Sunday, March 13, 2016

The Gospel According to Mary

At diocesan synod on Saturday we were told that it would take a further 80 years at least for women to be paid the same as men and have the same opportunities as men if it were to happen naturally over time - namely if society did not ensure that the very best women are encouraged into the best positions and salaries. 80 more years where women are paid less. 80 more years where women do not rise to the same positions of responsibility. 80 more years where we are still implicitly and explicitly building a gender bias into our work places. I bet Emmeline Pankhurst is still spinning in her grave.

Emmeline Pankhurst

It would appear that whilst we may believe that our society has striven for equality and that battle is won, some are more equal than others, whether the extravagantly wealthy on one hand or every working woman on the other. And I would like to hope that all of us know that this latter example is just not right.

St John places what we hear as this morning’s Gospel reading just before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and Jesus’ turning towards His crucifixion.  Lazarus has been shockingly raised from the dead, and as if to prove it, Mary and Martha throw a banquet for Jesus with Lazarus as a guest.  That which once was dead is alive again.

Yesterday marked the 22nd anniversary since the ordination of the first women priests in the church of England. What some considered would be the death of the church, has actually proved it’s life - to see a mutual flourishing of the ministries of women as well as men, thank God, in all orders of ministry. This shouldn't surprise us as Jesus again and again affirms the place of women in his ministry. The Mary who anoints Him here is the same Mary who sat at His feet only a few verses earlier.

The story of Mary reminds us of the woman that Jesus put in her place in St Luke’s Gospel, when the woman in the crowd exclaimed “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” Jesus was bold in his response: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” For Jesus, women are more than sexual objects and children-rearing machines. That’s why Jesus does not have a problem with being touched by women, seeing them with their hair down, with women talking to men or being active with their bodies and alive in their senses. In short, in the Reign of God women are equal at the intellectual level, at the salary level, and at all levels. Women are disciples.

I heard this week of Black Ballet - a professional company of ballet dancers for ethnic minorities formed in the early 2000s as back then there were none in the UK. The company’s mission statement involves ‘making Black Ballet unnecessary.’ Astonishing isn't it? 

But it’s more fundamental than that. Ballet dancers need to wear flesh-coloured shoes - but for non-white dancers at the moment, that is just not an option and for Eric Underwood of the Royal Ballet and other dancers, they have to apply makeup to their shoes before dancing. Surprising isn't it? There are still social taboos to be crossed.

Our Gospel reading is full of surprise and social taboos being crossed. It would have been surprising (actually shocking!) to see perfume costing a years wages to be used like this.  It would have been surprising for a guest to dampen the mood a a feast by talking about their death. What’s more surprising is that Mary anointed Jesus at all as it is usually men who anoint men. Samuel anointing Saul to be Israel’s first king. Male Popes anointing male emperors throughout western history, and so on. But here, Mary lets down her hair – with all the cultural connotations of that expression – and anoints Jesus.

People expected the Messiah to look like King David - instead they get a carpenter from Nazareth; in a few verses time they expect Him to overthrow the Romans and yet He is crucified by them. Sarah wasn’t expected to have children, let alone found a dynasty. Moses wasn’t expected to lead the Israelites to freedom. Miriam wasn’t expected to be the prophetess of Israel teaching her people to sing of God’s victory over the Egyptians. The ruddy-faced shepherd boy David wasn’t supposed to be king. And on and on and on.

God regularly loves to do the unexpected with, for, and through unexpected people. And the culmination of Lent and celebration of Easter are the highlight of the work and activity of this unexpected God, as death is assumed to have the last word, until Jesus is raised from the dead.
So instead of asking - what is Jesus asking of us this morning as I would as we reflect on what scripture might mean for us in our lives - instead perhaps we need to ask - what do we expect of God, especially this Passion Sunday as we being to turn our faces with Jesus towards the cross?

Are we expecting God to come in power, to answer our prayers as we would like, to favour our political point of view or our sports team? Are we prepared to be surprised as God again does the unexpected amongst us?  Where God might be at work in unexpected ways in our community?


Whom God might work through next? Look at those sitting near you. For God may be about to use each of you in a surprising way to care for your neighbour, to offer a listening ear, to do your work with faithfulness and courage, to stand up for those who are less fortunate and offer an alternative to those watching. To serve Him an authorised ministry of the Church as a Reader, Deacon or priest. Either way, He’s certainly calling you to be a disciple.

Thursday, March 03, 2016

The Worship Puzzle

Here's a thing.

I currently minister in a parish of just short of 11000 people serving 4 very different communities (urban, estate, suburban, semi-rural, but also across the social and economic spectrum too.) The parish has three centres of worship.

The Parish's worshipping tradition has been broadly Eucharistic/Anglo Catholic and this has varied inevitably depending upon the incumbent.

Parishes were asked by our Diocesan Bishop a while ago to look to ensure that worship in the churches across the Diocese happened at the same time each week and a new scheme to train Lay Leaders of Worship was introduced to help facilitate that. Now I know that there is significant research that shows that a regularised pattern of worship is a good thing.

Stats show that churches with a  fixed pattern of worship, i.e. services are at the same time each week, are the ones that tend to be the ones that are the fertile soil for growth. It's not just statistics though, because common sense says that if you have a service at 10.00am every week, it doesn't matter how many times in a month people attend, it is very easy to know when a service is being held.

Here's the snag. Or worship should be life-giving.


As I said above, we have three church communities, whose worshipping needs have developed and changed over the time that I have been Vicar here. The pattern I inherited looks like this:

1st Sunday of the month:
8.00am Said Eucharist in Church A
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church B
10.30am Family Eucharist in local school near Church C
10.30am Sung Eucharist in Church A
12.45am Holy Baptism (by arrangement)
6.00pm Choral Evensong

2nd Sunday of the month:
8.00am Said Eucharist in Church A
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church C
10.30am Family Eucharist in Church A
11.00am Mattins in Church B

3rd Sunday of the Month:
8.00am Said Eucharist in Church A
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church B
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church C
10.30am Sung Eucharist in Church A

4th Sunday of the month:
10.30am Parish Eucharist (moves round between churches)

5th Sunday of the month:
8.00am Said Eucharist in Church A
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church B
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church C
10.30am Sung Eucharist in Church A

When I arrived here this pattern was just impossible for one priest to offer without the invaluable ministry of Readers and a local retired Priest with PTO to cover the pattern.

Then a few years ago we recognised that this pattern was unworkable whilst I was the only full time Priest in the parish. After some consultation we agreed to adapt our pattern of worship to enable me as parish Priest to minister across the whole parish more effectively:

1st Sunday of the month:
8.00am Said Eucharist in Church A
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church B
10.30am Family Eucharist at Church C
10.45am Sung Eucharist in Church A
12.45am Holy Baptism (by arrangement)
6.00pm Choral Evensong (discontinued due to very poor attendance.)

2nd Sunday of the month:
8.00am Said Eucharist in Church A
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church C
10.45am Family Eucharist in Church A
11.00am Mattins in Church B (This pattern has been adapted again further due changing worshipping needs and a 10.00am Family Eucharist is being trialled.)

3rd Sunday of the Month:
8.00am Said Eucharist in Church A
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church C
10.45am Sung Eucharist in Church A
6.00pm BCP Evensong at Church B

4th Sunday of the month:
10.30am Parish Eucharist (moves round between churches)

5th Sunday of the month:
8.00am Said Eucharist in Church A
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church B
9.00am Said Eucharist in Church C
10.30am Sung Eucharist in Church A

This adaptation allowed me as parish Priest to minister across the whole parish in a manageable way (even if it was a fairly heavy worship load some Sundays.)


Now on paper, from the parish Priest's point of view, looks like a pattern that can be staffed. But look at the point of view from each church community:

Church A
Week 1: 8am Said Eucharist, 10.45am Sung Eucharist
Week 2: 8am Said Eucharist, 10.45am Family Eucharist
Week 3: 8am Said Eucharist, 10.45am Sung Eucharist
Week 4: 10.30am Parish Eucharist (in one church)
Week 5: 8am Said Eucharist, 10.45am Sung Eucharist

Church B
Week 1: 9.00am Said Eucharist
Week 2: 10.00am Family Eucharist
Week 3: 6.00pm Evensong
Week 4: 10.30am Parish Eucharist (in one church)
Week 5: 9.00am Said Eucharist

Church C
Week 1: 10.30am Family Eucharist
Week 2: 9.00am Said Eucharist
Week 3: 9.00am Said Eucharist
Week 4: 10.30am Parish Eucharist (in one church)
Week 5: 9.00am Said Eucharist

We currently have a very able team of Readers and a stipendiary Curate and myself to lead worship across the parish and our Readers play an active part in leading the Ministry of the Word and preaching.

We are again trying to take seriously our Bishop's challenge about regularising the times of services in each church because as it clear and obvious above that church A more or less achieve that but church B fails spectacularly and church C struggles but somehow the pattern seems a little more balanced.

Churches are not immoveable structures, but are buildings to house the worship of God's people, and we are a pilgrim people. The age profile of one congregation may change and develop. The style of worship required in another church might need to change to meet developing needs. Times of service may well need to alter as congregation members age and early starts become more difficult. It is entirely possible that new services may well need to be introduced.

It would be wonderful to have a pattern of worship over a 4 week month that looked like this:

8.00am in church A
10.00am in church B
10.30am in church C
10.45am in church A

This would mean that worship at existing times in our current pattern are honoured (especially the newer and growing services.) This pattern would be one that would be that would affirm the ministry of our Curate (as long as they are with us) and our Readers, because it would only be possible for me to lead 2 of those 4 services as a Eucharist, meaning that a least 1 of the services left in that pattern would be non-Eucharistic. The bigger issue perhaps, means that when we have no Curate who is a Priest but a Deacon, there would only be a Eucharist, mid morning, once a month.  I am uncertain how a parish that holds the Eucharist so central to it's worshipping life would remain sustained with a  pattern like that.

Another option might look like this:

8.00am
9.30am
11.15am

This would be a manageable pattern timing wise for me, but I doubt one of our churches would be willing to have it's main act of worship for Sunday at 8am.

A variant might look like this:

8.00am Eucharist
9.30am Eucharist
9.30am Morning Worship
11.15am Eucharist

but this would only work if the 'Morning Worship' service moved from church to church and was lay led.

A further option would be to create an afternoon or evening service:

8.00am
9.30am
11.15am
3.00pm OR
6.00pm (or later)

On the other hand, building a pattern of regular non-Eucharistic worship affirms the ministry of our Readers and, either encourages those who in the parish need to receive the Eucharist as part of their spirituality to travel to one of the other churches where the Eucharist is being offered, or it encourages our congregations to appreciate different liturgies and to be fed but sacramentally by word and action in other ways. The significant drawback with that for me personally though is that I would potentially only be worshipping once a month with some congregations as I preside at the Eucharist.

It is important that we seek to regularise the times of our services in each church each week to allow each church community to have the best chance of growth and stability. It is important to affirm the ministry of our Readers in offering non-Eucharist worship across the parish. It is important as a parish who have traditionally been fed spiritually at the Eucharist continue to have that offered regularly. It is important for me as parish Priest whose ministry centres around the Sacraments to continue to see that ministry exercised.


But, this circle is very tricky to square! Whatever pattern we adopt, our worship is an aid to our continued growth in faith but I wonder sometimes whether we have the church the wrong way round.

We need to help individuals grow in faith and become disciples. That growth should lead to Christian living and that should feed into Sunday where we celebrate all that God is doing, meet with Him and each other, be resourced by Him in word and sacrament and then sent out to do it all again.