Advent Sunday by Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (based on http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/faces/rossetti_c_03.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=230360 )

Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out
With lighted lamps and garlands round about
To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.

It may be at the midnight, black as pitch,
Earth shall cast up her poor, cast up her rich.

It may be at the crowing of the cock
Earth shall upheave her depth, uproot her rock.

For lo, the Bridegroom fetcheth home the Bride:
His Hands are Hands she knows, she knows His Side.

Like pure Rebekah at the appointed place,
Veiled, she unveils her face to meet His Face.

Like great Queen Esther in her triumphing,
She triumphs in the Presence of her King.

His Eyes are as a Dove's, and she's Dove-eyed;
He knows His lovely mirror, sister, Bride.

He speaks with Dove-voice of exceeding love,
And she with love-voice of an answering Dove.

Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go we out
With lamps ablaze and garlands round about
To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.

Here we are on at the threshold of that great season of Advent. But what is Advent to you? I suspect for many it is be described as the busy time in the run up to Christmas, and of course one cannot argue with that, but it is surely much, much more than that.

For sure, Advent is about time. But not so much about the waiting for Christmas, but a time for looking forward to the day when Christ will return.

In the poem, ‘Advent Sunday’, Christina Rossetti challenges us to think about readiness. How ready are we for the second coming? For the coming of the kingdom of God in all its fullness? How ready I wonder are we not so much as individuals, but as a community of faith?

We should all be alert to the promise that the kingdom will appear unexpectedly says Rossetti. “It may be at midnight black as pitch”, “it may be at the crowing of the cock”. We will not know, there will be no prior warning. How ready are we? How ready are we for that time when Christ the bridegroom comes to fetch the church his bride?

It is a big question. A question of such enormity that we perhaps shy away from even thinking about it. But as Christians, this is the promised new day, it is the promise of Advent!

Rossetti uses Rebekah, the bride of Isaac to represent the church. Rebekah, the lovely, generous, and kind young woman at the well. She then goes onto compare Christ’s bride, the church to Queen Esther in her triumphing; the great exiled queen, who with cleverness and cunning saved her people from annihilation.

Central to the poem is the union between Christ and his church in everlasting love. Two doves made for each other for all eternity.

“Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go we out with lamps ablaze and garlands round about to meet Him in a rapture with a shout.” We must be ready!

This invitation to be ready to meet him is extended to all people. The real focus of Advent is an invitation to be ready for him who longs to gather people, without exception into his love. It is a generous invitation to all to walk in the light and peace of the Lord. A gathering of the whole world into one movement of people, the church, the ‘Bride of Christ’.

So we must be ready!

But are we ready? Can we ever be ready? Do we have the patience to wait?

Well, I think the secret to it all is perseverance. The Christian life is a marathon not a sprint, and it’s a marathon that has plenty of obstacles enroute and to be successful in it, it takes plenty of training!

In the Gospels Jesus teaches, most often in parables, about staying awake and being prepared. Of course, this is not a suggestion that we all need to deprive ourselves of sleep and wait for the big event to happen, rather it is an invitation to be alert for the signs of God’s Kingdom amongst us now and as we look to the future with hope.

So how do we prepare ourselves?

Well, this season of Advent is an invitation to do just that. A time for self-examination, a time for us to think about the way we each live and the way we live in community. Like a marathon runner in training, are we fostering good habits for a healthy run, so that if it were to be stopped in freeze frame, we would be found in good shape?

This life though is not a training session, it’s the race itself. So some of the questions I ask myself are:

  • Am I living a life dedicated to trying to do the right thing?
  • Are the small decisions I make day by day generous and offer mercy?
  • Do I deal well with arguments and disputes?
  • Do I act with kindness and understanding?

When it comes to it, the question will be, are we running the race together with the stronger and fitter runners helping and encouraging the others, and above all, are we running the race for Jesus and ever vigilant for him.

So, on the threshold of another Advent, may we, the church, his bride be ready, just as Rebekah faithful, loving and open to the Lord. May we be just as Queen Esther a saving community, ready to stand up for the marginalised and oppressed.

We live in challenging times; life is hard but there is such hope in this season of Advent: “Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go we out with lamps ablaze and garlands round about
To meet Him in a rapture with a shout”.

May we all have a blessed Advent and be a blessing to others.

Every blessing,

Fr Paul .

 

"A New Phase of Ministry"

Sunday 18th August 2024 was a very significant day for me because it was my first day presiding at the parish Eucharists as Vicar of the parish of East Crompton St James with St Saviour. It was the first day of a new phase of ministry where I am no longer a curate in training and serve across the whole mission community with a new status.

It isn’t an elevated status, but it is certainly more permanent framed by the words of the Bishop at my licensing service at the end of July who said to me “receive this cure of souls which is both mine and yours, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.

It certainly does not make me any more important than anyone else, but it has given me a clear responsibility which I will forever take seriously, will never take for granted and receive with such deep joy and hope. And I receive it knowing that I am so well supported by my partner, my colleagues and friends both from all five churches.

And there are many aspects to receiving the cure of souls that are so important. The bishop said “Priests are called to be servants and shepherds among the people to whom they are sent”; proclaiming the word, teaching, admonishing, telling the story of God’s love, baptising, supporting the weak and defending the poor, praying for all in need, ministering to the sick and preparing the dying for their death.

Priests are also “to discern and foster the gifts of all God’s people and so build up the church”. It is all such a privilege, and I am so glad to be here having received this charge.

To be honest with you, being here with you in the mission community is a responsibility is beyond my wildest dreams. I never for one moment thought that someone like me would be doing this. And to let you into a secret, every time I stand at the Altar in one of our five wonderful churches presiding over the most Holy of all the sacraments of the church, I am awestruck.

I am awestruck because to me the sacrament is not merely a nice memorial of the last supper, though of course there is a strong element of that, the Sacrament is Jesus himself here among us. It’s mind blowing really isn’t it!

St Jean-Marie Vianney, patron saint of Priests (who I have quoted here before) is to have said of the Blessed Sacrament (the blessed bread of Holy Communion) “there He is: the one who loves us so much! Why not love him!” and of course the He referred to is Jesus; the one who loves us so much and is so worthy of our love in return.

And that love takes us out of our beautiful worship spaces into our communities and the wider world where the love of God dwells and grows. God in Jesus left us the legacy of love in the Blessed Sacrament, but it is the food of life that fuels us to take his love out and work to alleviate suffering, inequality, and injustice. To work to ensure that every single human being is treated with dignity and love.

Our Christian life is rooted in the worshipping life of the church, and it is in worship that I find my strength and energy to do the work I have been called to do. This is not just the reserve of priests, it is the energy and strength that flows for the whole people of God; an energy and strength that is radically inclusive of all, and we are all channels of it.

So in these early days of a new and important phase of my ministry here among you, I am energised and strengthened by Jesus who gave everything for us and withholds nothing from us, and who feeds us in the Sacrament. I look forward with immense gratitude to serving in this place and to all that lays ahead.

Every blessing,

Fr Paul .

 

"We share in the work of Christ"

On Saturday 30th June, the feast day of St Peter & St Paul, I had the great privilege of being at Manchester Cathedral for the Ordinations of Priests, our dear friend Kirsten Stott amongst them. It was Kirsten’s invitation that drew me there and I am so grateful to her for it.

Many of you will know Kirsten; she and Bill, and their family were important members not only of East Crompton St James with St Saviour, but also of the wider Shaw & Crompton and Thornham Mission Community. Kirsten gave so much of herself to us and was ‘sent’ by us to pursue her vocation as a Priest in the Church of God. What a blessing the Stotts have been to us and will continue to be to whichever church community they belong.

Kirsten also invited me to preach at her first Mass, a great honour indeed, and it was wonderful to see so many of her sending church family at St Luke’s Heywood supporting her too. The Gospel reading of the day from St Mark about the daughter of Jairus and the ‘haemorrhaging woman’ didn’t immediately fill me with joy but after reading a poem called “The Bleeding Woman” by Marydean, an American poet and artist, I realised it is a perfect story that frames the joys, pains and sacred privilege of priesthood.

You can find the poem and other word by Marydean here:

www.marydeandraws.com (look at the Jesus Speaks to Women tab).

This kind of poetry does more for me than any clever theology book can do because it helps me to imagine the lived experience of the person at the centre of the story and takes us right to the heart of the message of Jesus Christ, the message that through his life, death and resurrection we are offered salvation.

The whole point of the mission of Jesus was to recover the personhood of those who had been lost, maligned or marginalised by human conditions, systems and structures. The outworking of his mission was right here in this woman’s need and in her faith.

I think this is a wonderful story, but I struggle with the fact that in Western Christianity this woman is left unnamed. She has become known as the haemorrhaging woman, or as the poem suggests, the bleeding woman. In the Eastern Church however she is known to be Veronica, the same Veronica that extrabiblical tradition has wiping the face of Christ on the road to Calvary, then standing at the foot of cross.

She was so much more than her debilitating and humiliating illness. She was strong and courageous. Reaching out to touch Jesus’ cloak had the potential to expose her shame, yet she had faith, faith that Jesus would help her in some way to regain her dignity, and, she had a name!

By His grace Jesus rehumanised her when her bleeding had rendered her untouchable for so long and it is a single touch that now results in her liberation. It is such an intimate exchange that highlights for us all that intimacy with Christ is ours too.

Veronica was made in the image of God, just as you and I are made in the same way. If we truly believe this then for sure the church should model a community that offers a Christ centred narrative of solidarity with people from all backgrounds and walks of life, particularly those who remain outside.

We all share in the responsibility to create and nurture our church communities. We share in the work of Christ by making a place for everyone, particularly those who have struggled, those who have for whatever reason been nameless, marginalised, those who have felt the indignity of being untouchable. We find the true heart of Jesus in those lives.

We all share it, without exception, it is the Christian vocation for everyone of us. But of course, some have a particular vocation to serve the Church and her people, a vocation that when realised is the most amazing privilege. And that privilege now belongs to Kirsten as a priest in the church of Jesus Christ, a most sacred calling, and what an excellent priest she is.

An excellent priest is not made through their training, though of course that counts, an excellent priest is not better than anyone else, an excellent priest is excellent because they seek to do the will of Him they serve. An excellent priest looks for Christ on the margins of society and in the mess of our lives. And just like Veronica we all realise our vocations as we reach out to touch his cloak with faith and He always notices.

Priests spend a year as Deacon and are forever a Deacon even after priesting. In their diaconal year they start to live out their calling, and perhaps deal with the overwhelming sense of ‘imposter syndrome’ that so many describe as never going away.

Archbishop Stephen Cottrell writes in his book ‘On Priesthood’, “I get irritated when I hear people being asked the difference between a deacon and a priest and saying ‘oh, there’s a few things you can’t do as a deacon which you can as a priest’, thus writing off their whole vocation in one casual sentence.”

He goes on to say “the few things in question are the declaration of Christ’s forgiveness, presidency of the Eucharist; and the announcement of God’s blessing. They are hardly incidental. They are the Gospel itself: absolution, communion and blessing”.

When you put it like this, it is pretty enormous isn’t it? But this is now Kirsten’s vocation, as it is mine and countless others, and it is ours yes because the church has recognised it in us, but most importantly it is ours because Jesus, the love of our lives has chosen us for it. We each reached out gingerly to touch his cloak and he responded.

So let us pray for Kirsten that in her priestly ministry, when she declares Christ’s forgiveness, she remembers Veronica, when she presides at the Eucharist, she remembers Veronica, when she announces God’s blessing, she remembers Veronica. Veronica, the untouchable, Veronica, the one of the margins, Veronica the one willing to risk it all for his healing touch.

And may we all remember the words of the ordination declaration “you cannot bear the weight of your calling in your own strength. Pray therefore that your heart may daily be enlarged”.

Priests can only bear the weight of the utter privilege of the amazing gift bestowed on us with the love and support of those with whom we live and work, so thank you!

Every blessing,

Fr Paul .

 

"Joy to thee oh Queen of Heaven"

 

When I was ordained, an experienced priest advised me that in ordained life in a parish, there would probably be something that I missed from my own spiritual or church tradition that I would need to find elsewhere. They were wise and true words and as it turns out, I missed Mary!

If you have visited the vicarage where I live, you probably will have noticed very obvious signs of my Marian devotion. There is a stone statue of Our Lady outside the front door, a gift from an aunt. There is a figure of her in the window at the bottom of the stairs, something passed onto me by another family member. There is an art deco period ‘flat back’ bust of Our Lady with the infant Jesus in the sitting room. There are quite a number of icons of the Virgin and Child, and to top it all, for my 50th birthday last year, my friend bought me a 1.5m high statue of Our Lady Queen of Heaven which stands next to my desk in my study.

There are those that just think me eccentric, others who have said things like “I just don’t get it”, and others still that find my love of Mary troubling, it is too Catholic! But I am not alone because I also have many friends and colleagues who absolutely get it and are fellow devotees.

n my ‘sending church’, Mary was important, the picture here is of her statue there, where at the end of Sunday Mass we would stand and sing the ‘Angelus’ which is a devotional prayer thanking God for the incarnation and seeking God’s blessing, remembering that it was Mary upon whom God’s grace fell.

If you look at the picture carefully, you will notice that Mary is adorned with a crown, and roses are at her feet. That is because May is traditionally considered to be ‘Mary’s’ month and is a time when those of us who venerate Mary, give particular thanks to God for her and seek her intercession for the world.

The first thing I do when I get out of bed in the morning is pray the Angelus, then I endeavour to pray it at midday and again at 6pm, but from Easter day to Pentecost it is replaced with the ‘Regina Caeli’ or ‘Queen of Heaven’ which is a prayer of great joy recounting the wonder of Easter:

Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
Let us pray.
O God, who have been pleased to gladden the world by the Resurrection of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we pray, that through His Mother, the Virgin Mary, we may receive the joys of everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Set to music, it really is a song of great joy, and when in the past I have sung this in church during Eastertide instead of the Angelus, I have felt sent out with such a spring in my step.

To bust the myth, the veneration of Mary, or Our Lady, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, whatever name you call her, is not the same as worshipping God in the Trinity. It not an issue of worshipping a false idol as is sometimes suggested by those with a more protestant identity. For me, she is venerated because she said yes to God, and through her yes, she bravely helped God’s grace to grow in the world. She bore our Saviour in her womb, she endured the pains of his birth, she brought him up and then supported him in his ministry, she stood at the foot of his cross, bore his broken body when it was taken down and then was witness to his resurrection. She is truly most blessed not only amongst women but amongst the whole of humankind.

My devotion to Mary is not simple to explain, it is visceral and it is necessary, so that priest was right, I have had to find it elsewhere but I realised I didn’t have to look far because as much as I love my statues and icons, as much as I find the spiritual discipline of the Angelus or Regina Caeli useful, it is in my heart that she truly exists and I truly believe that when I seek her help and intercession she responds faithfully.

This May I will recite the Regina Caeli or Angelus as usually each day, but I will also be praying the Rosary daily too, with particular intentions for peace, but there is always room for more so if you have anything you would like me to pray for, please let me know.

Mary, Queen of Heaven, pray for us. Amen

Every blessing,

Paul.

 

"Were you there?"

 

The end of my training for priesthood helpfully coincided with the pandemic which meant that our Easter School, which was a big deal and was supposed to be a week away completely immersed in the mystery of Holy Week, was conducted entirely via Zoom. To be honest, as much as I understood that it had to be done this way, and was hugely grateful for all the hard work by college staff to make it as special as it could be, I was gutted.

It may seem silly, self-absorbed even, that I felt bereft of a ‘proper’ Easter School, but it had been something we had been working towards since day one of our training and it felt like a rite of passage had been watered down. As it was, the teaching sessions worked out okay and the worship throughout the week was faithful too, but as we neared Good Friday, I really felt like we were being robbed.

Many of us were given things to do during the various acts of worship and prayer offices, and I was asked to sing at some services; one of which was the Good Friday Liturgy, at which I was to sing ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord’. I was to sing it unaccompanied from the stillness of my study into the homes of fellow ordinands and the college staff, you might think it less nerve-racking but it was quite the opposite!

I rehearsed several times and was happy with how it sounded, just another ‘performance’, nerves aside, all was well. On the day however, I was hit by a huge wave of emotion, in fact it was a visceral feeling throughout my body as I sang the song. The hairs on my neck and arms stood on end when I sang the line that repeats in every verse “Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble”.

In that line is the reality of my simple faith, sometimes it causes me to tremble! But that trembling doesn’t come from a place of fear, rather it comes out of the mystery and sheer ‘awesomeness’ of what Christ did for us and is for us.

The song is widely understood to be an ‘African American Spiritual’, probably sung by those enslaved and working on the cotton plantations and I am profoundly struck by the faith of those people who were dealt the most heinous hand. They may well have forsaken a faith in God; how could God allow this inequality, this barbarism? But they did not, instead as they worked, they sang, literally worshipping as they worked, singing of their Saviour, the one who knew their suffering and hardship, the one who knew because in his nailing to the tree, he comes alongside all who suffer.

But I suspect they sang it also because of the promise it offers, “were you there when God raised him from the tomb?” it goes. And didn’t they need the hope of that promise, the promise that after the nailing to the tree comes the rest of the tomb and from that rest comes the new life; the promise that is for everyone.

Jesus is with us all when we suffer, and not from a distance but right there on the spot. Our wounds are his wounds, our pain his pain and our sorrow his sorrow. But as the song reminds us there is hope, and out of the bleakness comes new life. This is the promise of Easter.

This African American Spiritual has been such a blessing to me since that Good Friday when I stood alone in my study and sang it, and the truth is that I was not alone, there were of course others in Zoom space, but I was not alone, because with Him I never am!

May we all have a blessed Eastertide, and may the mystery and awesomeness of the Lord that causes us to tremble, tremble, tremble, ever be our strength and our hope.

Paul

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

Were you there when God raised him from the tomb? Were you there when God raised him from the tomb? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?

(first published in William Eleazar Barton's 1899 Old Plantation Hymns)

(https://www.classical-music.com/articles/were-you-there-when-they-crucified-my-lord-lyrics)

Get in Touch

St James' Church East Crompton
St James Street
Shaw
Oldham OL2 7TD

St Saviour's Church
Buckstones Road
Shaw
Oldham OL2 8DF

Secretary: Mr Trevor Dunkerley
Telephone: 01706 843682

Sunday Worship

Image
Image

Our Mission

We aim to have Jesus at the heart of everything we do, not only in church as we worship, but in our daily lives, work places, schools and homes.

Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"