Hearts THE BRIDGE on Fire The Diocese of Southwark Newspaper of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark Vol.23 No.2 March 2018 Inside THE BRIDGE ‘Ashes-to-Go’ ...this month SouthwarkSSoutthhwark churcheschhurrchheess hithiti thethhe pavements on Ash Wednesday offering ‘Ashes-to-Go’ to commuters, shoppers - and bus drivers! Whilst across the Diocese last year’s Palm Crosses were burnt and Lent was ‘marked’ (literally) in church services - in the more built- up parishes clergy and laity took ashes out to the streets in a Lenten outreach. The Revd Ann In West Lewisham, for example, Gurney awarded Deanery churches teamed up to offer ashes at key locations - Forest Hill & Lancelot Honor Oak stations, Sydenham High Greenwich Andrewes medal - Street and the SavaCentre. page 2 The Revd Edd Stock described it as ‘a fab morning’... “A total of 55 people accepted ashing from the team and 170 prayer cards were Hither Green given out explaining Ash Wednesday and Lent”. Cloud of ‘Doubt’ - Cathedral Lent Installation - page 5 Sydenham Honor Oak Croydon ... and on a no.12 bus in Walworth A Lenten journey to the land of the Celebrating lay leadership and lay ministry ‘living stones’ in Southwark On Monday 19 February, Jesus’ birth, life, death and Diocese - pages 84 pilgrims travelled resurrection - and meet the together from Heathrow to people of the Holy Land, the 6,7 & 8 Tel Aviv where they were ‘living stones’. For all of them, joined by one pilgrim who this Pilgrimage offers the PLUS had already travelled. They possibility of new insights into parish news are taking part in the 2018 their faith story and a chance and pictures Southwark Diocesan Holy to see things from a different Land Pilgrimage, led by Bishop and ever changing viewpoint. and Christopher and Dean Andrew. It is often said that those who They will visit sites of visit the Holy Land are never signifi cance in the story of the same again. Find out about where they went, what they saw - and their refl ections at Page11 https://southwarkpilgrimages.com Follow the Diocesan Blog: ‘Hearts on Fire – sharing God’s Good News in Southwark Diocese’ - http://southwarkcofe.tumblr.com/ 2 THE BRIDGE... March 2018 A view from Lancelot THE BRIDGE Andrewes Medal for ‘invaluable Faith is simple and very part of the team’ The Revd Ann Gurney was Following her Ordination, complicated presented with the Lancelot she joined Holy Trinity Parish Being Christian and being a Andrewes medal by Bishop Church. The Very Revd Jeffrey Christian are not quite the same Christopher at a service in John, Dean of St Albans ,who thing. Jesus said love God and Holy Trinity Church, Eltham was Vicar at the time, recalls love your neighbour as yourself. in December. The service also “Bishop Roy phoned me up, So, Christianity for us marked her ‘retirement’ after and actually asked me, ‘Would subscribers should mean serving the parish as a priest you like a present?’ (meaning a conscious, careful way of for 24 years, working with Ann). After that I always saw treating other people, whoever three incumbents, all of whom Ann as a gift of God, and I they may be - and thus being found her ‘an invaluable part of was not wrong! Her centred, inspired by the power of the team’. focused, prayerful ministry was goodness that is God, which we In 1994 Ann Gurney was the perfect foil to the rather are often not able to recognise one of the fi rst women to be more neurotic (or chaotic) or be sure about. Goodness can ordained Priest in the Church approach of both Father be so complicated, barely discernible. Faith too is simple and of England. However, she had Graham Owen and me, so I felt very complicated. already served the Church for we made a good team”. lots of fond memories of you In his sermon at the service A really Christian deed is an action that all agree is forty years having been made Tribute was also paid in a and your wisdom, and given Bishop Christopher said, “Ann unusually, morally good, and often not easily performed. This a Deaconess in 1954. In that message from another former how much I learned from you, has served the Parish and sense of what ‘being Christian’ and Christianity are about is in time she served as a full time Vicar, now Bishop of Dunwich, I can only begin to imagine Congregation of Holy Trinity the language and all around us - shared even with the many Deaconess in Lewisham, as the Rt Revd Mike Harrison, how your ministry has been a for the better part of a quarter people who feel themselves atheists. This usually means they Warden of Berridge House who wrote: “You have given blessing to so many”. of a century, unfailingly cannot believe in the existence of God as the one eternal being College of Education, as fantastic service to Holy The Revd Brett Ward, humble and modest, steadfast in the life through which we so fl eetingly pass, though God is Principal of that same Gilmore Trinity and indeed to the wider Holy Trinity’s current Vicar and reliable. In the forty years no thing (as Rupert Shortt’s book says). House (in Clapham) where she Church over the course of said, “I’ve never ceased to after she was made Deaconess, Ann must, I feel sure, have Our creator’s understanding of peace and love, the herself had trained, and then as your ministry and it was a true appreciate her contribution looked forward in hope to the understanding we can fi nd in our core being, was the life of the Bishop of London’s Adviser blessing to have you as part as an encouraging colleague time when it would be possible Jesus who died and rose. The reality of that goodness and for Lay Ministry. of the ministry team. I have and a wise – and forthright – for her to follow her calling the nature of Jesus’s gospel teaching continue to resonate. sounding-board. Her presence to be a Priest. Yet that very Everybody surely believes in the extraordinary power of has been a source of insight, looking forward may perhaps goodness. So what sets church people and those who do not clarity and good sense, and it have added an urgency and do church apart? Christians following Jesus have no monopoly Professor will continue to be – this is not depth to the way she used the in their call to disciplehood. a eulogy! We’ve all consistently appreciated her thoughtful time between. The laity are the people, us. Clergy are called to service Solomon preaching, which is unfailingly “It was to honour just such of all. We laity are called to think our faith, feel our mutual insightful, well-constructed service, faithfully rendered over dependency, and try and recognise the hard truth of what and sound (and always many decades without thought loving neighbours means: our enemies, our friends. As Pratt A Service of Thanksgiving was containing something of her of earthly reward, that I had people we are no better able to rise to the challenge than the held at St Mark’s, Mitcham on sense of humour which is both the Lancelot Andrewes medal Israelites were in Old Testament times. But now we have the 13 January for the life of Prof. quirky and self-deprecating). struck and so it was right and model of Jesus and the saints. Solomon Pratt who died on 28 continued preaching until And beneath all of that, there is proper to confer it upon her”. Of course the good news is not all about activism. If we are December (days after his 97th Summer 2017. her warm and generous heart. gifted for leadership we will be called. We may serve what God birthday). His funeral took “Music was an important wants in every day in every way if we are able and have the place a week later at Freetown part of Solomon’s life, as an vision. But answering the call comes variously - also in silence Cathedral, Sierra Leone, where organist, choirmaster and and inaction. he was a Lay Canon. writer of Christmas Carols in OPPORTUNITIES Being able to pray, being able to follow, being able to The Revd Nigel Stone writes: Krio. He recently trained a understand are also part of a Christian’s being able. Jesus “Although Solomon was born new singing group at St Marks spoke of lost sheep, rejoiced over, of fl owers that did not spin in the Gambia, his home was to sing anthems including at St John the Bap st, Ca ord cloth, of a widow whose little gift was greatest because it was Sierra Leone. He served his our Confi rmation Service with all she had. We may take part or we may not. We are no army country as a lawyer, politician Bishop Richard on St Mark’s 353 Bromley Road, SE6 2RP mobilised. The paths to answer any call are many and narrow. and statesman including a Day 2017”. To be lost may be to fi nd oneself. brief period as Acting Prime seeks to appoint Tom Sutcliffe Minister. He had been a Reader a gi ed, enthusias c, and dedicated at St Marks since 1999 and Metalsmith Part-Time The APRIL edition is due and woodworker Conscientious and reliable, Parish Administrator to be printed on £10,000 gross p.a. two days per week 22 March Ian Marshall provides new THE BRIDGE and in your parish from work and maintenance for a (£25,000 gross p.a.