I thought of Maggi Dawn’s delightful accounts of the observable humanity in the Archbishops’ recent visit to Cambridge when a friend and colleague said of Archbishop Sentamu: “He’s not a very big man, but you can’t not know he’s there! He lights up something inside you. He literally cares.”

And that’s what drew so many to Bishop Morris. That’s what drew so many to Jesus. That’s the stuff of real good news. Something lighting up inside you. Something or someone that reminds you that you’re loved today and forever. The Eucharistic service for the occasion was adapted from the Kenyan Rite, 1989. It tells us where the light comes from:

Is the Father with us? He is.

Is Christ among us? He is.

Is the Spirit here? He is.

This is our God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We are his people. We are redeemed.

Redeemed. Morris Maddocks and John Sentamu, like Jesus, have long looked as though they believe it! We are redeemed. And can each of us, therefore, become instruments of healing.

WHAT AN EXTRAORDINARY JOY it was to be present at the Inaugural Conference of the new Affirming Liberalism network at Trinity College Oxford yesterday. Not much of a “party affiliated” person by nature I was surprised by the enthusiasm with which I greeted news of a new liberal-minded network within the Church of England.

But then it’s true that I’ve grieved in the past decade or so as I’ve watched fellow Christians become more and more deeply entrenched in one degree of “certainty” after another. It’s true that I’ve been distressed by my own disinclination to “fight back”. It’s true that my theological inclinations have always been more ready to seek out affirmations than assertions. So the 10 Affirmations unexpectedly set before my eyes by Affirming Liberalism were bound to bring a measure of relief and joy to my heart.

Affirming Liberalism seeks to enhance the ‘enrichment’ of the Christian faith and support ordained and lay Christians of the Liberal Anglican tradition by:

Affirming faith in Jesus’ life, teaching, death and resurrection as revealing God’s limitless love for all humanity in this life and the next.

Affirming the dynamic action of the Holy Spirit in dispersing this divine love throughout the world.

Affirming the positive impact of biblical, literary and historical criticism for our engagement with Scripture and Tradition.

Affirming appreciation of the distinctive nature of religious language in vibrant worship which connects us to the divine.

Affirming a philosophical approach to Christian faith and the search for truth through God-given reason.

Affirming the positive insights of the natural sciences and mathematics in the formation of a Christian world-view and understanding of the universe.

Affirming the positive impact of the social sciences for understanding human nature and society, and developing Christian ethics.

Affirming the vitality of the performing and creative arts in shaping a dynamic Christian vision of life lived in relation to God.

Affirming open, creative conversation with Evangelicals and Catholics as a means of enriching our understanding of the Christian gospel.

Affirming open, creative conversation with other faith traditions and cultures as a way of deepening our understanding of God.

SELF-AWARENESS, VOCATION, AND HOW?

How did Jesus prepare for leadership without the “help” of mission statements, or identifying key people, or setting targets? How did Jesus survive a wilderness environment that reduced him, body and soul, to barest essentials, leaving his character and instincts starkly exposed, whipped by the razor-sharp winds of the desert? How did he survive, with no apparent external assistance, to shore him up or sustain him? My dictionary speaks of wilderness as an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. Tough training indeed. Even yomping SAS commandos have a bit more moral support around them than was available to Jesus.

APPEARING NOW TO LEAP FROM ONE SUBJECT TO ANOTHER

It’s Thanksgiving Sunday at St Michael & All Angels’ next week. The (actually only one) occasion in the year when it’s the Vicar’s task to encourage one and all to think and pray about what we might contribute to the work of God’s Church in terms of time, talents and money. And we’re all encouraged to think and to pray precisely because no-one else is equipped to tell us what we can or cannot afford to give or to do. Only we can know. Only we ourselves can square up to exactly what our relationship with God and the gifts he’s given us is. Only we, as individuals, can really know whether we’ve anything in our lives to be thankful for, or not.

“WILDERNESS” & THANKSGIVING ARE LINKED!

What kind of training and help do I need in order to arrive at a good decision about what I may or may not offer back to God? Is there anyone whose example I might follow? Is there man, woman or child who has risen above the grubby business of self-interest and temptation; anyone I can look up to, be inspired by, want to emulate? Where could I engage such a person in conversation? Where could I learn what inspired and motivated him or her? How can I learn not to feel pain when I give something away, but rather to revel in the laughter and joy of God’s creation itself? How do I learn to be a cheerful giver? Who am I? What am I called to be and do? And how?

THERE’S AN “ESSENTIALS” CLUE IN THE “WILDERNESS” …

I learn how to give when I’ve been to a place, in person or in spirit, where I’ve been brought face to face with reality; where I’ve been shown who and what I am; where I’ve come to know without shadow of a doubt that I am loved by my Creator, who is ALMIGHTY GOD, forever and ever, and that “I shall lack nothing”. I learn how to give when I’m even slightly more interested in even occasional quiet spaces alone with God than I am in my social life or in what I possess, or might some day possess. I learn how to give, and I learn how to love, and I learn how to “live life in all its fullness” on the very day, and in the very hour, and in the very moment, when I allow all of MY character and all of my instincts to be starkly exposed … to the inexpressible beauty, and the unimaginable generosity, and the surpassing glory and assurance, of GOD — who loves me, FOREVER.

PASSING ON THE LIGHT is so much more fulfilling an exercise than passing on the gloom! Advent is truly a gift to us, as are the people we “wait” with. 70+ people have set about looking at Beginnings and Endings this week, here in Bramhall. There’s been plenty of laughter and discovery and wonder … and friendships forged the more firmly as always happens when people make pilgrimage together.  And in a completely dark church building this evening there appeared first one light, and then another, and another, until the faces of a large throng were transfigured, and in our hearts the chief among the Advent songs was that of Gabriel. “Do not be afraid”. May we bear the Light; pass the Light on and on through the darkness. May we be not afraid, anymore.

MUCH TO OUR GREAT DELIGHT about 35 of us sat down “with” Maggi Dawn this morning. Others are readying themselves in-between times for a gathering tomorrow evening. Someone said at the end of the session this morning how struck they’d been by the musicality in most all of our beginnings and endings. Certainly it was true that a large gathering of friends hearing and telling “our story” brought to mind many a song; and a spot of liturgy:

Blessed are you, Lord God, our light and our salvation; to you be glory and praise for ever. From the beginning you have created all things and all your works echo the silent music of your praise …

 

Common Worship on the subject of common worship … and the possibility of just that, and of wondrous story-telling, and of beginnings and endings to be perceived and known and heard in oceans of wondering, creative silence …

Hey, Maggi, we’re enjoying this Adventing … and we haven’t really got started properly yet! xx

One of a series of new welcome videos for St Michael’s Bramhall

Canon Lucy Winkett 

A DOZEN YEARS have passed since a deeply generous Episcopalian parish priest honoured me with the gift of an inscribed (Episcopal) Book of Common Prayer. I’d been invited to preach at the wonderfully celebrated marriage of a friend in the delightful Christ Church, Covington, Louisiana .

Fr Steve’s inscription inspired and touched a nerve in me. “My life is richer for your having visited, and the bonds of our faith are stronger for your being such a grace. Many, many thanks. Shalom. Shalom”.

What an immense kindness. What immense hospitality and graciousness of soul. I struggled to believe that I could have been much of a grace, but the benediction has many times spurred me on to seek to be such a grace … that “the bonds of our faith” might be stronger.

And I’ve since tried actively to seek out people who bear the grace of God to a Church and to a world that are striving now, as always, that the much sought after, and apparently so elusive, “Peace of God” may prevail. And I continually rediscover that there are many such people; many now who grace the world with the angelic blessing “Do not be afraid! I bring you good news”; many who “visit” us and make our lives richer.

Can I name a few? Certainly. Have a look at Archbishop Rowan’s ‘Scriptures in Monotheistic Faith’; and at Maggi Dawn’s Beginnings and Endings; and sit down for a while, close your eyes, and listen to Lucy Winkett’s ‘Our Sound is our Wound’.

Immense hospitality and graciousness of soul: “that the bonds of our faith be stronger.” God is good. Brighter days will dawn as we “seek peace and pursue it”.

 

THERE WILL PROBABLY HAVE BEEN TIMES in your life when you’ve been able to say with the priest and poet, R S Thomas, that God comes

That’s so often how it is with the coming of God. Unannounced simplicity. No immediate expectation that we should behave in a particular way. No expectation that we should speak in an out-of-the-ordinary or convoluted theological language. No expectation that the “saving of souls” will make clearly defined or absolutist demands of human-kind, save for the Divine expectation of the God newly arrived in the back-streets of Bethlehem, that some one might pick up a Christ-child and hold Him close to their heart for to keep the little Chap warm.

This little Jesus teaches you and me how we are to be bridge-builders. This little Jesus is Pontifex — the bridge-maker, Emmanuel, God amongst us, the great High Priest, the Son of the Most High, the sacrifice or Christmas present of Almighty God Himself to His beloved world. This little Jesus is God come among us. We are to be little like Him. We are to be loved and we are to love. We are to be remarkable, at Christmas-time and through all time, for the absence of clamour; knowing that Christ leads His children on to the place where He has now gone. Home.

¹ Suddenly - R S Thomas, COLLECTED POEMS 1945-1990

Hey! This is one of the most attractive Church Times adverts I’ve seen. What a cracking strap-line, modified just a tiny bit, for a vocations drive:

Famous for being inclusive and welcoming, the Church of England needs priests with a compassionate heart and a wicked sense of humour …

St Anne’s deserves a really top-notch new priest. May it be so for them. And us.