Reflection for Maundy Thursday: A prism into the Church of England

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Archbishops, Chrism Mass, Clergy, Holy Week, Jesus, Last Supper, Maundy Thursday, micro brewers, rag tag and bobtail, Synods, the cross

As the congregation sung, they entered. A rag, tag and bobtail bunch of humanity, some immaculately dressed and others frankly scruffy, varied of height, girth and hair colour, glasses perched on top of heads, ends of noses and hanging from string, both fleet and stumbling of foot, male and female (and if we are honest some still exploring), faces wrinkled, smooth, made up, bearded and just unshaven.  This beautifully odd bunch in procession are none other than the clergy of the Church of England, gathered to renew their ordination vows.

And God forbid it should ever be otherwise.  This diverse slice of humanity are the true Church of England.  The Church is not Archbishops, Church House, Synods or even Cathedrals.  The heart of the Church of England is its parishes and its idiosyncratic parish clergy, each as different as the places they serve – and their congregations are at their best when they too are as different and as diverse as can be.

May those who long to centralise and standardise the life of the Church always be frustrated.  As Malcolm Guite has so beautiful put it, each of these parish clergy is a micro brewer, taking local ingredients to ferment a brew local to their own patch, reflecting the unique local soil and their own particular shaping.  To the frustration of those who have oversight for the affairs of the Church, these local brews are wildly unpredictable but the strangest brews can slake the local thirst.

And those who gathered around the table with Jesus for the Last Supper were every bit as much a rag, tag and bobtail crew as you are every likely to find sharing food together. Those who follow in their footsteps should be just such a motley crew.

So thank God for the deniers, the betrayers, the doubters and the ones who ran away, the ones who got the wrong end of the stick and did not understand, the ones who hoped for a place at the right hand of God and the ones who are still trying to understand the last parable but one – because this feels like a crew where I might just feel right at home.

And it is for this rag, tag and bobtail bunch that He walked to the cross, and with arms nailed wide, embraced them all.

What ever 2017 may bring, it will ask of us more love

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2017, Baby in the manager, empty tomb, Erich Fried, helpless, Love, New Year, the cross, What it is

Erich Fried wrote:

It is madness
says reason
It is what it is
says love

It is unhappiness
says caution
It is nothing but pain
says fear
It has no future
says insight
It is what it is
says love

It is ridiculous
says pride
It is foolish
says caution
It is impossible
says experience
It is what it is
says love

(translation by Stuart Hood)

If such words seem too sentimental or over optimistic remember that poet and anti-war campaigner Erich Fried was born in Vienna to Jewish parents but fled Austria for London in 1938 after his father had been beaten to death by the Gestapo.  He did not write these words lightly.

What ever 2017 may bring, who ever comes to power, what ever catastrophes or natural disasters unfold, whether the economy booms or busts, the events the new year brings, welcome or unwelcome, will require only one thing from us – more love.

We may find stirring in us moments of pride, a sense of achievement, growing affection, wells of anger, longing for revenge, a sense of powerlessness, a cloud of despair – what each event, yet to happen, will need of us will be more love. And when we are tired and feel we have nothing left to give, the coming year will still require of us more love.

A baby lying helpless in a manager, a man nailed, arms outstretched, on a tree, a stone rolled back from an empty tomb, each stand to remind us of the unlimited, unconditional nature of God’s love. And in turn each of these three events invite us to echo that love in the lives we lead and to the people we meet.

In the face of all that 2017 may bring this may seem ridiculous, foolish, impossible but it is what it is says Love.  Hearts may be broken but it is most assuredly what the new year will need – more love. Prepare to dig deeper.