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Rector: The Reverend Tom Sullivan Honorary Assistant Clergy: The Reverend Elsie Clack
The Reverend Alan Dale
Churchwardens: Mr Ed Watts Dr Mary Rose
Christian Ministry at St Thomas' Toowong “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers … And day by day the Lord added to they number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2: 42 & 47) The life of the early Christian community in Jerusalem is centred around these aspects of the Christian life; the apostles’ teachings, fellowship, worship and prayer. At St Thomas' we are building our model of Christian Ministry on these foundations. 1. Teaching what was handed down by the Apostles, those who had lived and worked with Jesus during his earthly ministry. 2. Fellowship: sharing a common life under the leadership of Christ. The word translated as fellowship means to 'participate' in the life of the community. Our fellowship is a spiritual bond in Christ. 3. Eucharist: the breaking of the bread was observed in their homes and is a distinctive feature of early Christian worship. Although it often involved a full meal, the breaking of the bread is terminology for the Eucharist. The distinctive practice in the early Jerusalem community was a 'day by day' partaking with 'glad and generous hearts'. 4. Prayer: the other spiritual practice listed is prayer, this was done both in the home and in the temple. 5. Called into fellowship: the result of faithful observance was that God called other into the fellowship of the Church. The young Church found favour with both God and the community in Jerusalem. In developing our parish Ministry Plan we have a number of strategies to develop further these areas of ministry. To these we have added the dimension of service within the community and a concern for social justice issues. Our prayer is that St Thomas' will continue to find favour with God and our local community, and we believe that God will call others into our fellowship. Tom Sullivan Rector
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