Bishop's Reflections

Stewardship is a spirituality and a way of life and it is the spirituality that underpins our Diocesan Pastoral Plan, ‘Go Out and Bear Fruit’.  It is a way of living as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

‘Stewardship begins with that attitude of gratitude. It’s about recognising our gifts and using them for the Lord and for the community. It’s about recognising and using our time, our talents and our treasure and it challenges us to use our gifts generously for God and for our brothers and sisters… We need to renew our recognition of all that God has given us. This means giving time to God to ponder and reflect and to pray… then we begin to understand how everything that we are and everything we have comes to us as His gift – and we can be profoundly thankful’. (Pastoral Letter, Lent 2009).

Everything we are and everything we have reflects God’s wonderful gifts.  Stewardship of those gifts offers us the opportunity to deepen our relationship with God and to use all that He has given us to be Hisco-workers to build up the Body of Christ.  We have a duty and it is a privilege to respond to all God’s gifts. Our use of them makes us witnesses to our Christian faith at home, in the parish, where we work, in our communities and in the world at large.

Stewardship helps us to embrace an attitude of gratitude and generosity. This, in its turn, helps us to become ever more responsible and accountable as disciples of the Lord. Let’s explore this call to stewardship together and pray that we may consciously recognise, nurture and share the gifts that God has given us as a grateful response to God’s generosity.