Welcome to the Arun Community Church website!

Hopefully this site will provide you with the information you need.

Arun Community Church is based in Littlehampton, West Sussex, which is at the mouth of the River Arun. We have offices in nearby Rustington, and own and run the Wickbourne Centre in Littlehampton.

About 400 of us meet each Sunday in The Littlehampton Community School Sports Hall, and you would be most welcome to come along and join with us.

David Thatcher
Leader

We thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from our recent holiday in Scotland. Breaks away are great times for relaxation and reflection.

I could write about the great virtues of community living, about worshipping in a Church of Scotland Kirk with more liturgy than we are used to, of visiting Crathie Church next to the Balmoral estate, where the Queen worships every Sunday during the summer, of lessons from mountain climbing or sheep rearing.

But I have been drawn again to the subject of prayer. Stuart Townend’s beautiful song ‘In Christ Alone’ has the line ‘from life’s first breath to final plea, Jesus commands my destiny’. This has a very high view of God’s sovereignty, every detail controlled by him. At one level, that brings great comfort. But that can become fatalism, whatever will be will be. If that is the case, where does praying fit in? Can my prayers have any effect at all? I know this raises profound theological issues, and it is not my intention to stir up unnecessary controversy.

However, these are big issues which I have wrestled with over the years.What if there is more to prayer than just God listening and answering?

Jesus prayed: ‘My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’. Paul tells the Philippian Christians: ‘In everything by prayer and petition, present your requests to God’. So I continue to bring my earnest requests for family and friends, especially those suffering and in pain. Somehow, I feel I am co-operating with God who is intimately involved in the details of our lives. Somehow my praying does have profound effects, even if the answers are not always the ones I am looking for.

Lord, in your sovereignty, I am only content if you have the ultimate say!

David Thatcher

Filed under: Thought of the Week