Anglican Priesthood – Some Thoughts and Some Questions at the start of 2008…
Paul writes – As an Anglican (by both inclination and conviction) I’m always on the lookout for ways of thinking and talking about the role of the priest. Below is a lengthy excerpt from a sermon that a friend of mine, Martin Davies. Martin, previously highlighted here, is an Anglican priest in the NZ diocese of Waiapu. He recently celebrated his ordination to priestly orders 25-years ago. This sermon, sharing something of the wisdom gained over the time, was preached at the Southern Star Abbey (Cistercian), Kopua (NZ) on the 22nd December 2007. Quoted with permission:
As I read and think on Martin’s reflection, and as I think of the challenges facing priesthood in 2008, and as I think of those Anglican’s (in the West) grappling with radically changed cultural contexts (25-years is a lot of change); grappling with questions of missiology (joining in on what God is doing), alt.worship, social-justice, ecclesiology (how we are church, what it means to be “church”, why church?);
I wonder what this means for both how we talk about “priesthood”, about how we would want to describe the character and role of priesthood in new and emerging Anglican forms of church?
How would those who support the ethos, values, and (creative) practices etc of a new gathering of people like Anglimergent, or Allelon want to talk about priesthood in their contexts…? How does Martin’s reflection (below) resonate…in 2008?
“Over half a priesthood ago, I had serious personal occasion to ask myself the question, If I was told that I was soon to die, who would I want to be with me? Although my crisis was not impending likely death, I have long regarded this as a central question concerning priesthood, as its implications go far beyond facing the prospect of physical mortality.
Radical (because he is so connected to the Tradition) Anglican Catholic theologian Kenneth Leech, whose writings greatly influenced my early priestly formation, was insistent that the priest is concerned with living the mystery of Christ's dying; with plunging deep into the heart of the world, going into the dark places. The task of the priest is to know how to stand at the cross, and to stand at all places of human dying. And to stand with those whom the cross bears, as they find resurrection.
Our deaths are many and daily. Dying to self; dying at the loss of vanished hopes and dreams; dying at the loss of opportunities, or of health or love; dying to illusions that may have long held us. And the renunciation of dying to what is good, for the sake of a greater good.
Alongside that I like to place words written by Rowan Williams, twenty-five years ago -
The resurrection is not properly preached without an awareness of the world as a place of loss, and as a place where men and women strive not to be trapped in that loss.
Rowan Williams, Resurrection
…How then does the priest stand at the dark places of death, exile and tears, as a sign of resurrection hope? I can begin to get a grasp of this by thinking of some of the things that resurrection is not. Resurrection is not resuscitation. Resurrection is not a return to the status quo. Resurrection is not a naïve comfort that all will be well.
Resurrection is something new and resurrection is a journey through death. The priest must somehow be able to embody resurrection.
My friend Fr Michael Blain and I were recently discussing formation and training for priesthood. As he put it, the task revolves around learning not only how to think theologically, but in the first place, to learn how to think. That is, to learn how to ask life’s questions honestly, and then to think theologically, which is to work at putting the patterns of theology into our life’s questions. And we need to pray our theology, by taking the head through the heart, which is perhaps another way of saying (as the Orthodox do) that prayer is standing before God with the mind in the heart. So, the priest’s calling is to constant integration.
I often recall words in the ordination liturgy addressed to those about to become priests, “You must be prepared to be what you proclaim”. This speaks to me of a core apprehension and understanding of priesthood, which precedes any attempt to describe the function of a priest. This centre of priesthood is something that we need to grow into and in which we need to be able to locate ourselves, in such a way that it is integral to our very being. It is not a centre for its own sake, a point of arrival for us to stay protected and isolated; it is a centre because of what goes out from it. It is a point of departure; the centre from which ministry flows.
The priest’s work is to offer a shared journey through scripture and prayer, through sacramental encounter with Christ in the Eucharist, into the mystery of God in the company of brothers and sisters in Christ. And like the priest’s own identity, the journey of those among whom the priest offers this ministry, is to know how to stand in the dark places and to find resurrection…”
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