St. Peter's Anglican Church - Southport

83 Nerang Street, corner High Street, Southport, Gold Coast, Queensland 4215 Australia

Our Parish Vision

The short version of our Parish Vision Statement:

Knowing Christ ourselves and making Him known to others

Growing in Love - Growing in Faith

Reaching out to Others — Serving the Community.

We know Jesus wants his followers to love one another, and we remember that He commands us to love all people, even those who treat us badly  —  people to whom we might refer as ‘enemies’.  So we long to be part of a church-community which helps us to grow in the love of God and in love for all God’s people.

The simple faith of a child and the fresh, uncomplicated faith of a new believer are the beginning of a faith-journey that takes a life-time.  If we are to have a mature, thoughtful and adult faith that will enable us to stand firm in the twenty-first century, we must have the courage to think through the traditions and teachings of the church, confront our own doubts and prejudices, and learn from others.  So we value a high standard of teaching and preaching, and provide a wide range of opportunities for study and reflection.

Any church which is only interested in its own activities and in the welfare of its own members has forgotten that Jesus calls his followers to a life of service.  True Christianity is marked by a care for the needy, so service to the poor and needy of the community is a high priority for the parish.

Jesus’ final command was to ‘go into all the world, preach the gospel to everyone, baptise people everywhere.’  Finding effective and sensitive ways of reaching out to others with the message of God’s love in Christ is well and truly on our parish agenda.

Our Parish Goals

Our main aim over the next three years is to implement as much as we can of our Parish Vision.

With the numbers of families (and singles) arriving on the Gold Coast every week  —  whether from other parts of Queensland or other States and whether young or older  —  we need someone to work beside our Parish Priest to provide on-going ministry to first contact families and individuals, initiating contacts and following up, and working to enhance even better relationships with The Southport School and Saint Hilda’s School.

Realising we currently have excellent facilities, to continue to enhance and upgrade these facilities into the future, in line with changing Parish Ministry and community expectations.  This means expanding our work for youth, for the young married, the middle-aged, and for the more elderly in our community, both in sickness and in health.

If we are to keep on growing in our love of God and for God’s people, we need to continue in prayer and we need to enhance our pastoral care programme.

The Services in the Church, day by day, mean that everyone in the Parish has the opportunity for regular worship and for a variety of styles of worship.  Corporate worship, however, doesn’t just happen.  Many hours of planning and preparation are needed if our worship-services are to be the best we can offer to God and if they are to meet the spiritual needs of worshippers.

As we seek to grow in faith, to serve the community and to reach out with the good news of God’s love, we will need extra educational resources.

We also want to lift our contribution to ministries beyond the Parish itself, through increased support of missionary work in and beyond Australia.

None of these goals are really new  —  they are really expressions of our wish to extend our existing ministries so that we can carry out God’s work more effectively.