|PIC1|Outwardly Christians are pretty much the same as everyone else, but inwardly we have the active presence of God. ‘The kingdom,’ says Jesus, ‘is not over here or over there because, look! The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.’

So all we do as Christians comes from the inner nourishment of God’s active and invisible presence. And that means that it’s a first duty of every church to nourish itself in its invisible life and to teach others to pray.

It’s no coincidence that healthy churches seem to be the ones in which prayer is being nourished: vigils, half-nights of prayer and fasting, times of adoration, missionary prayer meetings and so on.

My invitation to the diocese this New Year is to have a look at the prayer life of your parish or chaplaincy. Is all the visible activity, all the evangelism, all the giving out to the community, properly sustained by the invisible life below? Miracles still happen where people pray fervently and I am often conscious of being borne along by the prayers of churches and individuals and I am very grateful for it.

Jesus didn’t come from nowhere. His way was prepared by John the Baptist. And we are only here because each previous generation has passed on the Good News of Jesus. I think of the woman who taught me to say my prayers at an after school club that she ran for children; I will always be grateful to her. I think of my friend who became a Christian through singing the St John Passion in a choir. I think of the countless people that I baptise and confirm and ordain each year, who all have a story to say about how people they knew prepared them to meet Christ for themselves.

John baptised people outwardly with water, to prepare people inwardly to meet Jesus and receive the fire of the Holy Spirit in their lives. I remember when I came here for a whole weekend a couple of years ago, how some adults discovered that there was a difference between knowing about Jesus, and knowing him for ourselves. May that be true of churches all over this land!

The wonderful thing about the Baptism of Christ is that it shows that before Jesus started his ministry or did anything for God, God did something for him. The Father told him that he loved him and that he was really pleased with him: ‘A voice came from heaven: ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’ God wants to say that to all of us too who turn to him and open our lives to Jesus Christ. We don’t have to do anything for God until he has blessed us and given us his love.

This week I’ve sent a video message to be played in all the Anglican churches in Staffordshire and north Shropshire about deepening this inner relationship of prayer with God. God invites us to renew our baptism promises daily, not through special church services, but by learning to deepen our praying.

So at the beginning of this New Year, as we celebrate an important anniversary of St Giles’s Church, Cheadle, let’s thank God for those who have been before us to prepare the way for us to meet Jesus, and let’s open our spiritual ears to hear God saying to us too: ‘You are my beloved sons and daughters, and I am well pleased with you.’ And having heard that, we’ve got some Good News to pass on to others.