In The Book of Common Prayer, the Collect, or special prayer, for the Third Sunday in Advent asks God to: ‘Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight.’
Like so much of Cranmer’s liturgy, a great deal of wisdom is packed into just a few words. We are reminded of John the Baptist preparing the way for the first coming of the Lord Jesus and of our responsibility to proclaim the second. We are reminded to pray for our ministers and to pray for ourselves. We are reminded that there is a judgment to come and that the verdict of that judgment is the only one that matters. It is good to ponder these things.
Inclusive or just?
In the past few weeks, some of the ministers of the Church of England have made their own proclamation about what is wise, what they believe to be acceptable in the sight of the Lord. The bishops of the Diocese of Oxford have followed the example of the bishops of Lichfield, by outlining what they think the archbishops’ call for ‘a radical new Christian inclusion in the Church’ might look like. Of course, they offer their views with ‘humility and hesitation’ and there is a certain amount of ambiguity in what they have said, but there is no doubt that they are looking forward to a day when the ‘current legal, doctrinal and liturgical frameworks’ of the Church of England are no longer current. Their prime concern, of course, is to include the LGBTI+ community more fully in the life of the Church.
‘Power is a powerful drug and the detox process is hard’
One of the most insightful speeches at the Church of England's General Synod in July came from The Revd Lindsay …