New Year's message
Dear Friends
New Year greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
We are journeying in the 51st year of the Putney Church life. The history of Putney Church reveals that the original handful of people became numerous and spread all over the world, as a beautiful tree. The present local worshippers proudly say that we are the members of Putney Church which is now called London Tamil Christian Congregation. This is an amazing story in our church history which I have learnt from 2008 until now from the past and present journey with the LTCC family. From 16 years of my journey with you, I can affirm that we are the mother Church for many, and we are an Ecumenical Congregation.
Generally, in any Church family, years are the God-given opportunity to realise how an intergenerational Congregation is growing as one family with different faith expressions and praising the Lord together. I always feel our LTCC is an excellent model in the world for unity in diversity to sow the seeds of faith, love, and peace. What matters is not the number of worshippers gathering or our inspirational reflections which we share from our different contextual situations, but it is how far we focus our mind on Christ who is the centre of our Congregation, and do His will to fulfil God’s purpose in our Church life.
Looking back on the year 2023, it was the year of bringing people together to praise God in person and via Zoom. It paved the way to express God’s care and compassion with one another, praying and learning the Bible together, which led us to do things peacefully in our Church life. I trust 2024 will bring lots of hope amid our uncertainties because we worship the living and caring God. His promises are ever true because He is in our midst, and He dwells with us as Immanuel.
This year, the promise of God for our Church is taken from the book of Jeremiah 32:27. “See, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah had promises from the Lord but looking at his own life situation, he was thwarted and confused about receiving God’s blessings in his life and so he prayed to the Lord. But God reminded him of His power during dark and hopeless situations. He encouraged him to see His nature: he asked him, “Is anything hard for me?” We may have lots of needs and confused situations in our families and in our church life, but I would like you to remind yourselves that the One who is with us and the One who has called us as a church family is still alive and He still has His faithfulness for us. So, we all need to focus on His words of hope and promises to face the challenges of our anxieties in this New Year. We rely on God’s power and our hope in Him to see His beautiful guidance in our life journey in this New Year.
Years are granted to us by God. Every year is added to our lives not because of our worthiness but because of God’s grace. This year God is inspiring us to trust His caring and mighty power more than any strength or weaknesses we have. I wish and pray you all have a blessed and peaceful New Year.
With blessings,
Revd Jessie Anand
Minister, London Tamil Christian Congregation. 1st January 2024