Part of the dialogue that started this thread was surrounding someone who had been approaching ordination and realised that the role would mean that they would have to do stuff that they "Just didn't feel called to do it!"
The whole point of offering oneself for ordination is that you offer yourself to the whole Church, not just the place you want to go to or to the style that you want. Ordination is about calling and obedience. It is about submission and a willingness to go into the role prepared to learn and to explore.
It is not about just going to do what you want to do.
It is not about deciding that you are only going to do whatever style of church rings your bell. This is something that many suffer from and manifests itself in New Wine types who only want to do church in one particular way. It can be seen in the high church types who moan that the evo's don't understand their churchmanship (hence so many evo's being made to 'experience' high church on the road to selection and yet none of the high church go the other way!). Too many people offer themselves conditionally - they want ministry on their terms and if those terms are not met, then they threaten to take their bags and leave.
Well, here's a bit of a shock for those who think that way, goodbye and to be honest, good riddance. I'm sure there's a place in Vineyard or one of the trendy groupings for those who are led that way. The same is true of the high church types, Rome has opened its arms and it doors - swan off and be blessed where you will be happy. Again, for those who want a libertarian church, there are plenty out there, leave the CofE alone and go be Episcopalian or ******* (see, didn't name them) and, again, be happy and leave us to be happy where we are and for you where you are.
Ordination is more than just 'playing the game and jumping the hoops' it is about being willing to explore, and find God, in BCP or choral tradition and music groups and Taizé and even in the dressing up and clomping around in chasubles with burning handbags flying!
Offering yourself and being willing to submit to and explore what is Church is part of the calling and the enabling. It is almost like being cast adrift and waiting to see what shores you will drift on to and be blessed by before you sail off again. It is about developing a maturity and a depth of religious experience that is often so obviously lacking in those who offer themselves conditionally.
Try taking this twice a day until the condition clears up:
Father God, thank you for calling me to serve others.
Help me to seek and find you in the people I meet,
To minister your love, grace and mercy to all I serve,
To not limit your power by my own piddling and limited experience,
Or silence your worship by my thinking I know what is the 'only' way.
Father, if I am called, then I am called to all that preaches your word,
To all that praises your name,
To everything that makes disciples.
May I never dishonour you name or disobey your word.
Keep me on the right path so that those I shepherd, following me, realise that I am merely following you,
My Saviour, Master and friend. Amen
4 comments:
You are, of course, quite right, but I fear you may have burnt your little fingers on a hot thurible as a small person. There is clearly some deep-seated resentment there.
Still, I'm quite happy for you to stay in my church as long as I don't have to transfer to the Italian Mission.
Not, not at all :)
Being someone who has done mass and having a thurible of my very own (with some super Prinknash incense to boot) I have to admit that there is no resentment. In fact when I help people progress with their move towards ordination I usually get them to go and experience the high church end of things so that they can appreciate the breadth of liturgy that is the CofE.
What does seems sad, and it is sadness, not resentment, is that those who are 'further up the candle' never experience what those lower down do - for there is validity and sound theology to be had there. The problem is that I have yet to meet someone who has tried it, they'd rather sneer (and that's from an evo' FiF member).
Thanks for letting me stay, think there's only Judaism left open to me and I don't fancy the surgery :)
Pax
Vic,
All these were things I discovered very early on in the discernment process. I spoke of OLM and serving in my parish and was shot down by the DDO who said the very things to me that you have just said.
My Vicar had said similar, but I perhaps chose not to hear them.
I was advised, NSM was the only choice, and that while I might get to serve in my Deanery, there was no guarantees. I had to agree to be deployable at the Bishop's discretion, particularly for curacy.
I currently live over 50 miles away from my parish, with the intention to move closer, which the DDO is aware of, but he has advised me to wait perhaps until the end of year 2 of training (if I get that far) as I might end up serving miles away from where I move to.
I know that others have walked away at that point, but I have felt all along that if God is calling me to serve, it's not my will, but his that matters. Hopefully the Bishop would in his discretion place me close to home, but who knows? I don't and to be frank, am not in the least worried about it.
I have become so very frustrated at the number of people who tell me that they want to serve the church and then tell me exactly where they are going to go, what they are going to do and how I have to accomodate them. When any element of their plan is challenged or denied they appear to think that their threat to withdraw is something that will cause me grief.
How very silly indeed.
thank you for you observations, all of which I applaud and support wholeheartedly.
T
p.s. how do I get the system to recognise my name so I am no longer anon?
Post a Comment