03.09.2012
Commissioning of Diocesan Lay Ministers and Parish Readers
Four new Diocesan Lay Ministers and two new Parish Readers were commissioned by Archbishop Michael Jackson at a service in Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday September 2. The four new Diocesan Lay Ministers are Gillian Dean, James Kilbey, Shona Rusk and Brendan Sheahan. The two new Parish Readers are Helen Gorman and David Reynolds. They were presented by the Director of Lay Ministry, Revd John Tanner.
The address was delivered by Dr Anne Lodge, Principal of the Church of Ireland College of Education, Lay Minister and ordinand. It is reproduced below.
2nd September 2012 Christ Church Cathedral
Address delivered by Dr Anne Lodge at the commissioning of Diocesan Lay Ministers and Parish Readers.
Exodus 12: 21–27 Matt 4: 23–5: 20
May I speak in the name of the living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
Jesus told his followers “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven”. In a very particular way, the six people being commissioned as Diocesan Readers and Parish Readers are following this call. In choosing to follow this path, they are letting others see their faith in action in their lives, they are giving an undertaking to engage in good works and through this, they are glorifying God.
Lay ministry continues to evolve in the Church of Ireland. Each one of us engaged in diocesan or parish–based lay ministry activity brings a particular set of gifts to the role. None of us is engaged in exactly the same set of activities but we have one core thing in common. We have committed ourselves to lay ministry because we share a sense of service to God and to our community. We have taken on our lay ministry activities knowing that we cannot be paid for them. We realise that we have no particular status within our parishes or the diocese. The bottom line is, we are not doing this for the money or the glory.
Of particular importance to us is the fact that we remain members of our congregations and communities and woven into them. As a result of our public commissioning to our particular service roles, we are empowered for a ministry of God in the world and enabled to offer help and support in our parishes and beyond. Part of the time we spent engage in training was devoted to enabling us to discern the gifts, interests and capacities that characterise each of us and can be exercised in a public ministry and through this releasing the gifts of others.
Because we remain embedded within our parishes and our communities, we have the capacity to embody the active discipleship to which all Christians are called. Everyone of us is called to let our light shine before others, to be the salt of the earth. Christianity is not intended to be a passive faith. God has not called us to sit on the fence, to stand around watching a few others do all the work.
This afternoon’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel makes the active nature of our calling quite clear. If we claim to follow Christ then we are called to make choices in our lives. We are called to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers, to be prepared to accept persecution for the sake of Jesus, to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. These are active rather than passive responses to God’s call in our lives. Nowhere in the Beautitudes or indeed elsewhere in Scripture does it state that those who sit on the fence watching a few others do everything while offering particularly insightful critiques of how they do all the work are particularly blessed!
This morning’s assigned readings included the letter of St. James which reminded Christians that we are called to be doers of the word rather than mere passive hearers of the word. Making a commitment to lay ministry encapsulates an active response to God’s calling to actively live the Word rather than merely hearing it. If we are to be a light to the world and to allow our light to shine before others, we are called to reflect on the way in which we live the Word in our ministry.
Jesus talked in Matthew’s Gospel about the blessedness of being meek, being a peacemaker, being merciful, being pure in heart, seeking after righteousness and being able to take and accept a negative response to us because we attempt to live the Word. This gives us very clear guidance about the way in which we need to approach our ministry work. We are called to operate unselfishly, compassionately, without any expectation of thanks or status. We need to be able to tolerate occasional – or even sustained – negativity from others and accept it patiently and meekly. On the days when we are tired, or feeling a bit low, this can be challenging and has the potential to undermine commitment and ultimately lead to disaffection.
As part of our calling to let our light shine before others, we are called to find ways to sustain our commitment to service. There are core elements to Christian life and practice that offer this kind of sustenance – daily prayer and study of Scripture are key elements. But there was another very important element of the Lay Ministry training programme that you need to deliberately hold on to also – mutual support of and by one another. I certainly found the shared learning and support to be a core strength of the Lay Ministry training programme when I participated in it and consciously nurtured the supportive friendships I gained from it. I urge each of you to do likewise. We are created by God as relational beings who receive as well as give care. Constant service has the capacity to lead to burn–out in the best of people. Finding and nurturing your spiritual and emotional support structures is essential in order to sustain the public commitment you are each making to service today.
Loving service – of God and of our neighbour – is at the core of what all Christians are called to do and to be. Lay ministry gives a wonderful and sustained opportunity to respond to that calling, and to act as an example and guide to others in that regard. However, we need to remember that some people within our Church (both clergy and laity) retain very traditional ideas about the passivity of the laity. Such ideas can be deeply embedded in people’s psyches. Those of us engaged in lay ministry can present a challenge to emotional certainties about who should serve and who should be served. We can also present a challenge to clergy who may not have had sufficient training and support in relation to the delegation of authority and service. We have to approach potential confusion about our roles that we may meet as a result of embedded ideas and traditional ways of operating.
We are called to remember that if we are a light shining before others we are also potentially lighting a pathway for them, to help guide them too on their own journeys in service of God and each other. And we need to be meek, gentle, patient, merciful and peaceful in the way that we approach the confusion or resistance of others! A tall order indeed – and one of the reasons that it is crucial to establish ways of sustaining your ministry.
I leave you with this: humour is also an essential element in the sustenance of your ministry. So too is the ability to gently accept and be amused by your own occasional lapses and the moments when you are ridiculous. If I may play on my official title in conclusion the Dr is giving you the following prescription: watch Rev when it returns to the BBC. If you can’t wait that long, borrow someone else’s DVDs. Look at Nigel the often ridiculous Lay Reader and remember that we can all have our Nigel moments!
Amen