Praying for General Synod

The loveliest chapel in Gloucester Cathedral is, I think, the blue chapel...with fabulous glass and an altar of stunning simplicity. It is here that a candle has burned throughout General Synod, here that a prayer tree bears many blossoms of fervent prayer poured out....Among the beautiful resources to focus our prayer this one, with its echo of the Good Friday reproaches, spoke most to me when I visited yesterday.

O loving God, Lord of all creation,

you have created us in your own image.

You have called us, men, women,

young and old, people of different races and nations,

to serve in your church and to love each other.

But we have abused your creation, divided your church through prejudice,

malice and lack of love for one another.

Look in mercy on us, your children,

forgive us, forgive your church

as it struggles against injustice

and strives for honesty and integrity.

Heal our divisions, heal us that we may serve you faithfully. Amen.                                                                     Revd. Jenny Thomas

Oh no...not again

The Church of England - my spiritual home, the boat from which I fish, the organisation that puts a roof over my head and food on my table, - is once again in the news for the saddest of reasons.
On one hand, General Synod meets tomorrow and will vote yet again about how and whether the Church is prepared to ordain women to the episcopate....Yes, they decided in favour 2 years ago, - but, where two or three are gathered together in synod there is always room for dissent, for second thought, and for volumes of nastiness.
On the other, a bit of what appears to be malicious reporting has led to futher misery and vitriol hurled at the rather wonderful Jeffery John, Dean of St Albans.I came within a whisker of rethinking my future on the eve of ordination at the time of his earlier persecution at the hands of the Church. Now we are trudging wearily around the same withered mulberry bush - and I really don't know if I want to continue.

Maggi Dawn has a great post up, with links elsewhere, if you'd like a fuller briefing.
Me, I'm contemplating the daily tasks of ministry while wondering whether the Church really wants me to minister at all.I'm proud to be liberal. I treasure my priesthood. But the Church that ordained me seems to have a very different agenda.

A small parable

On Thursday, the Feast of Hilda of Whitby, FabBishop invited the clergywomen of the diocese to meet together, to worship and to talk through some of the burning issues of the day, to hear what he understands the current position to be with regard to the ordination of women as bishops, and to share any other concerns that we wanted him to hear. It was a good evening, though I was slightly surprised at the numerous absences - I don't think that many bishops offer this sort of opportunity to their clergy and though I know it's not easy to clear an evening, it really was worthwhile.

However, the small parable I wanted to share was nothing to do with the discussion session, but took place during the Eucharist that preceded it. We were worshipping in the quire at Tewkesbury Abbey, a lovely space but one which somewhat dwarfed us. It made sense, therefore, when FabBishop invited us to move to stand around the altar after the Offertory hymn,thus creating an intimacy and immediacy that we might otherwise have missed. However, I had been asked to sing during the Communion, and had arranged with the organist to stand at the screen...so while the others waited to receive, I trekked back down the length of the quire. It seemed a very long way indeed, though standing by the screen was a great help, actually...The rest of the congregation was so distant that I could pretend that I was just indulging myself by singing something beautiful in a stunning acoustic, which calmed twitchy nerves considerably.

And afterwards, as my friends and colleagues returned to their seats, I began once again the long journey up towards the high altar to receive the sacrament. 
Except that this time I didn't have to go all the way.
FabBishop, in a gesture that was both pastorally and theologically stunning in its impact, came to meet me bearing host and chalice.


"When we were still far off..."

Two days later, remembering this still makes me smile inside.

Seeing and believing

Last night was a milestone in the life of this diocese, and most specially in the lives of those of us who have mourned and prayed and campaigned and dreamed as the Church of England struggles to to reconcile its theology of priesthood, affirming the vocation and ministry of so many women, with its longing to embrace and include those whose views are radically different...
Last night, in Tewkesbury Abbey, for many years symbolic of the strand of "traditionalist"Anglo Catholicism that sees ordained women as anathema (though they neve passed the resolutions that deny women's ministry & have travelled light years with the present vicar, who is altogether wonderful, affirming and welcoming), Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, of our link diocese of El Camino Real in California, presided and preached at the Eucharist.

It was an unbelievably shiney occasion.

In the course of the week, I've encountered +Mary 3 times, and each time she has reduced me to tears. She represents a dream that might, by God's grace, become a reality...
As N, the chair of our diocesan WATCH, elegantly expressed it in her welcome
"we have seen and now we can believe..what might be for us".
+Mary's words in the sermon and afterwards at Abbey House, following hot on the heels of her address at the clergy consultation/training day deserve a post of own, when I've time to do them justice, but for now I just want to mark the wonder of the event. After she had pronounced the final blessing, and was making her way down the choir, applause broke out from behind me and soon we were all caught up in a great wave of joy.Afterwards, from my station behind the bar, I had a great view of the crowd that packed into the big reception room at Abbey House, and that made me weep internally all over again. There were the older ordained women, the trail blazers who pushed and pushed til the door was open, so that people like me could walk in without pause...There were the young women, of an age with Hattie Gandhi, exploring their vocation, - and some deacons to be priested in just a few weeks now...Women who believe with all their being that they are called by God to minister as priests in the Church...but conscious that so much is still unresolved, that the machinations that may be necessary to enable the ordination of women as bishops may enshrine the two tier version of ministry established by the miserable Act of Synod..All of us there listening to the words of wisdom and grace that +Mary offered, but captivated above all by her ministry of presence. She was there. We were there. We saw that such things are, by God's grace, possible - and we rejoiced.
Thanks be to God!

Wise words

from Archbishop Rowan yesterday

We have... a story, a drama to show you: if you live inside it, letting your own life be lit up and shown to you afresh by it, you may find that it begins to mould your story and give you a new sense of what's possible. Here's the story of how the maker of everything became part of the world he'd made – letting go of his mystery and otherness to be one of us, so that we might find our way into the mystery and otherness of his love and discover a new way of being at home with ourselves and at home in the universe. This is a lifetime's work .

It was also the task that confronted Mary, as the angel appeared to her

God our Father
the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary
that she was the be the mother of your Son.
Though Mary was afraid
she responded with joy to your call
Help us, whom you call to serve you
to share like her in your great work
of bringing to our world your love and healing.
We ask this through Jesus Christ
the light who is coming into the world.

Stop Press

We did it.
There is now a dahlia named Florence Li Tim Oi.
Dotty I know, but I'm really really pleased about this.
It just feels as if the world in general (or the Sunday listeners in particular) are glad to celebrate women's ministry...and that is a good thing to contemplate when you come in exhausted on a Sunday night.
Thanks, those who voted!
It's not often I rejoice in the results of a "first past the post" election.

Celebrating the Visitation

Back in March, Mary had a visitor...
While the angel was with her, it was relatively easy to make the momentous decision to say "Yes" to God, even though she must surely have been bursting with questions as to how the miracle would turn out. with Gabriel's departure, the questions must have grown and grown
Who would believe her account of an angelic appearance? Would Joseph really be able to love the promised child as his own? How would the local community react to an unmarried mother in their midst?
Mary was left in her familiar surroundings, but with everything turned upside down, and nothing to do except wait, with too much time to think.
She realised that she couldn't deal with the waiting time alone, but thanks to Gabriel's message, she knew that someone else had also received amazing news...so she set off to visit her cousin Elizabeth, another mother of an unexpected child. Perhaps her courage failed when she finally arrived at her cousin's home in the hill country. It would be only natural if she had hesitated on the doorstep, wondering what reception she might get.

But God was at work before ever she had opened her mouth to explain the situation to Elizabeth, and inspired by the Holy Spirit the older woman recognised at once how amazing this moment was. Her greeting must have been the most precious gift to Mary...proof that the angel's promise really was coming true, an assurance that God would take care of every detail for her as his plan unfolded. As someone who often needs this sort of human reassurance that God is in control, I'm comforted that even Mary, who represents most fully a human response of obedience, faith and trust, needed and was granted this extra encouragement.
And when it arrived, all the excitement that happily expectant mothers can feel, all the joyful anticipation of the future bursts out in Mary's great song of celebration. I imagine the two women hugging each other, clapping and dancing round the kitchen as they exult in what lies head and all that God has done already. Before he is even born, Jesus in changing things, making Elizabeth's child leap for joy, filling his mother with hope and excitement.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;

he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed;

the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his name.

He has mercy on those who fear him,

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm

and has scattered the proud in their conceit,

Casting down the mighty from their thrones

and lifting up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things

and sent the rich away empty.

He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,

to remember his promise of mercy,

The promise made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and his children for ever.

It takes ONE woman

I spent Thursday evening in the Cathedral Chapter house, a chilly miracle of carved medieval stone - hearing Christina Rees speak about my sisters in ministry, African women who've trained thanks to grants from the Li Tim Oi Foundation (now relaunched as It takes ONE Woman). The foundation was set up in memory of Florence Li Tim Oi, the first woman ordained priest in the Anglican Communion, and it gives grants to train women in the developing world for ministry, lay and ordained.
I'd heard of its work before but Christina's talk gave it a new reality, as she spoke of a month spent visiting some of its beneficiaries in Kenya and Uganda.
She told us of Penninah, running 8 deeply rural parishes on her own, in a culture that traditionally discriminates against women, particularly the unmarried and childless. Educated to a professional level, she and her female colleagues find themselves too often ostracised by male clergy (their most likely potential allies and supporters) who are at best patronising, more often bullying...but the authority of their Orders and their huge personal integrity has won them the loving respect of their parishioners. Penninah will walk for hours to sit beside a dying parishioner (HIV/AIDS means that death is never far away). Her congregations cannot often raise their "parish share" - which means no stipend for the clergy...But somehow those same parishioners find the resources to share home grown produce to keep their priest alive.

Debates about parish share are the constant backdrop to PCC meetings in the Church of England, - but we haven't got a clue, really...Too often, a prudent church council sits on large sums, in case there is a "rainy day", and discusses endlessly how much the church can safely contribute to mutual support funds, or to mission beyond our walls, once our own immediate needs are met. Our hot issues are likely to reflect concern about ageing congregations, or more positively the new to reorder buildings to make them appropriate for the needs of this generation. We have so much, and we so seldom recognise this.

In contrast, Christina asked the "daughters of Li Tim Oi" what the hot issues were for them, those things that affected every aspect of life and ministry. Their list included

poverty
HIV/AIDS
ignorance and illiteracy
discrimination against women
traditional/cultural values
domestic violence
child abuse and child sacrifice....



I wish I thought I could forget Christina's stories of the evil power of the witch doctors, which survives beneath a thin veneer of modernity. One day she stood looking at the skyline of Kampala with an African friend who explained.."Those low lying buildings will have needed the sacrifice of a chicken to ensure that all went well...The larger houses over there will have taken a goat or a cow, but the high rise office blocks demand the sacrifice of a child"



Against that backdrop, these strong, inspired and inspiring women work with God for the transformation of their communities, reflecting the wise words
"If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family"

Empowering God,
you chose one woman to be the mother of your Son
and another woman to witness his resurrection;
you chose your beloved daughter
Li Tim-Oi to be a priest in your church.
Where the need is greatest you now call women to be ministers of change in your church and their communities.
Enable the Li Tim-Oi Foundation to empower each of them to fulfil their vocation
that your kingdom may come and your will done on earth as in heaven
today and in days to come.'

Postscript: while I was writing, Lorna posted a link to another article here.

The Li Tim Oi centenary is producing lots of good stuff...it takes one woman, after all...