Diocese of

Sermon on preached by Rt Revd Donald Allister, of Peterborough at , Maundy Thursday 5 April 2012

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Last year at this hugely important service I spoke about anointing. This year I am speaking about ordination, the other half of what we are here to celebrate this morning. And I know that those here today who aren’t ordained will forgive me if I direct my words at those who are. Now as this is the it is public worship and all are welcome to listen in.

Recently I celebrated the second anniversary of my ordination as bishop and I shared that with a few people and got a few cards and so on. And someone very wisely said to me ‘You don’t think ordination makes you a better person, do you?’

What does ordination do to us? Does it make us better people? Sometimes when we celebrate our ordination or our ordination anniversary, sometimes when we are seen in procession as the clergy of the diocese together, sometimes when we are simply in our own parishes, dressed up and, as it were, in procession, or presiding or looking important, we give the impression to people that we think we are better people because we’re ordained. Sometimes when clergy die and the names are read out in the prayers – ‘so and so, ’ – we can give the impression that we think we are better people. We have to be very, very careful about that. There’s been much discussion recently in another context about whether or not the Church of England and the Anglican Communion is confessional. Without getting into that I want to quote from one of the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion

‘The unworthiness of the minister hindereth not the sacrament.’

That was one of the great principles of the reformation. It’s one on which we still technically disagree with our brothers and sisters in the Church of Rome, where it’s taught that the unworthiness of the minister would hinder the sacrament. If it did I doubt if any valid sacraments would ever have been celebrated, certainly not by me.

It’s important to remember that the unworthiness of the minister hindereth not the sacrament, because it’s important to remember that we are unworthy. And of course we have had that from our Epistle reading in particular, but from the Gospel readings and the Old Testament reading in different ways.

‘We have the treasure in clay jars.’

Those of us who were at Swanwick at the beginning of December were taught that very clearly and very powerfully. We have this treasure in clay jars. Something of what we stand for, something of who we are as the ordained, is extremely precious. It is treasure. If we are stewards of the mysteries, stewards of the sacraments and stewards indeed of the gospel, then the treasure we have is utterly precious, more precious than anything on this earth. And our ordination therefore is something of very high value. Very special. And we mustn’t forget that, and that’s part of what we

1 celebrate today, that ordination is not God’s gift to us, ordination and the ordained are God’s gift to the church and the world, and to all creation. Because we have this treasure.

Don’t be ashamed of your ordination. Don’t let your role as or priest or bishop be undermined by the increase, the welcome increase and growth and development of lay ministry. Lay ministries in the church are of great value. Always envisaged from the beginning. Utterly important. But sometimes the way lay ministries have been developed and grown and exalted in the churches in recent years, it has led to an undermining on the part of some clergy. What is our role? What is our distinctive role? And always there have been some clergy who for some reason I can’t quite believe are happy to be ordained, but don’t believe in ordination. It seems a very peculiar place to be, but some are there.

But we have this treasure, and our ordination is something of inestimable value and is God’s wonderful and great gift to his church, his world and to all creation. And that is what we celebrate and value today and rejoice in. I’ve had a little bit of agro for my decision this year only to invite the ordained to lunch in the Palace afterwards. Not because I want to exclude other people on other occasions, but because I want to make this morning and this morning each year something very special for the clergy. Because we are called together to a special ministry, which is different from the calling of lay ministers. Lay ministers, they perform some of the functions that we also perform, and that’s right and proper. But the actual ordination, the being ordained, the bearing of the office of deacon, priest or bishop is a very great blessing and privilege, but it is one that the world doesn’t understand, that much of the church doesn’t understand, and that sometimes lay ministers don’t understand, and sometimes the clergy don’t understand. And what I want to do this morning is affirm our ordination as God’s gift to his whole world and to hold that in high honour. We have this treasure, we have this treasure, but of course we have it in clay jars. We are not worthy. We are not to pretend worthiness. We are not to go around looking as if we think we are worthy. We are not to deal with our lay ministers or lay people or with the outside world in any supercilious priestly way. We are not to look down on others. We are not to dispute as to who is the greatest. Ordination is not about status – it’s about service. Very easily we make it about status. We have changed the meaning of hierarchical in our society. Hierarchical means ‘to do with ’ and that is right and proper: that the church is hierarchical because God orders and ordains and priests and in his church. But it’s tragic isn’t it that that word hierarchical, which means of the priesthood, has come to mean something to do with status.

Please brothers and sisters we have to work very hard at holding the treasure which we have and the treasure that we are as ordained people without ever claiming status in the church or in the world. So difficult to do with the trappings that we have inherited in western Christendom. So difficult to do in a world where people always want to know who is above whom, or below whom on the rungs of some ladder.

The kings of the gentiles lord it over them, those in authority are called benefactors, but our Lord says not so with you. The greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.

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We celebrate our ordination. We rejoice in God’s gift of ordination. We rejoice in the diaconal ministry which God gives, and in the priestly ministry which God gives, and in the episcopal ministry which God gives to all of us. He gives those ministries not just to us who are here, dressed in white. He gives those ministries to the whole world. And we hold them for the whole world. And we exercise and use them for the whole world. Not claiming any status, not claiming that ordination has made us better people, not letting other people think that ordination has made us better people, but knowing full well that we have this treasure in clay jars. Yet knowing also that we are being transformed into his image, from one degree of glory to another. And that that transformation is not just for us, but for the whole of God’s people.

May we leave here today renewed in the joy and the gift and the privilege of our ordination, determined not to seek status, or to look as if status matters to us. And also determined to be transformed, to continue to be changed by the Lord, and made more like Christ. And so to lead our churches, and so to minster to those outside the church, that that transformation into the image of Christ will be for all people.

Amen.

POST SCRIPT

Following my sermon, and my reference to Article 26, I have been questioned on whether we really are at odds with the Roman Catholic Church over this matter. There are various sources which point to the Church of Rome being in agreement with the Anglican Church, such as: The Catechism of the Catholic Church Second Edition 1994, which points out (paragraph 1584) that the unworthiness of the ordained minister does not prevent Christ from acting.

In response I would say that although the main thrust of Article 26 was against the Anabaptists or "Separatist Puritans", my reading of relatively contemporary studies of the Articles (eg Thomas Rogers in 1586) strongly suggests that Rome was also in mind. Origen and Cyprian had both argued that a priest's unworthiness invalidated a sacrament, though Augustine got it right and Aquinas did at least in part. But Pope Hildebrand (Gregory VII) insisted that the Eucharist administered by married priests was invalid, and then deriving from Aquinas the Tridentine doctrine of Intention taught that if the priest has not the right intention at the sacrament there is no validity. This led to the later view that the lack of proper intention to consecrate Archbishop Parker (Cranmer’s successor) rendered his orders and orders derived from him (ie all Anglican orders today) invalid too. So in short Rome speaks with divided voice on this. I'm not arguing from that they are any worse than the rest of us, and I readily acknowledge that my sermon simplified something which is complicated.

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