others – an important part of science is getting others to prove our discoveries are repeatable. Knowledge then builds up with different people bringing their own observations to what has happened. Sir Isaac Newton who is often considered to have discovered gravity is famed as saying that if he appears to have seen further than others it is because he was standing on the shoulders of giants.

It’s important to remember that one person’s experiments or observations aren’t enough. The discovery of DNA for example, the material that appears in every one of our cells. Understanding it wasn’t simply achieved when it was discovered in the 1860s, but it took nearly a century and the gathering of information from many different scientists to understand what DNA really was and how important it is to us.

Ok, so I’m going to claim I can put this egg into this bottle without touching it. Placing egg on bottle with narrower neck than egg. Do you believe I can do it? Then let’s experiment.

A match is lit and dropped into the bottle before quickly placing the egg on top – the egg, hopefully, gets sucked into the bottle.

Speaking to the children: Now you are witnesses – you’ve seen it happen but the rest of the congregation couldn’t see, they need to trust you and believe you. Can you make some observations? What happened…

In today’s Gospel we are told that Jesus opened the disciples minds so that they could understand what scripture was talking about. Up until his resurrection the disciples are a bit lost and confused. Then they begin to understand. It’s very easy to sit back and let somebody else think for us. Imagine at school the teacher came round and wrote the answers down for you in your homework book, you would never learn to think for yourself. Jesus had been feeding the disciples the answers, but now the time was approaching when they would need to go out and explain to others what Jesus had been teaching. And we are told that they had doubts. Doubt is an important part of our faith. If the disciples hadn’t doubted, would they have been convincing telling others what they had seen? Would they have ever taken note of touching him and seeing him eat? In this period after Easter, as well as hearing the stories of Jesus in the Gospel, we hear the stories of what his disciples did after his ascension in readings from Acts of the Apostles, because Jesus death, even though he is then resurrected, passes the baton on to them to go and teach others. So it is important that we hear about those stories too.

But it’s not just for the disciples – we are all witnesses to how God has changed and shaped our lives. We all have our own perspective based on our own personal experience, we have our own doubts and our own understanding. And we each bring new understandings to the message, new observations. Jesus sends the disciples out with this message of forgiveness and reconciliation for all the world. The Job of engaging with our faith is not just down to me, or to academics in universities, or to the bishop. Just like learning at school isn’t just dependent on a teacher. We each are called by Jesus in this passage to be witnesses of God’s love. And we witness that love by demonstrating it to others in the way we live our lives.

The Reverend Robin Sims-Williams

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Privacy Notice – General

Your personal data – what is it?

“Personal data” is any information about a living individual which allows them to be identified from that data (for example a name, photographs, videos, email address, or address). Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and other legislation relating to personal data and rights such as the Human Rights Act 1998.

Who are we?

This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) of All Saints’ Child’s Hill which is the data controller for your data.

The Church of England is made up of a number of different organisations and office-holders who work together to deliver the Church’s mission in each community. The PCC works together with:

  • the incumbent of the parish (that is, our priest-in-charge);
  • the bishops of the Diocese of London; and
  • the London Diocesan Fund, which is responsible for the financial and administrative
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As the Church is made up of all of these persons and organisations working together, we may need to share personal data we hold with them so that they can carry out their responsibilities to the Church and our community. The organisations referred to above are joint data controllers. This means we are all responsible to you for how we process your data.

Each of the data controllers have their own tasks within the Church and a description of what data is processed and for what purpose is set out in this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice is sent to you by the PCC on our own behalf and on behalf of each of these data controllers. In the rest of this Privacy Notice, we use the word “we” to refer to each data controller, as appropriate.

What data do the data controllers listed above process?

They will process some or all of the following where necessary to perform their tasks:

  • Names, titles, and aliases, photographs;
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How do we process your personal data?

The data controllers will comply with their legal obligations to keep personal data up to date; to store and destroy it securely; to not collect or retain excessive amounts of data; to keep personal data secure, and to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and to ensure that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for some or all of the following purposes:

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What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party (such as another organisation in the Church of England). An example of this would be our safeguarding work to protect children and adults at risk. We will always take into account your interests, rights and freedoms.

Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. For example, we are required by the Church Representation Rules to administer and publish the electoral roll, and under Canon Law to announce forthcoming weddings by means of the publication of banns.

We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps to enter into a contract. An example of this would be processing your data in connection with the hire of church facilities.

Religious organisations are also permitted to process information about your religious beliefs to administer membership or contact details.

Where your information is used other than in accordance with one of these legal bases, we will first obtain your consent to that use.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential. It will only be shared with third parties where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks or where you first give us your prior consent. It is likely that we will need to share your data with some or all of the following (but only where necessary):

  • The appropriate bodies of the Church of England including the other data controllers;
  • Our agents, servants and contractors. For example, we may ask a commercial provider to send out newsletters on our behalf, or to maintain our database software;
  • Other clergy or lay persons nominated or licensed by the bishops of the Diocese of London to support the mission of the Church in our parish. For example, our clergy are supported by our area dean and archdeacon, who may provide confidential mentoring and pastoral support. Assistant or temporary ministers, including curates, deacons, licensed lay ministers, commissioned lay ministers or persons with Bishop’s Permissions may participate in our mission in support of our regular clergy;
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  • On occasion, other churches with which we are carrying out joint events or activities.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. We may keep some other records for an extended period of time. For example, it is current best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 7 years to support HMRC audits. In general, we will endeavour to keep data only for as long as we need it. This means that we may delete it when it is no longer needed.

Your rights and your personal data

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

When exercising any of the rights listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.

  1. The right to access information we hold on you
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  1. The right to data portability
    • You have the right to request that we transfer some of your data to another controller. We will comply with your request, where it is feasible to do so, within one month of receiving your request.
  1. The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of data to which consent was sought.
    • You can withdraw your consent easily by telephone, email, or by post (see Contact Details below).
  1. The right to object to the processing of personal data where applicable.
  2. The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Transfer of Data Abroad

Any electronic personal data transferred to countries or territories outside the EU will only be placed on systems complying with measures giving equivalent protection of personal rights either through international agreements or contracts approved by the European Union. Our website is also accessible from overseas so on occasion some personal data (for example in a newsletter) may be accessed from overseas.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Contact Details

Please contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the information we hold about you or to exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints at:

The Data Controller,
All Saints’ Church
Church Walk, Child’s Hill
London, NW2 2TJ
Email: [email protected]

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

If you have any question regarding our privacy policy, please contact us.