02.11.2013
Joy as the Revd Niall Stratford is Ordained in St Matthias’ Church
The Revd Niall Stratford was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Michael Jackson at a service in St Matthias’ Church in Killiney–Ballybrack, last night, All Saints’ Day, November 1.
Niall serves as a curate (NSM) in the parish and parishioners, family and friends filled the church to wish him well on the next stage of his ministry. His father, the Ven RM Stratford, took part in the service as did his children with his daughter, Amy reading a lesson.
The Archbishop preached the sermon and focused on the call to ministry and journeys in faith. He said the process of discernment could be a long one and should be undertaken with “eyes open and ears pricked up”.
He said there were wonderful journeys of faith in where people “develop and blossom, where they find a rhythm of life which is both priestly and human, where God works through people who remain like us. And yet they do things with and for people in ways whereby they are not better than others, but in ways whereby they show the grace of God in a style and shape which is authoritative and changes lives of individuals and cultures for the better”.
“This is the overwhelming story of calling, equipping and serving to which so many committed people, lay and ordained, give voice country–wide, hour by hour and day by day,” he added before sparing a thought for those for whom it did not happen.
Following the service, the rector, the Revd William Olhausen, said it had been a joy to work with Niall and to celebrate his ordination with him. He said that Niall’s first celebration of Holy Communion would be on November 10 at 10.30 am after which the parish would make a presentation to him.
Niall said thanked all who had been part of his journey to ordination, reserving special mention for his family, children and wife, Vivian. He thanked all who had prayed for him along the way and all who were involved in yesterday evening’s service.
The text of the Archbishop’s sermon is reproduced in full below:
Service of Ordination in St Matthias Ballybrack, All Saints’ Day 2013
Ordination to the priesthood of Niall Ralph Stratford
Sermon preached by the Archbishop
St Luke 6.20 and 31: Jesus looked up at his disciples and said… Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Recently I had the opportunity to speak to a number of people who are exploring a call to ministry. None of them yet knows if it is to be fulfilled; or indeed whether it is to be lay ministry or ordained ministry or a continuation of discipleship as God continues to mould and shape it. It is a long process of discernment, as is only right and only to be expected. And my gentle advice is that the very process of discernment itself is to be undertaken with eyes open and ears pricked up. Not only is it a ‘long haul,’ as they say. It can also be particularly hurtful and it can turn out to be very destructive if our expectations of ourselves are not realized and we find ourselves rather suddenly, but looking back on it somewhat predictably, against a brick wall of self–understanding. We simply could not see ourselves as others see us; but God still loves us and uses us creatively if we can, in the words of St John 1, do what Jesus asks of disciples now as then: follow me and come and see. The risks are high and the capacity, in a strange way, for humiliation of oneself and for a certain type of feeling foolish are equally high. Caution and care frame prayer.
And yet there are wonderful stories of individual journeys in faith and in flair where people develop and blossom, where they find a rhythm of life which is both priestly and human, where God works through people who remain like us. And yet they do things with and for people in ways whereby they are not better than others, but in ways whereby they show the grace of God in a style and shape which is authoritative and changes lives of individuals and cultures for the better. This is the overwhelming story of calling, equipping and serving to which so many committed people, lay and ordained, give voice country–wide, hour by hour and day by day. However I always, on such a day of festivity as this, spare a thought for those for whom it does not happen and will not happen, whatever their enthusiasm may be. There has to be a tinge of sadness in the midst of the joy of others; it is only human. Yet there is also great and true rejoicing to be experienced and savoured on an evening like this when together we celebrate priesthood itself.
Niall is being ordained priest on All Saints’ Day 2013. I have known him, his brother Keith, his father Archdeacon Ralph Stratford, a contemporary of my own father, and his mother Phyllis for most of my life and I am delighted to be part of tonight’s celebration. Niall invites us to celebrate with him the grace of God as it is poured on him in the grace of ordination here in St Matthias’ Church Ballybrack. We rejoice with him and with his own family who have travelled on this journey with Niall and likewise have been graced by God as they journeyed. And All Saints’ Day helps us to discover the lasting value in discipleship and in priesthood of three things in particular: of covenant; of witness; and of blessing. In particular ways the Christian priest is invited by God to enter into sharing this work with Jesus Christ whose life and death have been and remain so crucial to the witness of priesthood for all time.
The language of covenant is one which we find in many parts of the Old and New Testaments. It seems increasingly clear that the covenant to which Jesus refers specifically in the Last Supper is the covenant which God makes with Noah: I shall sustain my covenant with you: never again will all living creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood, never again will there be a flood to lay waste the earth. (Genesis 8.11) There have, of course, been floods and tsunamis before and since, but this does not mean that God has told a lie or that Scripture is to be distrusted or indeed rejected. Far from it! The meaning of this passage is surely that God’s covenant with the creation, which is in some real sense the expression and the extension of his will and his delight, ensures that God will never again take or run the risk of breaking the thread of belonging which God has with the creation through something so devastating as the Flood of Noah. It is a remarkable moment and to my mind gives the key to the self–sacrifice and the redemption of God in undergoing human life and death for this same creation. It is for reasons such as this that celebration of the Holy Eucharist lies at the heart of the priestly character and work here on earth. And it is for this reason that every celebration and sharing of the Holy Eucharist draws the earthly priest and people into the suffering and glory of the heavenly priest. It is not without reason that one of the sentences in the Service of Holy Communion just before the consecration of bread and wine runs as follows: Be present, be present, Lord Jesus Christ our risen high priest; make yourself known in the breaking of bread. Covenant and communion come together in those wonderful words of archbishop Thomas Cranmer in the Collect of All Saints’ Day: O almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord…. This is the inheritance into which Niall now enters and which we as the people of God in this place here tonight share with him joyfully and spiritually.
The early centuries of the life of the church were characterized by sporadic and vicious persecution and this is known as the period of Red Martyrdom because blood was spilled and lives were tragically lost in glorious witness. The persecution in Revelation takes up the persecution in Daniel and the witness to persecution of the righteous in the Wisdom of Solomon. There followed, after the establishment of a more settled life for the church under Constantine and his successors as Emperors, the move into the period of White Martyrdom in terms of individual spirituality and the monastic life. The energy of integrity and sacrifice made their way into the lives of those who went to the desert to get advice and direction, to anchor meaning in and for lives which were being swallowed up in bigger and bigger cities as the Empire consolidated what we now call Christendom. Sacrifice, service, spirituality, prayer and monasticism – all of these are part of priesthood and the gift which God gives through priesthood to the individual and to the community for sharing with the world and the creation.
Blessing runs relentlessly and rhythmically through the Feast of All Saints. Teaching his disciples, in St Luke chapter 6, Jesus draws attention to the blessing which is given to the poor, the hungry and those who weep; and the blessing which flows also in the other direction as we are to bless those who curse and abuse us. This is among the hardest parts of being a priest. You are driven down by other people even further than you thought you could be driven – and you are driven further down again. You know you have done no wrong but at this stage it simply seems not to matter; by their silence, by their words, by their looks, by their avoidance, people will and do curse and abuse you – and then turn round and accuse you of doing this to them. A priest therefore is called upon to exercise personal self–care in the middle of this, otherwise she or he will simply go under and will not resurface. Such personal self–care requires a judicious mixture of being kind to yourself and being disciplined to yourself and saying: No! Any one without the other will take you absolutely nowhere. In fact, what is more, any of them independent of the other will lead you into misery, inefficiency, misuse of others and an unpriestly life.
I have spoken of covenant, witness and blessing as very obvious pressure points for a priest. But the greatest gift of all which is given by God to a priest as a servant and a leader surely has to be that which is referred to in Daniel 7.18: But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever – for ever and ever. This is the point of connection between the best of who we are and try to be here on earth; and the generosity and the values of the Kingdom of God are – when all else is in meltdown – the lifeblood of priesthood. It is not that you know you are right and others are wrong. It is something quite different: you know that God is not mocked and you know that you are God’s servant. It is not about power – it is about solidarity with the marginalized. It is not about status – it is about alignment with the poor. It is not about self – it is about God and neighbour.
The signs of the times are things which Niall also will have to chart and read. They are in many ways the frame within which he will work out and live out his priesthood both in his place of work and in the church of God: spiritual curiosity and questions about meaning at every level; anger at institutions which do not take the time or make the effort to listen, hear and become more humble; the realization that the poor are becoming poorer; international diplomacy which stumbles because of the veto of self–interest while the young, the old and the women stagger on in the delirium of contemporary nomadism and the men are conscripted into warfare; and then there is always, mercifully, the clear water of the pure in heart who see our God.
I conclude with the Epistle in the older Form and Manner of Ordering of Priests, from Ephesians 4.12,13: ...for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect human person, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Niall tonight gives us all something and someone to whom we belong: the love of God and the Son of God.