To dream the impossible dream...
           To reach the unreachable star....
           This is my quest -
           To follow that star...
           No matter how far

Do you remember that song?  It was written (for the musical Man of La Mancha) in the early 1960s, a time of great change in society and culture.  As we emerged from the long shadows of the Second World War, we began to envision alternative ways of living.  In society, religion, politics and morals, the old certainties were questioned and even overturned.  And the whole of our culture was shaken to its foundations as men and women of a new generation began to dream dreams of a new and better world.

And now, in our own parish - on a much smaller scale, of course, but no less real for all that - we are in just such a time of dreaming.  For this autumn we look forward to the Parish Funding Programme.

Now, you may be forgiven for wondering just how a ‘parish funding programme' can possibly be compared with the exciting, radical, revolutionary days of the Sixties.  Parish. Funding.  Programme. It all sounds ever so worthy, but also terribly dull, doesn't it?  Surely the very word ‘funding' gives it away?  It's just all about money, isn't it, and how we would like more?

Well, it is about money - and it's best to be up-front about that.  That's why it's got the word funding in the title: we don't want people to think we're being coy or embarrassed about money matters.  But it doesn't start with money (and doesn't end with it either, for that matter).  Rather, it starts with dreams.

We believe that God is calling us to dream ‘impossible dreams in this parish, to envision a future in which God's Spirit is ever more fully alive in and working through us, a future in which our churches are truly powerhouses of prayer and sanctuaries of silence, places of hope and healing, fully open to all in our communities, young and old, rich and poor, Christian and non-Christian, symbols of hope and faith and love in Hale and Badshot Lea.

These are the dreams we shall be sharing with others - in rather more specific detail - at the Programme's presentations in October.  And, yes, we shall be appealing to people to respond financially to what they hear - but only in order to enable these ‘impossible' dreams to become reality.

And the dreaming never ends.  We are called always to be dreaming new dreams and following new stars, in response to the changing needs of our communities and our ever-deepening understanding of the purposes of God.

What are your dreams for our churches in this parish?  What stars do you believe God is calling you - and all of us - to reach?

And will you respond to the Funding Programme, joyfully and generously, to enable these dreams to become reality?