A Renewed Confidence in our Priestly Calling!

The Church of England faces a problem, one which hinders its mission to the world and ability to nurture the faithful from within. Following the riots of 2011 it was commonly agreed that England was in desperate need of spiritual leadership, but a lack of central support for the nurture of prospective vocations to the priesthood and attacks upon its ordering and theology from within appear to hinder the established church’s ability to respond.

On the 25^th of January 2013 Neil Patterson wrote in the Church Times about his concerns regarding the state of ministry in the Church. This is clearly an area that the Church of England needs to look at with all haste. For decades there seems to have been a chronic lack of funding and clarity about what the Church requires in the training of its prospective ordained ministers. Whilst many millions of pounds have been found for the repair of buildings (many of which attract very small congregations), a tiny percentage of this figure appears to have been made available for the seeking out of individuals who have a calling to be ordained and their training towards ordination, which is fit for the Church of England. Over the past couple of years, Forward in Faith have engaged in an advanced advertising and function campaign to try and ‘recruit’ new ordinands and in many ways their outlay has brought huge dividends in the numbers of those now entering training via their encouragement. It seems there are lessons here that the wider church would do well to learn from and learn fast.

But fundamentally, the entrenched problems surrounding the ordained ministry seem to lie more in a devaluing of the ordained orders themselves from a most central level and in a reluctance of central bodies and training institutions to properly address issues of ecclesiology and priesthood, instead overly favouring task and function centred training approaches: things which are surely more suited to the early stages of development in the parish. Once the theory and theology is learnt in the college or course setting, then the ordinand has the essential grounding to put this theory into practice in a practical way in the world, as it were. Be this as it may, currently the Church seems content with trying to do this in reverse, which makes little sense.

As David Heyward rightly points out in his article on Lay Ministry in the New Testament, however, “The Church of England is an ʹepiscopalʹ Church. It embraces what is known as the ʹthree‐foldʹ order of ministry, consisting of what are now known as bishops, priests and deacons. Like the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church and Lutheran Church, it sees this pattern of ministry already emerging in New Testament times and its authority descending from the apostles.’ Just to remind ourselves; the English word ‘priest’ derives from the Greek word, presbuteros, which is commonly rendered in bible English as ‘elder’ or ‘presbyter’ (Acts 15:6, 23). The bible says little about their duties, except that they functioned in a priestly capacity, preaching (1 Tim 5:17) and administering the sacraments (Jas. 5: 13-15). As Heyward makes clear, this is basic Anglican ecclesiological belief and teaching.

Despite this being the case, in recent years I have encountered many ordinands, curates and more experienced priests who seem to have apparently done very little preparation on the nature of an Anglican ecclesiology or the way the Spirit may operate as much through the tradition and institution of the Church as through individual revelation. Worse still, too many priests seem to develop an unhealthy resentment of the Church institution and its orders following ordination; especially any notion of authority associated with it. Multi-denominational training institutions, who work tirelessly in their endeavours to train huge numbers of people from multiple backgrounds of tradition, are often forced to opt for the lowest common denominator for the sake of practical ease and uniformity, and this no doubt has significantly contributed to this process. Nevertheless, such resentment also seems to be rooted in a 21^st Century individualism: an individualism that includes an unhealthy fear of others exercising any kind of authority over ‘us’, because ‘I’ am the only individual I can trust to rightly discern the Spirit’s promptings.

Of course, authority undertaken in the wrong way, can be disastrous for us as individuals and for the Church, but in the Church that Christ ordained and commissioned in the New Testament (e.g.Mt.16:18, 28:18-20; 2 Cor. 5:15-20; 1 Pet. 2:9-10; 1 Tim. 4:14) and through our claim to Apostolic succession (1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22) we hold continuity with and a grounding in a different kind of authority. This is an authority that Christ requires us to exercise for the good of His people, His Church militant and His world in order that His Kingdom values of the Church triumphant may slowly break through. Such authority is rooted in His love and His grace and encountered through prayer, sacramental offerings and good works (the auspices of the Church).

Added to this, it seems that sometimes a reluctance to teach an Anglican ecclesiological position is born out of a fear that it will undermine the development of lay ministry that is so valuable to the Church on so many levels. This is unfounded, however, since on the contrary, a clear and healthy understanding of ordained ministry, church order and Anglican ecclesiology is so routed in the collaborative and empowerment of the Church body, that it serves to give lay ministry its basis, support and focus.

In the everyday, I encounter people of very differing traditions and backgrounds. All have very different understandings of the Church and the Ministry. In many ways this is a healthy thing for a broad Anglican understanding of the Church. Conversely, whilst a periphery voice expressing the kind of theology that refutes the very structures on which the Church of England is built may well be helpful in keeping the Church in check, it cannot be a wholesome thing if that theology begins being prominently championed from within and is embodied through certain central departmental approaches and training.

It is no surprise, then, that so many dedicated Church of England laypersons appear to share in this confused view of church orders, when the ordained minsters who are called to serve and nurture them in the faith and traditions of the Church of England are themselves encouraged in a theology that appears in so many ways contrary to it. In the Ordinal, those about to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders within the Church of England are required to declare that they will ‘faithfully minister the doctrine and sacraments of Christ as the Church of England has received them, so that the people committed to (their) charge may be defended against error and flourish in the faith’. Then they later agree that they will ‘accept and minister the discipline of this Church, and respect authority duly exercised within it’. It is worrying when these promises often appear so very contrary to some of the theological and ecclesiological understandings one encounters from within. Is it any wonder then that clergy numbers in the Church of England look set to further diminish over the next few years as retirements far out way new vocations? Patterson is right to voice concern over the chronic lack of funding towards vocations and training that is clearly one contributory element to this. But is it any wonder that many people who feel a calling to serve Christ do not pursue the route to ordination further when many of those already exercising that ministry exhibit such a lack of confidence and understanding of its place, purpose and grounding within the tradition and ‘doctrine of Christ as the Church of England has received it’?

The Revd Fr R.T. Parker-McGee 2013

 

St Mary’s Patronal Festival – September 2013

I am sure that over the years, you have not been short of clergy on Patronal festivals offering opinions about the Blessed Virgin Mary from this pulpit. Today I would like to focus on something slightly different. I would like us to think about why her virgin status is such an important aspect of the Gospel reality.

One of my old lecturers at Leeds University – the prolific New Testament and Patristic scholar Dr Barbara Spensley, would often comment that she could not accept that the New Testament miracles actually occurred. She would contend that modern empirical investigation supported her view and so she saw no alternative but to interpret them as metaphors or analogies of a wider truth. We should start off by recognising, I think, that this is a very common position to take. In fact it is probably the most common one in an age when there is a blatant refusal to believe anything that we can’t fully understand.

Prof Canfield – another notable biblical scholar, believes that to affirm the virgin birth, and all that goes along with it, is riddled with problems and ignoring them shows very bad scholarship. However, he goes on to say that far more common is the reverse tendency to refuse to consider with an open mind the evidence supporting the virgin birth.

In other words, the enculturated prejudices of our age stop us from looking openly at the claims of our great faith. A miracle is anything that is brought about by God and occurs outside of the normal parameters of nature. But one of the reasons why we find it so hard to believe in miracles is that we start from the wrong place – our own experience. Experience is always going to leave us wanting in this regard simply because our experiences are from human origin and miracles are always from the divine. So we need to start from somewhere different if we are to do justice to things that are of divine origin.

All the scientific empirical evidence of the world suggests that when we die everything comes to an end for us; we enter nothingness as the electrical impulses of our neurological systems, our brains, shut down. When we throw away a Banana skin we can see it turning black, going mushy - decomposing. If someone were to dig up my body many years after I die, chances are, it will have done the same. But, we are all here today because we believe and hope in God, heaven, angels, saints, Jesus and resurrection – none of which can be proven in this kind of way. We believe in eternal life – that there has to be something else the other side of death. What is eternal life, if not a miracle?

We also believe in a God who cares so much for his beautiful creation that he is willing to personally intervene to bring that creation back in touch with himself – the source of eternal goodness – because without him it cannot survive. He became man in the person of Jesus so that we may see a route back to him – so that we might be saved. That is what the incarnation is all about, but what is this incarnation, if not a miracle?

If we believe in the incarnation; if we believe that God became man in the person of Jesus – and to be a Christian this is essential – we must also recognise that we believe in a God who personally involves himself in his creation by operating outside of its given norms. He created everything and set the parameters and that means he is not bound by them, but can operate outside of them. It is from this starting point that we then need to assess the miracle accounts of the New Testament.

If we believe that God became man in the person of Jesus, why then do we find it so difficult to accept the virgin birth? It makes sense that in order for God to become a complete human being he would need to enter the world and be born of a women, like any normal human being. But to be conceived by an ordinary man and a women who had previously experienced passion and lust would not do, as that would mean being of substance that was already sinful and thereby a part of the problem. No, Christ needed to be born of a devout woman who had not yet experienced the temptations of bodily lust - a virgin. This in turn meant that the Christ would have to be conceived by the Holy Spirit itself, and not a third party, so that no sin only purity may be found in his being. In Christ, there can be no sin or else he could not be the victor of it. Neither would he be of divine nature- goodness. Once we have allowed ourselves to consider this all with an open mind, we suddenly find that reason itself proves the virgin birth - the greatest of all the biblical miracles. Then along with this, all the other miracles make sense too: the healings, the feeding, the casting out of demons (real or imaginary), the calming of storms – through all these Christ ensures that individuals are more readily able to be reconciled to God. But belief is the key to all of this: belief that anything is possible with God. Belief that God can operate outside of our norms when necessary.

We recently took our Youth Group on a weekend pilgrimage to a monastery. When we got there, I found that they had placed me in one of the more luxurious rooms. Unlike all the other rooms, mine had a Yale Lock and delicately placed on the desk were two keys. After a fabulous weekend, the time came to pack up and get ready for the taxis to take us all to the station. After having gathered the youngsters, I then went upstairs to collect my case from my room. I then discovered that I didn’t have my key. What was worse, in my room were the group’s train tickets: no one could get home!

In blind panic I searched for my key, but to no avail. So I went find a monk, but the monastery was deserted (they had all left to attend a memorial service in the local parish church). Eventually I found a lone Monk left behind to guard the monastery, Fr John. Now Fr John is one of those wonderful individuals who is graced with a huge amount of serenity. He had no idea where a spare key may be found, but helped me search cupboards and desks to try and find one. At this point, I am ashamed to say, I panicked all the more, but he just quietly prayed amongst the turmoil. There seemed to be no answer. I even tried picking the lock like I had seen done on James Bond, but I had no idea of what I was doing and even that didn’t bear fruit.

Meanwhile, the group of youngsters were waiting in the Common Room with the youth leader, Laura, whilst Sarah, my wife, decided to search elsewhere. Then, in complete faith and trust, Laura decided to ask the youngsters to pray earnestly that a key would materialize. Then in the middle of all this prayer, Sarah felt the urge to look in a room where we had never been before: the cleaner’s kitchen. Upon nervously entering, she saw a folder on the side, half open. As Sarah opened this works folder hoping that some information therein may help narrow our search, what should fall out but a Yale key! And not just any Yale key, but the spare Yale key to my room! Prayer had produced something that all my frantic panic never could have. Through all the prayer, God had intervened and we were able to get access to our tickets with a whole minute to spare…

Oh, and my original key? It was sitting on the desk in my room where I had left it all along.

Now, the more sceptical amongst us may well say that all this is just coincidence. That it all just happened by chance. But it is remarkable that we can be more ready to believe in such an outrageously unbelievable concept as chance rather than be willing to concede that God may well choose to intervene in response to our faith and bidding. Once we allow our scepticism and doubt to remove the possibility for us that God can and does intervene by enacting miracles, our lack of faith and belief also removes the possibility of miracles, heaven, angels, saints, eternal life, even Jesus Himself. Let us then reflect upon the privileged place of Mary, the young lady chosen to burden this immense task. Let us give thanks that God decided to enact this by way of the greatest miracle known to mankind – a virgin birth.

Amen 

R.T Parker-McGee 2013