35 years as a priest

On Sunday the 1st October I celebrated the 35th anniversary of my ordination as a priest. I also decided that was a good pointmot step down from leading public worship. Several people have asked for copies of my sermon so here it is.

Philippians 2 v 5-8

Today feels a bit like retirement as I look back over 35 years of ministry as a priest, but, of course, it isn’t. Proper retirement happened nearly 19 years ago, but because priesthood is about who I am, I will be a priest for the rest of my life.

And so, today, I want to think about how being a Priest has changed me, and possibly others, over the years, and I want to try and create a vision of what the Christian Faith, the faith within which I have  exercised my priesthood, will look like in the future.

I was ordained a priest in 1982 and for a few years prior to that, I had harboured doubts about that which, all my life, I had been told were the unchanging and unchangeable beliefs of Christians. I was fortunate to spend 3 years with tutors who shared the doubts, and I was encouraged to continue on my journey and see where it led me. My tutors viewed doubts, not as negative, but positive contributions to critical study. To question, to search, to examine critically, leads to a strengthening of faith, even when that faith appears to be shaking in its foundations.

Those words from Paul to the Church in Philippi  just happen to be today’s New Testament reading . They are words of hope for the future. Jesus had a human mind because he was fully human, and his love was freely given to those he met, a love which was so powerful that it survived death and touches us today through what Christians call resurrection. I  found fulfilment in my ministry, because it hasn’t  been about beliefs or dogma, but about relationships with individuals and communities.’

In Parish News this month I wrote ‘ a priest is someone who leads his or her parishioners on their journey of faith, and points them towards the mystery of God.’

Important in my faith development has been the interaction with other faith communities where we have explored places where our values and concerns meet. And those places are many. In my last parish we established a link with a mosque, and the Iman and a group from his congregation cane to our midnight mass. Coming to Gainford I discovered there were Buddhists who have many values and beliefs we can share, and pathways of prayer that can bring us together .

It is tantalising that we really know very little about Jesus . We do know he saw himself as a servant, he humbled himself. In him, we see a perfect picture of God, a unique vision, so I can call Jesus ‘Lord’. Over the past 35 years I have been searching for ways of articulating the impact he has had on me and on others who have placed him at the centre of their lives

Bishop John Spong  has written I am a Christian believer. I don’t define God as a supernatural deity who can help a nation win a war, intervene to cure a loved one’s sickness, or affect the weather for another’s benefit. I can’t believe that these things are possible when everyone I know about the natural order of the world proclaims they are not!’

Our understanding of who God is and what he can do are bound in the past and tend to ignore the tremendous leaps in scientific  and psychological  knowledge. To continue as though these never happened, and without taking them into account will result in the Church becoming even more irrelevant to people.

Canadian priest, Gretta Vosper wrote ‘“The future of any discipline does not survive wrapped in the trappings of the past; it can come about only when the carapace is cracked and something new, related to but distinct from what went before, is freed and allowed to thrive.”

My faith is nurtured by friends:Christian friends, friends of other faiths and friends with no religious faith. It is nurtured by reading the scriptures, true in the sense that they reflect the beliefs  of generations of believers, even if not the literal truth. It is nurtured by worshipping with others with forms of prayer that reflect my needs and values.

The Buddha wrote ‘Do not  believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

I thank God for the last 35 years. But it’s time  I stepped down from leading public worship, and take my place beside Kathy in the congregation. That I will do as from tomorrow, and as I do so, I wish Eileen and Frances the same fulfilment that I have had.


Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend. (Albert Camus)

Christianity - a progressive faith (part 3)

Members of the Progressive Christian Network express their beliefs in a series of 8 points

We are people who

1. Seek God, however understood, guided by the life and teachings of Jesus 
2. Affirm that there are many ways to experience the Sacred and that we can draw on diverse sources of wisdom on our spiritual journeys.
3. Recognise that following Jesus leads us to act with compassion and to confront evil.
4. Place hospitality at the centre of our communal and worshipping life and see the sharing of bread and wine as an expression of our common humanity.
5. Seek to build communities that accept all who wish to share companionship without insisting on conformity.
6. Know that the way we behave towards others is the fullest expression of our faith.
7. Gain more insights in the search for understanding than we do in certainty.
8. Work together within and beyond the Church to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.

In this third blog I wil reflect on the second point 'We are people who affirm that there are many ways to experience the Sacred and that we can draw on diverse sources of wisdom on our spiritual journey."

I write this blog looking out through picture windows to a magnificent view across the Trossachs. The sun is shining, and because it is still early the songs of the birds are stronger and more melodious than  the extraneous sounds which the world will emit later in the day The Lochs and mountains of Scotland are just one part of God"s world which overwhelm us with their beauty and awesomeness. 

More people,have said to me that it is in such surroundings that they feel they presence of God more  than in Church or other holy places. That is not to say experiencing God in Church is not valid but such comments indicate that we, as regular Christian worshippers, are tempted to encage our faith in certain buildings and liturgies. There are indeed many and varied ways in which we experience the sacred and we can exclude none of them on our spiritual journey.

I began with a common experience, that of wonder that the earth and seas and sky are so inexplicably beautiful  that it is impossible to imagine all this existing and evolving, over millions of years, without the hand and eye of a power beyond human understanding, a power we call God. The unseen creator has created all we see around us, and it is ours to treasure or to plunder. If we see it as treasure, then it is also sacred and we should reverence every particle and praise the Creator. If we only treat our environment as a resource to be plundered and despoiled because of our greed, then it will not be sacred to us.

Many primitive religions worshipped all or part of the natural world and their ceremonies and liturgies reflected this. In some parts of the world this still happens. Whilst some Christians would label this as pagan, it does show us that the world was sacred to them and they were servants in the world rather than expecting the world to serve them. We still retain this recognition of the holiness of creation at times such as Harvest Festival and Rogationtide  but this aspect of our worship could be broadened. It is clear that Jesus did experience the world as sacred; read the sermon on the Mount where he described the lilies of the field for example.

The life of a human being is also sacred or holy. If the power we call God is the source of all holiness, then, because we are made in his image, we too must be holy. We see far too many examples today of the lack of worth we attribute to one another. 

Lives  are destroyed without thought or care about what effect this has on families or wider society. Only when every human being  is seen and treated as sacred will God's will be done.

The bible is the Christian's principal source of wisdom because there we find the stories, the myths, the poetry, the prayers and the history of the development pf thefaith of God"s people. Not all we read there is literally true but reflects the different levels of belief of each generation. And because the bible writers shared their faith by writing it down, it is a source of wisdom, and a resource as we try to carry forward the traditions of our predecessors. 

But wisdom is not found exclusively in the bible. There are many sources of wisdom, both religious and secular, which are open to us in our time and culture. Each generation leaves behind a wealth of wisdom and knowledge which enriches subsequent generations. God is constantly at work helping us to find the pearls of great price which lie undiscovered or unnoticed. 

Believing that the bible is the only source of wisdom for the Christian is to deny all human achievement and to accept that nothing that has happened since the death and resurrection of Jesus  is furthering the Kingdom  of God.

God has given us a world where the sacred can be found in diverse places and ways. And God has given us the ability to exercise wisdom and to recognise it..

Christianity - a progressive faith, part 2

Members of the Progressive Christian Network express their beliefs in a series of 8 points

We are people who

1. Seek God, however understood, guided by the life and teachings of Jesus 
2. Affirm that there are many ways to experience the Sacred and that we can draw on diverse sources of wisdom on our spiritual journeys.
3. Recognise that following Jesus leads us to act with compassion and to confront evil.
4. Place hospitality at the centre of our communal and worshipping life and see the sharing of bread and wine as an expression of our common humanity.
5. Seek to build communities that accept all who wish to share companionship without insisting on conformity.
6. Know that the way we behave towards others is the fullest expression of our faith.
7. Gain more insights in the search for understanding than we do in certainty.
8. Work together within and beyond the Church to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.

In this second blog I want explore the first point 'We are people who seek God, however understood, guided by the life and teaching of Jesus.'

Like Christians of all traditions we are searching for God but we each have our own concept of who God is. To the early Jewish people God was so awesome that he could not be named, he was YAHWEH,  'I am who I am',  and no human being could look on him. He could control his world and all that happened was of his making and nothing happened if he did not will it. It was a primitive faith and preceded  an understanding of God which developed following advances in th fields of science iand psychology.

Today, there is a need in each one of us for something which takes us beyond the material world, if you like we are searching for the Kingdom of God where we find the resources to live in the Kingdom of this world. The Kingdom of God is not a separate place but is found in the world whereever we see God at work. Where we see a Kingdom there must also be a King and God's Kingdom is where we will find him. Our search for God, therefore, is also a search for the Kingdom of God, which canb be found within us and all around us. That search will be a lifelong search and will lead us along different paths as we seek the One who is beyond time and space.

Christians are accompanied on their journey by Jesus, by his life and teaching. We find his story in the bible, but in the bible Jesus is presented in two ways.  The Gospels and the letters of Paul and others build a picture of Jesus which is part history and part metaphor. Both lead to the truth about Jesus because, in the words of a Native American story teller,  'I don't know if it happened this way or not, but I know  the story is true.'

When we were children we heard the Christmas stories as literally true but as we matured we began to see them through a different lens, the lens of metaphor. Once we understand them principally as metaphor, we can once again believe them as real in the sense that they record the experience of the writers and of the story tellers who passed  on the stories through generations.  Then we can say, with TS Eliot:

The end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And to know the place for the first time.

Christianity - A Progressive Faith (1. Introduction)

Throughout my ministry as a priest, there has always been nagging doubts about what beliefs and practices help to build and strengthen faith, and are credible, as opposed to those beliefs. which fail to do either of those things because they are no longer credible. The picture of God I have in my mind when I engage in prayer is not that of a supreme human - like figure who sits beyond the scope of human sight, manipulating us like puppets, God is the mysterious, inexplicable ground of all being; He is within me as Soul and Spirit, and He is all around me in the world, a world which has evolved over millions of years. Not having the benefit of modern science, early human beings expressed this mythically using a period of 7 days.

The bible remains a most amazing collection of writings comprising history, poetry, myths, songs and prayers. The Old Testament was a sacred book for the Jewish people, and when the books of the. New Testamenr were added, the bible became the sacred book of Christian churches. It is confusing and I believe misleading to say that the bible is true. It I is true only in the sense that its writers wrote down the truth as they knew and experienced it. The awe and wonder they felt when they looked all around and realised what God had achieved in 7 days was no more or no less than the humility we feel when we learn about the evolutionary process of which we are a part.

It is of course Jesus, the human child of Mary and Joseph, Jesus who worked diligently with his father for 30 years, Jesus who experienced an inner call to use his gifts in the service of God and his neighbour, Jesus who gave his life in the cause of truth, justice and freedom, Jesus who is as alive in us today as he was to the first Christians.

I belong to the Progressive Christian Network (pcnbritain) who express their mission in the following words:

'Members of the Progressive Christianity Netwotk seek a credible and inclusive way to follow Jeeus. We are not afraid to question traditional church teaching. We value contemporary thought and recent-biblical understanding. We do not offer a set of answers but invite you to join us in asking the questions. 

Over the next few weeks I will examine each of the 8 points, concluding with the affirmation: Christianity is a progressive faith.

THE 8 Points

We are people who

1. Seek God, however understood, guided by the life and teachings of Jesus 
2. Affirm that there are many ways to experience the Sacred and that we can draw on diverse sources of wisdom on our spiritual journeys.
3. Recognise that following Jesus leads us to act with compassion and to confront evil.
4. Place hospitality at the centre of our communal and worshipping life and see the sharing of bread and wine as an expression of our common humanity.
5. Seek to build communities that accept all who wish to share companionship without insisting on conformity.
6. Know that the way we behave towards others is the fullest expression of our faith.
7. Gain more insights in the search for understanding than we do in certainty.
8. Work together within and beyond the Church to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.

Pentecost 2017

Whitsun or Pentecost as it is now called in the church. We were in Peterborough and that dawn invasion was a reminder of how the Holy Spirit entered the hearts of those early, disconsolate Christians. Luke tells us that the experience was like an  inburst of wind and fire which changed their lives.

The day before we were in the small, beautiful  Northamptonshire village of Cotterstock. Like Gainford, Cotterstock nestles in a river valley. There the similarity ends. The river Nene (pronounced Nen by the locals) ends its journey in The Wash. Here, it meanders through gently undulating meadows, picturesque Cotswold style villages and ancient market towns.  The poet John Clare would have passed this way as he walked home from the asylum in Northampton to his home in Helpston.

St Andrew's church is a meadow's length away from the river. We were here to see Rita, a brand new treble bell, soon to join her five brothers and sisters in the tower. Rita was cast in memory of Rita Bond, the wife of a former colleague of mine, The Rev'd David Bond. It was a moving experience which brought back happy memories.

The Church had also commissioned a work of art by Bradford artist, Angela Wright, who works in wool. She had installed a stunning work, made entirely from spun wool, which represented the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Wool dropped from the altar like a waterfall and then spread into the sanctuary and the chancel. It was breathtaking in its simplicity and powerful in its interpretation. (see picture above)

As I began writing this piece, I heard the news of yet another terrorist atrocity, this time in London. That work of art in Cotterstock, reminded me of St Paul's list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which he gave to the church in Galatia: 'the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.'

Pray for those gifts in our world.

Climate change, what now?

Donatld Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement on CO2 limits should not have been a surprise to anyone. 'America first' is his motivation but America can only remain  a world leader if it leads the world in tackling the major problems of our generation, among them terrorism, famine, and climate change.

Unbelievably, there are those, Trump among them, who do not accept that our lifestyle is having any effect on the climate. Hurucanes, floods, and rising world temperatures present clear evidence that we are approaching the point of no return. The climate is changing and the effects of this are unpredictable. America is the second largest polluter in the world.

The encouraging aspect of  Trump's decision is that he is being widely condemned across America, and the voices of major industrial companies  combine with many individual states to keep the hope alive that America will be back at the negotiating table. It takes four years for the withdrawal to become operative. We can only hope that President Trump is voted out of office at the next election.

America can then take its rightful place as a world leader, instead of attracting condemnation and ridicule.

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