May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Amen
It feels very strange to be standing up here, hopefully not for the last time, but certainly at a time of great change for me.
It is hard for me to put in words how grateful I am for everyone here for all the support that you have given me over the years in the journey that has led finally to this next step.
This isn’t my last service here, at the very least I will be back next week, and it has been a joy to assist Reverend Ann in guiding the group of our young people who will be taking the next step in their Christian journey next week, when Bishop Lusa is here to confirm them. I just didn’t want to upstage the bishop with my farewell or overshadow what should be for those being confirmed their own very special day.
It reminds me that my journey started here with my confirmation only twelve years ago in this church.
And now I am here, stepping off, if not into the unknown, into a new phase of my ministry.
Our Gospel reading is a highly appropriate one for the occasion.
Jesus, having ministered in Galilee, having cure the sick and driven out demons, and proclaimed the coming of the kingdom, having taught and instructed his disciples, and shown them by example what discipleship is, now sends them out with his authority, to proclaim the same message.
Jesus doesn’t hoard his power and authority, but not does he just hand it out to anyone.
He prepares and equips those he has called, before he sends them out.
He makes sure that while he is still present, they are given the chance to gain experience for themselves.
It is a model of how to build an effective team – a model that many businesses today could benefit from learning from.
It has been a long road that I have followed to get to this point, and it is a road that I could not have travelled without support both from God, and my family and friends, and also from all the members of this community. Support in so many ways – encouragement, example and prayer.
I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for everything you have done to help and support me, and Petra and Larissa, over the years – the way that you have become a family for us.
I will be leaving after next Sunday, but I can assure you that Petra and Larissa will not – I hope that they will be supporting me at St Mary’s at least occasionally, but I fear that the lure of choral worship, and of the many connections that they have here, and the lack of an 8am service at St Mary’s; for Petra at least, rather than Larissa; will keep them here for at least half of the Sundays in a month, as well as many social events as well.
And while my duty now calls me to honour St Mary’s by devoting my energies to their wellbeing as much as I am able, I also hope to be able to drop in back here occasionally for evensong or social events as well.
I am conscious as I leave that you have, as a community, invested a huge amount of resources in my development as a minister.
It is beautifully Christian that you have done this – that you are gifting me of your own into the wider church.
As Jesus says in our Gospel reading, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
This is true both of the wider church where fewer and fewer people are offering themselves for ministerial training, either lay or ordained, especially from the more traditional wing of the church.
It is true here at Holy Trinity, where I recognise that my leaving puts more of a burden upon Ann, Ann and Gerry.
I recognise that there are many forms that ministry can take, and many callings, and I recognise that there are many people in this community who have stepped forward into ministry of various sorts. It is always invidious to name names, but I and I am sure the rest of us are grateful for the way that Julie has stepped forward to re-create our family service, for the work that Simon has been doing for the last few years to enable the ministry that is our holiday club, for all those who minister weekly in our youth groups, and in our welcoming team, and in our refreshments team. Ministry takes many many forms.
One of my fellow part time, self-supporting ordinands was musing last weekend about whether she might go into full time ministry after her curacy was over, and I felt compelled to interrupt her and correct her that she was already in full time ministry, and would be in full time ministry throughout her curacy. Ministry doesn’t stop at the church door. We take ministry into our workplaces and our schools, into the supermarket and the school gate, into the pub and especially into our homes.
We are all ministers here, and although of different types and sorts, there is no hierarchy or rank in ministry, except that Christ stands above all of us.
But, as a church, we flourish when there is a wide diversity of ministry. A church that was only a welcoming team would be as unbalanced as a church that was only made up of priests.
What I would like to ask you all to do, as my almost parting shot, is ask you all to think and pray on your ministry, and whether God might be calling you to develop your ministry in new paths.
The prospect of entering a formal ministerial role can be a daunting one, and I suspect many of you would feel that you would be inadequate for such a role, or that people like you are not intended to be in such roles.
I can assure you from my years of discernment and training that God calls people of all sorts and types to ministry, and that if you do feel called, this church is as supporting an environment as you could possibly ever ask.
I can say this from personal experience, and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I pray that you should all experience every blessing in the years ahead.
Amen.