Thursday 28 March 2013
Chapter 8: On Footwashing
Last night's Maundy Thursday Service with the Mandatum ( Footwashing Ceremony) at St James Church King Street was very pastoral and inclusive. The footwashing (a Christian symbol of mutual support and purification) was done as a mutual act by the whole congregation, with the Choir singing quietly in the background. After the Procession to the (beautifully palm-and-candle adorned) Altar of Repose, the Choir sang the last Psalm lined up in the two outer aisles, facing each other across the congregation. Rev. Steven Ogden's sermon was also appropriately inclusive.
Friday 22 March 2013
Chapter 7: Responsibility in Church Ministry
Having just submitted a mountain of forms, and wrestled with various angels in the area of coordinating my supervised ministry placement schedule, I know how Jacob felt!
Scheduling sufficient study and travel time in a sprawling urban environment is made possible by having a notebook computer, but coordinating multiple supervised ministry rosters with busy lay coordinators is another kettle of fish. So far my student ministry placement involves juggling six rosters by keeping in contact with six patient and forbearing lay coordinators - hospital / nursing home visitor, hospitality assistant, parish networker, chorister, reader, and intercessor, and after Easter, server will be added. Adequate how-to procedure manuals are seldom supplied, so it is often necessary to source one from the net, or research and purchase an authoritative text, or write one's own on the job. Needless to say, every parish should have an easily accessible, up to date set of these.
The area of ministry coordination and scheduling is a nuts and bolts area of Church ministry seldom aired in the media, but it is fundamental to efficient and effective Church ministry. As a workplace, the Anglican Church environment is quite different from any corporate business environment, in that it is committed to provide highly responsible pastoral care of its lay and clerical ministers. For any student minister, treading the line between learning professional ministry practice, and receiving ongoing ministry counselling while training, is a difficult act, reliably supported by committed supervisors. In Anglican parishes, destructive competition for dominance between ministers, although it may raise its ugly head, is generally tactfully ameliorated by clear communication and responsible pastoral oversight. However, few Anglican writings express or discuss the differences between secular corporate practice and Christian business practice, and the unavoidable conflicts these produce.
Our new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Portal Welby has no hesitation in articulating the major differences between pastorally oriented Christian business practice, and profit oriented secular corporate business practice, as a means of upholding the Christian faith. The Anglican Church's pastoral care of its ministers and people is aligned not with any secular gospel, but with specifically Christian values, ethics and standards. Good pastoral care of assistant ministers by those charged with authority in a parish, together with responsible self-care by the ministers and their families, enables supervised ministers to extend excellent pastoral care and effective ministry to parishioners, and engage in outreach ministries without risk of burnout. Thank God for good ministry supervisors!
For student ministers, getting to know and keeping in touch with the local Church teams you are assigned to is a priority. This means keeping accurate, up to date, secure electronic and written records of contact details, and contacting / meeting with your ministry supervisor and roster coordinators regularly. Sometimes this contact is formal, as in a supervision meeting, but usually it's an informal phone call, or a brief SMS or email message. Various electronic calendars and email / contact list systems / liturgical planning systems can be used to keep track of this process. Theological colleges help student ministers by providing these resources as part of online ministry courses, and by teaching them how to link faith to supervised ministry practice through PTR (pastoral theological reflection).
Readers, please pray for all student ministers and their supervisors - they are doing great work in the Church.
Scheduling sufficient study and travel time in a sprawling urban environment is made possible by having a notebook computer, but coordinating multiple supervised ministry rosters with busy lay coordinators is another kettle of fish. So far my student ministry placement involves juggling six rosters by keeping in contact with six patient and forbearing lay coordinators - hospital / nursing home visitor, hospitality assistant, parish networker, chorister, reader, and intercessor, and after Easter, server will be added. Adequate how-to procedure manuals are seldom supplied, so it is often necessary to source one from the net, or research and purchase an authoritative text, or write one's own on the job. Needless to say, every parish should have an easily accessible, up to date set of these.
The area of ministry coordination and scheduling is a nuts and bolts area of Church ministry seldom aired in the media, but it is fundamental to efficient and effective Church ministry. As a workplace, the Anglican Church environment is quite different from any corporate business environment, in that it is committed to provide highly responsible pastoral care of its lay and clerical ministers. For any student minister, treading the line between learning professional ministry practice, and receiving ongoing ministry counselling while training, is a difficult act, reliably supported by committed supervisors. In Anglican parishes, destructive competition for dominance between ministers, although it may raise its ugly head, is generally tactfully ameliorated by clear communication and responsible pastoral oversight. However, few Anglican writings express or discuss the differences between secular corporate practice and Christian business practice, and the unavoidable conflicts these produce.
Our new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Portal Welby has no hesitation in articulating the major differences between pastorally oriented Christian business practice, and profit oriented secular corporate business practice, as a means of upholding the Christian faith. The Anglican Church's pastoral care of its ministers and people is aligned not with any secular gospel, but with specifically Christian values, ethics and standards. Good pastoral care of assistant ministers by those charged with authority in a parish, together with responsible self-care by the ministers and their families, enables supervised ministers to extend excellent pastoral care and effective ministry to parishioners, and engage in outreach ministries without risk of burnout. Thank God for good ministry supervisors!
For student ministers, getting to know and keeping in touch with the local Church teams you are assigned to is a priority. This means keeping accurate, up to date, secure electronic and written records of contact details, and contacting / meeting with your ministry supervisor and roster coordinators regularly. Sometimes this contact is formal, as in a supervision meeting, but usually it's an informal phone call, or a brief SMS or email message. Various electronic calendars and email / contact list systems / liturgical planning systems can be used to keep track of this process. Theological colleges help student ministers by providing these resources as part of online ministry courses, and by teaching them how to link faith to supervised ministry practice through PTR (pastoral theological reflection).
Readers, please pray for all student ministers and their supervisors - they are doing great work in the Church.
Sunday 10 March 2013
Chapter 6: Mothering Sunday, Lent IV, Sunday 10th March 2013
It always strikes me as slightly ironic that Mothering Sunday and Simnel Cake consumption occur near the end of the penitential season of Lent. Just as we remember how Mary's Son and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, prepared to enter Jerusalem so we could be saved, here we are taking a break, saying "thanks, Mum", and feasting on a fruity cake adorned with symbolic apostolic eggs. Meanwhile, the supermarkets are already doing a roaring trade in hot cross buns. Chronological concatenation! No wonder non-Christians get confused about the Church. I guess one of the tasks of ministry today is to explain and, if possible, disentangle, this apparent confusion.
My Anglican ministry course via St Marks National Theological Centre (Canberra) came online this week, with a swag of assignments and readings. Thanks to helpful Church friends and colleagues, I'm well on the way with organizing my ministry Field Placement at St James King Street (that's in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, for overseas readers).
Meanwhile, at St James Hall, Sydney, the Rev. Dean Andrew Sempell's Thursday Lenten Group has been busily exploring a variety of personal and communal life journeys, all with our ultimate end (i.e. God) in mind, and the adventurous and provocative 2013 St James Institute series of lectures and seminars is under way. Last Sunday (3rd March 2013) Rev. Martin Davies led a lively poetry reading seminar called "Anticipating World Poetry Day". Poetry-lovers, clergy, musicians and poets read and discussed original and favorite poems on themes that included the Australian landscape, love, religion, medical history, childhood, and more. Innovation abounded. Alistair Nelson recited Donne beautifully from memory, Sue Mackenzie gave a multimedia presentation of her landscape poetry, Rev. Sempell read a soliloquy on ordination candidature, and John Bunyan presented his completed poetry book "75 Sonnets", and read selections. The St James Institute series is an excellent opportunity to explore current Church issues, study scripture in depth, have your say, and develop creative projects.
Networking at St James is full of pleasant surprises. Last month I was thrilled to meet, through a hospitable gathering at Christine Cheetham's, two "Adelaide girls" of my generation - Joan Gibb and Rosemary White, both now parishioners of St James. We shared happy childhood memories of Adelaide's famous John Martin's Christmas Parade, Church worship, and beach frolics. In the 1960s I was at St Ann's University College, studying for my Arts degree in English and History, singing for Morning Prayer at St Peter's Cathedral with Michael Betts, Andrew Mander-Jones, Derek Van Dissel and Margaret Cheesman (among others), and writing mysteriously metaphysical poems at the Creative Writing Group with John Healey, Helen Gregson and Charles Kaiser. That was the era of Max Harris and the Ern O'Malley poetry hoax - when two larrikin Aussie tricksters fooled the literary establishment into lauding "poetry" concocted from randomly selected dictionary words.
It so happens that Adelaide will be well represented at St James this Easter. I'm looking forward to hearing the Rev. Steven Ogden from Adelaide's St Peter's Anglican Cathedral, preach at St James.
My Anglican ministry course via St Marks National Theological Centre (Canberra) came online this week, with a swag of assignments and readings. Thanks to helpful Church friends and colleagues, I'm well on the way with organizing my ministry Field Placement at St James King Street (that's in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, for overseas readers).
Meanwhile, at St James Hall, Sydney, the Rev. Dean Andrew Sempell's Thursday Lenten Group has been busily exploring a variety of personal and communal life journeys, all with our ultimate end (i.e. God) in mind, and the adventurous and provocative 2013 St James Institute series of lectures and seminars is under way. Last Sunday (3rd March 2013) Rev. Martin Davies led a lively poetry reading seminar called "Anticipating World Poetry Day". Poetry-lovers, clergy, musicians and poets read and discussed original and favorite poems on themes that included the Australian landscape, love, religion, medical history, childhood, and more. Innovation abounded. Alistair Nelson recited Donne beautifully from memory, Sue Mackenzie gave a multimedia presentation of her landscape poetry, Rev. Sempell read a soliloquy on ordination candidature, and John Bunyan presented his completed poetry book "75 Sonnets", and read selections. The St James Institute series is an excellent opportunity to explore current Church issues, study scripture in depth, have your say, and develop creative projects.
Networking at St James is full of pleasant surprises. Last month I was thrilled to meet, through a hospitable gathering at Christine Cheetham's, two "Adelaide girls" of my generation - Joan Gibb and Rosemary White, both now parishioners of St James. We shared happy childhood memories of Adelaide's famous John Martin's Christmas Parade, Church worship, and beach frolics. In the 1960s I was at St Ann's University College, studying for my Arts degree in English and History, singing for Morning Prayer at St Peter's Cathedral with Michael Betts, Andrew Mander-Jones, Derek Van Dissel and Margaret Cheesman (among others), and writing mysteriously metaphysical poems at the Creative Writing Group with John Healey, Helen Gregson and Charles Kaiser. That was the era of Max Harris and the Ern O'Malley poetry hoax - when two larrikin Aussie tricksters fooled the literary establishment into lauding "poetry" concocted from randomly selected dictionary words.
It so happens that Adelaide will be well represented at St James this Easter. I'm looking forward to hearing the Rev. Steven Ogden from Adelaide's St Peter's Anglican Cathedral, preach at St James.
Saturday 2 March 2013
Chapter 5: Lenten Musings on “Home”
After three weeks of cogitations on the meaning of "home" in Church communities, Church writings, and secular and indigenous societies, I have discovered that 1. there are as many ideas of home as there are people in the world, 2. leaving home to migrate to another country is an experience common to many, 3. those who believe in God can be at home anywhere, and 4. providing a safe physical home for people has the potential to empower them, but it may also imprison them if they are handicapped by fear.
In an ideal world, a home is a place where we can gather family and friends, welcome them, and share food together. But not everyone has a home today: for many the mission van or Church hall is the closest they come to a physical home. Many urban unit dwellers eat out habitually with friends at restaurants and clubs, as it's much safer that way in a crowded city. Jesus and his disciples were travellers who depended on their friends and innkeepers for meeting places and accomodation. For Christians, sharing communion together, and remembering Jesus, reminds us of all these concepts of home, and unites us in the attempt to help people in need, whatever their situation.
In an ideal world, a home is a place where we can gather family and friends, welcome them, and share food together. But not everyone has a home today: for many the mission van or Church hall is the closest they come to a physical home. Many urban unit dwellers eat out habitually with friends at restaurants and clubs, as it's much safer that way in a crowded city. Jesus and his disciples were travellers who depended on their friends and innkeepers for meeting places and accomodation. For Christians, sharing communion together, and remembering Jesus, reminds us of all these concepts of home, and unites us in the attempt to help people in need, whatever their situation.
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