Ad clerum

I found myself on Monday, Commonwealth Day, standing in the falling snow at the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill. It was a simple ceremony which remembered the five million men and women from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Africa and the Caribbean who served in the forces of the Crown in the two World Wars.

It was unnecessary to say too much to those gathered there in the cold, but I recalled how 70 years ago in 1943 the uncle after whom I am named was killed on active service with 1st battalion 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles. He was 22 and died with a number of his Gurkha comrades in one of the battles of the Italian campaign.

It is a deep human truth that many people over the millennia have sacrificed their existence, not for some abstract idea however noble, but for their comrades or for their families. The words of Jesus echo through the centuries of courage and sacrificial living and dying: “greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know:
But oh, my Friend,
My Friend indeed,
Who at my need
His life did spend.

So once again we enter into the yearly rehearsal of our Lord’s passion and respond in offering our lives in his service.

It is always moving to see so many clergy and Readers in the Cathedral on Maundy Thursday supported by such an impressive body of lay Christians. It is a day when we can rejoice in the diversity that God has given us and as clergy, renew our ordination vows, pray for the people we serve and bless the oils used in our ministry.

My brother bishops and I hope you will join us. All are welcome: clergy and people together rejoicing in the love of God revealed to us in Christ Jesus who laid down his life for his friends.

Practical Arrangements for Clergy and Licensed Ministers

Time: all robing in the Chapel of St Faith in the Crypt by 10.15 am at the latest. Enter by northwest crypt door – congregation only through West doors.

Robing: cassock, surplice, and if it is your tradition, white stole for clergy, scarf for Readers and Lay Ministers.

Oil Distribution: collect vials from the Crypt after the Eucharist – please wash and return empty containers from last year and leave them in the receptacles in the Crypt.

Deputies: a parish or chaplaincy representative may collect oils on behalf of the priest. Oils are available from the Virgers throughout the year should you require further supplies.

Coffee will be served in the Nelson Chamber after divesting.

In April this year we began a journey together to renew our vision for serving Jesus Christ in this great World City over the coming years. This will become our Capital Vision 2020. We have sought to listen to what the Spirit is saying to us in the life of London, to reflect on where we focus effort and resources at the moment, and to ask in what ways we need to rethink and act differently for the future.

Over 1,500 people across the Diocese have been involved in discussions on these three questions. Using resources from www.capitalvision2020.com, being challenged by the ‘vox pops’ on what London is saying to the church, and reflecting on London trends, these discussions have taken place over cream teas, Chinese takeaways, drinks parties, in Deanery Synods, Chapters and Area Councils, with chaplains, 2012 Ambassadors, childrens’ and youth workers, in PCC away days, staff meetings and in churches. Others responded via the online survey, tweeted during the Clergy Study Summit, sent a letter, an email, or simply telephoned.

Hats off to everyone who has contributed in so many different ways to this consultation. I am particularly grateful to the Area Deans who have invigorated participation in each deanery. A number of you have commented that simply being involved in this consultation and answering the questions has been both encouraging and challenging. The overall quality and spirit of the responses, the discussions I have had personally, have all been hugely inspiring.

I have sensed that above and beyond our diversity there has been a new spirit of purposefulness and urgency in working together for the sake of Jesus Christ in London.

What next?

All the contributions are being collated and a number of broad themes are emerging. They are:

• Confident in speaking and living the gospel of Jesus Christ
• Compassionate in serving our communities with the love of God the Father
• Creative in reaching new people and places with the Good News in the power of the Spirit.

Through further discussion and listening, we will seek to discern a small number of priorities. These will be the areas where we as a Diocese must be sharper, more purposeful and more imaginative. My hope and prayer is that they will be ‘owned’ by the whole Diocese.

Over the coming months, in addition, we will look to identify a number of projects that will help us to move forward together on our priorities between now and 2020.

Of course our projects will represent only a fraction of our day to day mission and ministry. We will flag up the core activities and continuities to which we remain committed and which constitute the context in which the projects will be undertaken.

This distillation process will continue until Capital Vision 2020 is presented to the Diocesan Synod in March, and launched at a great assembly in St Paul’s Cathedral on 6th June 2013.

There is still much to do and I hope you will join me in praying that the outcome of this consultation will not merely be words on pages, but lives and communities transformed by the love of Jesus Christ who is to be everywhere worshipped and adored.

At the end of last year I convened a meeting of our hospital chaplains throughout the London region. I was joined by the Bishop of Southwark and the Bishop of Barking as we discussed some of the implications of the changes happening as a result of the Health and Social Care Bill 2011. We are already seeing the amalgamations of many acute Trusts in London, leading to loss of jobs and great uncertainty among staff.

In the Diocese of London NHS Trusts employ about 30 Church of England clergy to work as full-time chaplains and many more part-time, providing spiritual and pastoral care to patients, relatives and staff. From the foundation of the NHS, the provision of religious and spiritual care was seen as an integral part of the overall care that could be expected by any patient within NHS.

At our meeting we heard reports from both lay and ordained Christians involved in this ministry. It was an extraordinarily positive experience, hearing stories of faithful service to Christ within our largest public institution. Our healthcare chaplains are offering important pastoral care not just to Christians but to people from all faith backgrounds and none.  It was particularly heartening that in the midst of so much change chaplains remain buoyant and optimistic about their task of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. [Read more...]

At the end of last week, I was invited to participate in the Guardian Summit on Public Services which drew together representatives of the Police, Social Services and Voluntary Organisations from all over the country.

It was very stimulating to hear about the attempts being made in various Local Authorities to turn clients into architects of public services.

Clearly it is also part of the Christian tradition to help beneficiaries to become contributors and to transform consumers into citizens of the Kingdom.

I was also struck by the concept endorsed by a number of speakers of “perforated organisations”. There is clearly a great deal of waste of buildings in public ownership which have not so far opened up to multiple use. As we all know, this certainly goes for many of our churches up and down the land and I was encouraged to hear that our concept as a Church and Diocese of being permeable and conjunctive and looking for alliances to serve the common good is very much the agenda of others, although it must be confessed, from what they said very few recognised the potential of the Church of England and its parish churches.

I am of course aware of the letter that a number of clergy in this Diocese has signed regarding civil partnerships in our churches. Their request to General Synod is based on very proper pastoral concern and it is right that this matter continues to be discussed openly.

New arrangements relating to religious premises and civil partnerships were laid before Parliament on 8th November 2011 and came into force on 5th December 2011. The Church’s position under those arrangements is that no Church of England religious premises may become “approved” for the registration of civil partnerships without there having been a formal decision by the General Synod to allow this.

It is quite legitimate that this issue is being raised. However, the unity of the Church and our core mission particularly in these sobering and challenging economic times, must remain paramount. I hope the discussion will continue in a prayerful and respectful way, whilst not distracting from the important ministry our churches are carrying out in their communities.

With thanks for our partnership in the Gospel.