The Enthronement of the 56Th Bishop of Bristol
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The Enthronement of THE RIGHT REV EREND VIVIENNE FAULL th The 56 Bishop of Bristol in her Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Bristol THE SERVICE AT WHICH THE NEW BISHOP IS WELCOMED INTO THE DIOCESE Saturday 20 October, 2018, 2.30pm THE DEAN’S WELCOME Welcome to your Cathedral Church. The first Bishop of Bristol, Paul Bush, was consecrated on 25 June 1542 and came to a monastery that had been deserted for two years, newly made a Cathedral. The demands of city and diocese were too much for a reclusive scholar and he quickly withdrew to his manor at Abbots Leigh. At her consecration, Bishop Viv was reminded that bishops lead us, knowing their people and being known by them. Before this service began she was met in the heart of the city by its people. In this service you will hear again and again +Viv’s resolution to be servant of diocese and city and to be with us. Successive bishops have been great friends and supporters of their Cathedral Church. Robert Wright raised huge sums for repairs and a new organ in 1630. At other times, the relationship between bishop and Cathedral has been more difficult. In the eighteenth century Bishop Newton despaired of his absent dean. Today, we rejoice in the fact that the Cathedral is the Bishop’s Church. When +Viv knocks, three times, at the great west door and waits for entry, we will act out the fact that she recognises the Cathedral has a life and ministry of its own and yet is also hers. This service marks the beginning of +Viv’s public ministry in the diocese. (She has been our bishop for some months already.) It is a service of celebration and welcome. Here, you will find a reminder that +Viv is our chief pastor. She leads the ministry of God’s people, so we will all commit ourselves, once more, to serve God and one another. Here too, we will be reminded of the weighty promises +Viv has made and the great responsibilities she bears as she leads us in mission and reminds us of the hope of our calling. This service is also an enthronement. A tricky word, but at the heart of what we to do today is the moment when +Viv is placed in the splendid seat (the Cathedra) in the Cathedral Quire that is reserved for our bishop. It looks like a throne. Think of it though, as the sort of chair a professor has (like a university chair of theology). +Viv is here to call us into a deeper unity and to invite us to gather around that chair from which she teaches the Gospel that is her salvation and ours. As the service ends +Viv takes that Gospel hope out into the world and begins as she will continue, as an ambassador of God’s blessing and peace. Now and in the months and years to come we will pray for +Viv and uphold her in a ministry which, whilst it will be a blessing for us will sometimes, perhaps, be a burden for her. It is a privilege to share, with you, a great day in the long history of Cathedral and diocese. Here we welcome our new bishop, in hope and in joy. The Very Revd Dr David Hoyle Dean of Bristol 2 THE ARCHBISHOP’S CHARGE To Our well beloved in Christ, Vivienne Frances, now Bishop and Pastor of the Diocese of Bristol, Greeting. I recall to you God’s mission entrusted by Christ to His Church to proclaim God’s Kingdom, to heal the sick and to make disciples of all nations. As the Crown Nominations Commission considered prayerfully and carefully the call of the new Bishop of Bristol to share the historic and eternal Gospel with a changing world and to encourage all Christians in their witness so that more people become disciples of Jesus Christ, they discerned an especial sense of urgency around tasks and ministries which are among those I now set before you, to guide you as you prepare to take up your new office. ❖ You are to broaden and deepen the discipleship of your Christian sisters and brothers so that they may grow in faith and holiness, grow in confidence and rejoice in diversity of church tradition and expression; ❖ you are to share the Gospel in your own witness and in encouragement of clergy and laity, attending to the wider diocese’s approach to evangelism, enriching strategies and plans through theology and prayer; ❖ you are to seek opportunities to reach out to children and young people, to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities and to draw parishes and other worshipping groups into a sense of shared mission and ministry; ❖ you are to seek creative ways of developing and funding new mission and ministry initiatives; ❖ you are to build on the connections with community and civic leaders, especially in Bristol, and to be a voice for the excluded and marginalised in the city’s social transformation agenda; ❖ you will pay especial attention to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, ensuring that the culture and practice of the Diocese of Bristol leads to a church that is safe, truthful and transparent; and ❖ with your fellow bishops, you are to exercise collegial leadership of the Church of England, enabling it in the witness and mission to which we are all called. So may the Lord of heaven, who gives you the will to undertake these things, give you also the strength to perform them, and by his divine providence may his holy angels succour and defend you on earth; and may his Grace and Blessing be with you at all times. Amen. ✠ Justin Cantuar 25 June 2018 3 THE BISHOP’S INTRODUCTION From the Bishop’s House in Winterbourne I can see Wales, and I realise I am back in border territory. I grew up on the northern end of that border and learnt that borders are markers of division but also of new perspective and possibility. I have spent much of my life ‘on the borders’. In Liverpool, ordained Deaconess by Bishop David Sheppard, I experienced a city divided socially, economically, racially and between Christian denominations, and how it might be Better Together. I served a parish where the church was built on wealth derived from slavery. It would take another generation to face up to the implications of that horrific inheritance and the chasm it has created. In Coventry I learnt from those working at reconciliation between nations and peoples in Europe and the Middle East, and moved to Leicester, one of the most diverse cities in Europe, where, under Bishop Tim Stevens, the Cathedral learned to be a place which welcomed people of faith and no faith. In York I learnt from artists in stone and wood, musicians and dramatists and liturgists, how faith can be proclaimed in ways beyond words. I am grateful to Richard Shephard, Canon of York, for his setting of words of Alcuin. Over and again I have discovered the richness of the gifts of God’s people, and the calling of all those baptized to proclaim Christ as Lord and to be heralds of God’s Kingdom, not least in handling difference. For more than 30 years, I have worked with colleagues who supported God’s calling of women to the diaconate, presbyterate and episcopate, and those who did and do not. Changes in culture make many in the church feel they are on the margins, and that does give us an opportunity to pioneer new ways. This new bishop comes to learn with you and from God what these ways mean in Bristol. It is this thinking which has shaped the liturgy today. We begin with the acknowledgement of our failure to safeguard God’s creation and God’s people, and the sins which continue to tear the world apart. We are reminded of the possibility of forgiveness and sing of the vision of heaven and God’s faithfulness, words crafted by John Newton, a slave trader who became an abolitionist. We continue with a reminder that, for the church, the primary 4 calling and ministry is of those who have been baptized into Christ. I am reminded, in scripture and commissioning, of the calling to me by Christ and Christ’s church. I am anointed by bishops from the Anglican Communion, from both English Provinces, from Wales, from our link Province of Uganda and by Bishop Mark Santer who grew up in a clergy family in the Diocese of Bristol and was amongst those who, from the first, urged the church to ordain women. The final hymn was written for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of women’s priesting. We then cross the border of the Cathedral’s territory for the blessing of the city. My hope is that this service is both celebratory and prayerful. Ecumenical and diocesan representatives will assist in leading our worship and I have been sustained by the welcome I have received and the assurance of the prayers of so many. Thank you to individuals and communities. Please continue to hold me in your prayers, and do join the party at the end of the service. The Rt Revd Vivienne Faull Bishop of Bristol 5 NOTES ON THE ANTHEMS We wait for thy loving kindness, O God William McKie 1901-84 This anthem was written in 1947 for the marriage of HRH The Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey. The King had requested the service not be overlong and the simple brevity of McKie’s beautiful anthem reflects this request.