Rev Ian Gordon-Cumming (left) with past and present members of the Busbridge and Hambledon clergy team on the 150th Anniversary of Busbridge Church in 2017.
Eph 1:15
“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”
As we look forward as a Minster, it is important to remember that we build on deep foundations laid by God. Those foundations include thankfulness for people who have been so inspired by Jesus Christ that they have built the incredible legacy which we are inheritors of.
One such person is Rev Ian Gordon-Cumming. Ian’s name may not be widely known in the Godalming area as he was the vicar of Busbridge between 1978-1987, yet his legacy lives on. Ian died recently and his funeral is at Chichester Cathedral on 29th Feb.
Ian came to Busbridge Church at a time of financial challenge and when there questions about its purpose and future. Ian’s energy and Christ focused love brought something new. He brought a fresh focus to youth work, guitars into Easter services, an innovation called a family service which has grown into our Muddy Church, and a passion for preaching and for God to grow His church.
There is a saying that good work builds on the shoulders of giants. Much that we take for granted today across the Minster has a direct or indirect path back to Ian’s beginnings. He loved all God’s people and he remembered the people of Busbridge Church in particular in his prayers, long into retirement.
Ian had been long retired as I took up my own ministry in the Godalming-Hambledon area in 2010. He was one of the first people to ring me to express hope for the Gospel to continue to be preached locally and to offer to pray for me. His faithful love of Busbridge Church and the people of Godalming lived on.
Ian returned to the area in 2017 for the 150th anniversary celebration of Busbridge Church. Rev Rachel Heathfield (Head), who was in Godalming in the 1980s, wrote at that time “so many people… have gone on from Busbridge to other ministry around the country. It is indeed a "sending" church. I wonder how many people can tell the same story as me of an encounter with Jesus during a service there that has set my lifetime vocation? I was only 13 but it’s as vivid now as it was then. I am forever grateful for Ian Gordon-Cummings for taking me seriously and for hastening me into leadership opportunities”.
As we build on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ who we follow, we do so in thankfulness for the foundations of people and their work for God. Without Ian there may not have been successors to him who built on his pioneering work and his shoulders of faith.
This is an opportunity to give thanks for those who have supported our personal firm foundation of faith in Jesus Christ. It is an invitation to ask God to enable us to become people who others might look back at in decades to come.