‘So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.’
(2 Corinthians 5: 17-20.)
This week I have had the immense privilege of meeting with those who were ordained deacon last year, as they prepare to be ordained as priests in June. At the beginning of the ordination service, we will hear once more those introductory words:
‘The Church is the Body of Christ, the people of God and the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. In baptism the whole Church is summoned to witness to God’s love and to work for the coming of God’s kingdom’.
These are such significant words as they remind us that ordination is not the commissioning for ministry – baptism is, and I was delighted to read Bishop Robert’s message last week in which he spoke about the Easter season of baptism and confirmation.
Every follower of Christ of every age and every background is summoned to witness to God’s love and to work for the coming of God’s kingdom, and I believe we still have a lot to learn and discover about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Discipleship is not an add-on activity but rather is about how we go on living and becoming who we are ‘in Christ’ among the people and places of our daily lives, Sunday through to Saturday, and amid all our experiences of life – the joyful and the painful. It is about who we are as unique individuals but always set within the context of being members together of the body of Christ. We are called to ‘be’ the Church every day of every week, and some of you may recall that at my inauguration service in Gloucester Cathedral in 2015, I used a quote from the theologian Michael Jinkins in speaking about my passion for all of us to trail the wet footprints of our baptism wherever we go.
As the Church – the people of God and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit – each one of us is called and known my name; and in different seasons of life, we will find ourselves called to participate in God’s story in different ways. Vocation is part of this, yet sadly too often, the word vocation has become associated only with ordination or licensed lay ministry. We have failed not only to hear the opening words of every ordination service, but also the call of Christ in scripture. Every follower of Christ is an ambassador for Christ (2 Cor 5:20). This is the context in which we need to set vocations – the call of God to be and do, as we bring our gifts, skills, passions and stories to different spheres of activity and in different locations and in different seasons of our lives.
Some vocations will be about ministry rooted within the worshipping community and the local parish, or an expression of the Church’s presence within a particular context or sphere of activity; and it is my hope and prayer that we will discover more of how we nurture, live and share ordained and lay ministry across all our worshipping communities and different expressions of Church, including chaplaincy. Yet for others, their vocation will be about witnessing to God’s love and working for the coming of God’s kingdom in many diverse roles across different spheres of life.
In recent days I have commented on my longing for more people to discover a vocation to teaching, and in a different context I have spoken about my desire for people to be called by God to a vocation within the prison and probation service. But the landscape of vocations is wide, vast and unlimited, and it is always a delight to hear people speak about who they are and what they do as being underpinned by a sense of vocation – perhaps as a parent, a carer, in a specific profession, or in the utilisation of a particular skill or gift.
Within all of this, I am also deeply aware of those who feel that the current activity of their daily lives is not what they would choose or indeed see as a vocation, but rather is a necessity of circumstances, and I always want to affirm that the call to discipleship is undiminished. God’s love and grace is unchanged, as is our calling in baptism to witness to God’s love and to work for the coming of God’s kingdom.
As I look out across the diverse people and places of this diocese, I do continue to pray for God to call many more people of different ages and experiences to ordained ministry, yet I also pray for people to hear and discover a call to a vast array of vocations and to share those stories as we encourage one another and learn more of what it means to be the Church, the body of Christ, the people of God and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for our partnership in the Gospel.
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