Dear Friends
“We will support them….”
Ordinations are to be celebrated. Men and women offer themselves for various public ministries in the life of the Church of God. This comes after sustained reflection, prayer and training. It is not a step to be undertaken lightly. We are privileged to have been used by God at All Saints, to see many men and women sent for training who are now set in place within the Church of England for their ministries. In our own day at the Cathedral this weekend, we remember the Lacey and Holme families as they support Ben and Stephen respectively. One of the most moving lines in the Cathedral service – said in 42 dioceses up and down our country is from the assembled congregation who are asked by the Bishop “Will you support them…?” Public ministry today is under even more scrutiny and in addition the complexities of pastoral needs seems not to get easier, alongside of course the nagging suspicion that someone with a dog collar really should know the answer to every question!
Do pray for each ordained person that the Lord’s grace and goodness will flow from their lives. I shall be making a small presentation with some appropriate words for the occasion to Ben and Stephen at the evening service on July 6th at 6pm - do join us then or remember us in prayer if you cannot be there. Public ministers are there in the main to represent the ministry of all so might I conclude this brief commendation to pray that all our ordained staff are there to support your calling and ministry. Each of us has a calling to follow Christ. Each of us has been given gifts by God to use and each of us need each other. Such a vision for the church, if realised and acted upon, would see a rekindling of an often used phrase of yester year, “every member ministry”. Thank you indeed for your own ministry. If I or the ordained team can be of support and encouragement to your own ministry, then do please ask.
Mark