March 2009
March 17th 2009 * Feast of S Patrick
“Llefara, Arglwydd, canys y mae dy was yn gwrando.”
“Speak, Lord, for your Servant is listening”
(1 Samuel 3.10)
Seven Veils
At the time of the election of your new bishop, the Flintshire Chronicle reported the news with the headline “Latest Bishop of St Asaph Unveiled”. I could have been a new and racy model of sports car, or the multi-million pound redevelopment plan for St Asaph city centre, but the headline struck me as a sort of “Salome” moment. Salome, you will recall, is reputed, on the basis of the story in the scriptures, to have danced the very first “dance of the seven veils”, in which the removal of each veil led to a more intimate revelation.
I have a strange picture in my mind of the process of bishop-making in the Church in Wales as a sort of Dance of the Seven Veils: at each new turn a little bit more of the new bishop is revealed. First there is the election - a sort of “What have they done?” occasion - followed by the rush of the first wave of media interest, intense but momentary. In due course, there follow three - or in this case - five crucial moments of ceremony, when the personality of the new bishop is unveiled and he takes his place among his new family.
This is a rather personal journey, and I hope that you will forgive me if this Ad Clerum - hopefully for this once only - concentrates a lot on what is happening to me.
Sacred Synod
The first of these ceremonies took place yesterday, when the Sacred Synod of the Bench of Bishops met in St Mary’s Priory Church, Abergavenny, to confirm my election. This is the moment when my canonical fitness to be your bishop is tried. I had to prove that I am of canonical age, baptised, confirmed, ordained deacon and priest, and a fit person for the ministry to which the Electoral College has called me. It was also the moment when the care of the diocese formally passed from the Archbishop, holder of the spiritualities during the vacancy, to the new kid on the block, even if I am not yet ordained bishop. Nevertheless, the fifteen minute ceremony enacted in the course of Evensong yesterday qualifies me to write this first Ad Clerum to you today.
Consecration
The second ceremony will, God willing, take place in three weeks time, 4th April, in Llandaff Cathedral, when the Bishops of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury and others will ordain me Bishop. It is an event that I know not many of you will be able to attend, but it is important, please, that I have your prayers for this occasion. Anglicans believe that ordination imparts grace from God to equip the minister for the task ahead; I am badly in need of that grace. I am looking forward to the opportunities of the new ministry, to the excitements, joys and challenges that we will have to face together, but I will achieve nothing if it is not done in submission to God’s will and in his strength. An awful lot depends on “getting it right”; that is why your prayers are needed.
Chrism Eucharist
The third event is not part of the usual sequence, but was too good an opportunity to miss, given that the ordination has been planned to happen just before Holy Week. I hope that you will already have received my letter of invitation to the Chrism Eucharist on Maundy Thursday, 9th April, in the Cathedral at 1100hr, but can I underline here how important an occasion this will be? The concept of using an early Eucharist on Maundy Thursday for the Blessing of the Oils required in the ministries of evangelisation and healing goes back some way; the additional element of the renewal of ordination vows is also well established.
I realise that there are many reasons for not attending - there will be the usual rash of funeral requests, there is the busyness of Holy Week and the start of the Triduum; there are reasons of conscience about the ordination of women to the priesthood that have fractured recent celebrations of the Chrism Eucharist in our Province. Nonetheless, this is the golden opportunity when I can spend some time in worship with the presbyters and deacons; when I can address you specifically as my colleagues, when we can pledge ourselves to each other in the service of the people of the diocese; when we can proclaim the Lord’s death together, and his resurrection and the power of His Gospel. I am seeking to make the occasion as easy as possible for all the licensed clergy of the diocese to participate. I will celebrate alone; light refreshments, in keeping with the season, will be served afterwards. The Chrism Eucharist will take place this year on Maundy Thursday itself - I have never comprehended the rationale of moving it to another day of the week, as if we should have Good Tuesday and Easter Friday: if that makes matters more difficult for you then I apologise.
But I am asking that all of you regard this as the first direction given in my episcopate - a call to all the clergy to gather around the Lord’s Table and to humble ourselves together before God. If you have problems with this, then please make contact with me through Esgobty.
Then comes an Easter break - for me and my family; I hope also that you will have some time to rest.
Enthronement
The fourth moment is the Enthronement. This will mark the Inauguration of my public ministry in the diocese as your bishop, and will be held in the Cathedral on Saturday, 25th April at 1500hr. The Dean will have been in touch with you directly about this event, and again, I hope that this is something which you will be willing to support, and that the people of the diocese will be able to meet with me and my family. Pressure on places mean that the event has to be ticketed, and in order to mark this important point in the life of my ministry and the diocese more widely in the diocese, on Sunday, 26th April at 1100hr, there will be a special Celebration of the Eucharist at St Mary’s, Welshpool, in order to enable as wide a cross-section as possible to participate in the inauguration of my ministry as bishop.
ACC-14
Unfortunately, no sooner will I have been welcomed among you, than I will have to go away again. Between 1st - 13th May, the Anglican Consultative Council will be holding its fourteenth meeting in Jamaica. I must crave your indulgence for this. The Council has been my boss for the last six years, and only meets once every three years in full session. When I knew that I was called to this new role therefore, I requested Archbishop Barry that I might have leave to attend this event. It is a major watershed in the life of the Communion, and a time when the officers of the ACC must render account of the work that they undertake on behalf of the Communion. So it seemed an essential moment for me to render an account of all I have been doing for six years, and to lay it aside. I am sorry that this means that my episcopal ministry will begin with an absence, but let me promise you that it allows me a clean break with what I have been doing, to set it down with a good conscience. So much of what I have been doing will reach a natural threshold, so then I can give myself up entirely to your service. I trust that you will bear with me. (The Dean, who is a member of ACC will be there as well to keep an eye on me!)
Shortly after my return from Jamaica, I hope that the family will move to Esgobty. This means hoping that the house will be ready to receive us, but it is a good moment in our family life, as the boys have their half-term holiday, and can easily make the transition.
June Onwards
By then it shall be Pentecost, and I shall be holding a Confirmation fitting to Whitsunday in the cathedral at 1830hr on that day.
Details of other confirmations in the diocese are currently being arranged with Area Deans. A list of these with other dates for your diary will accompany my next letter to you.
Clergy Matters
Your continued prayers are asked for the Rev’d David Child and his family as they mourn the death of David’s wife Sheila.
The induction of the Rev’d Brian Harvey as Rector of the parish of Flint will take place on Palm Sunday, April 5th at the parish church at 1500 hr.
Teulu Asaph
(A few words in Welsh about my hopes to learn more in your midst).
Rwy’n edrych ymlaen yn arbennig at ddod a byw fel rhan o “deulu Asaph”. Mae enw cylchgrawn yr Esgobaeth yn bwysig i mi, mae’n mynegi rhywbeth arbennig am natur yr Esgobaeth. Rwy’n credu mai fy ngalwedigaeth yw bod yn rhan o deulu Crist yn yr ardal hon, teulu gyda hanes neilltuol. Dechreuodd yr hanes gyda Cyndeyrn ac Asaff a rhoddodd y ddau batrwm o fywyd Cristionogol i ni sy’n arbennig i’r rhan hwn o’r byd. Fe’n gelwir i fod yn Gristionogion yng Ngogledd Ddwyrain Cymru mewn modd sy’n hynod i’r man hwn yng nghymuned y byd o Gristionogion. Mae rhywbeth ynghylch defnyddio adnoddau ffydd a lleoliad; addoliad Cymreig, dehongliad Cymraeg o’r Ysgrythur, dysgu sut all y ffydd Gristnogol drawsnewid ein bywyd yma yn y lle hwn. Mae gen i lawer i ddysgu am hyn ac rwyf am fynd at y dasg yn llawn diddordeb a brwdfrydedd.
Strapline
The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that I began this letter with a scriptural quote from the First Book of Samuel. I will wish to speak of the significance of this verse further at the Diocesan Conference. But I am making it a sort of personal “strapline” or “motto” for my ministry among you this year. When Samuel received the call of God to ministry, he was counselled by Eli that he should respond with an invitation that God fill and direct his life. This is what is signified by the readiness of the servant to listen: a servant makes him or herself attentive to the least desire of the master. This is the spirit in which I must enter upon this new ministry. If I am to be a good bishop, I must be listening for the direction of the Holy Spirit; and while besieging the throne of grace with my prayers, I must be expectant and listening for his voice rather than giving my directions to the Almighty.
I am expecting God to be speaking powerfully to me in a myriad ways over the rest of the year - through the scriptures, in prayer, in the godly counsel of the leadership of the diocese. But since we are a college of presbyters and deacons together, I am also expecting the Lord to speak to me powerfully through your own witness and words. It is you who carry the heat of the day in working to witness to the Gospel and to celebrate his sacraments for these years past and in this place. I am the newcomer, and very much the novice. So I will be looking for your counsel - offered, I hope, in a spirit of generous, even indulgent, welcome, but nonetheless a key source of wisdom and guidance to me. Together we must do this work, together our ministry can flourish.
In that spirit I commend myself to you: a servant to the servants of God (if that isn’t too papal …)
