This coming Saturday (21 September) at 3pm in the Cathedral, we shall be celebrating the ministry of Readers in our Diocese. Two new Readers will be admitted and licensed to this ministry, and we welcome another Reader new to this Diocese to be licensed.
With them we shall be licensing seven new lay funeral ministers – a relatively newly recognised ministry of those trained and authorised to care for the bereaved and to officiate at funeral services in the diocese. Towards the end of the service all those serving in these ministries, with all licensed lay ministers, will reaffirm their commitment to this ministry and we will pray God’s blessing on them.
It is my hope that in addition to the clergy attending to support their local Readers and lay ministers there will be a good representation from across the whole of our wider worshipping communities. Supporting each other in this way is a visible reminder that the ‘The Church is the Body of Christ, the people of God…’ We are a community in which we are all called to play our part, witnessing to God’s love and working for the coming of the Kingdom.
Personally, I have great reason to be thankful for the ministry of Readers and licenced lay ministers both as a parish priest and in my ministry in this diocese. Readers and licensed lay ministers exercise ministry that is at the very core of a healthy Church. Readers and licensed lay ministers are a visible sign that as the Body of Christ we all have our part to play in worship, pastoral care, mission, evangelism… different according to our gifts and calling but each integral to the whole. The clergy alone are not the Church. Nor are Readers, nor licensed lay ministers, nor any individual alone. It is collectively that we are the Church, and we need each other to be whole. The ministry we share reminds us in our parishes and communities, in our deaneries and diocese, that the Church does not depend just on me but is a shared calling, each of us playing our proper part, looking to God who shall guard our ‘going out and [our] coming in’ (Ps 121).
This understanding is a liberation, a setting free from the sin of thinking I have to do this for we are the Body of Christ together and together we depend on God who calls us to life and to share that life with the communities in our care.
I am so looking forward to this Saturday’s celebration in the Cathedral and to being with Readers, licensed lay ministers, clergy and all fellow disciples of Jesus Christ as we encourage each other and seek God’s blessing on all we do.
Please do join us if you can and please do remember us all in your prayers.
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Thank you for what you are doing as we build up the Cathedral and wider church family. Maybe you could join us at The Cavern coffee shop beside the Cathedral. All the best, Julian.