Ad Clerum March 2006
Dear Colleagues,
Some people still talk about ‘Freudian slips’, and for some reason I have spent every day since September 8th last year to varying degrees in the shadow of an illness which I’ve probably been misspelling! I won’t go into the vagaries of its Greek origin, but, seriously, I now fully and overwhelmingly realize that it is leukaemia. Having got that out of the way, I want to try not to be a bore about it all, and gently settle into as normal an existence as I can. Daily prayer for you continues to be sustaining, leaving a mark that will never go away. Everything is becoming much easier as each day goes by. Much of the difficulty is caused by having been out of the routine for so long. It’s not that I can’t do things. It’s because I’m not used to it.
We’re still on track for the Chrism Eucharist on Maundy Thursday at 11.00 a.m. in the Cathedral. Bishop Trevor will be present as well. I have asked one of the nurses in the Haematology Unit at the Q.A. to bring up the oil for the anointing of the sick and the dying. Bishop Keith will be presiding at the Regional Chrism Eucharist on Saturday 8th at 11.00 a.m. at St Nicholas’ Guildford.
Then there is the news of the Clergy Day at the Cathedral on Friday 17th November, which will be led by Archbishop Rowan. Please put this date in your diary now. More details anon. We are already making plans for how best to use the time we have together. There will be a mid-day eucharist, I am glad to say. I am inviting all licensed clergy to attend, and to bring with them one layperson from their parish/area of sector ministry.
Looking further ahead, I want to draw your attention to next year’s Diocesan Conference. This time round we are going to Bishop Otter College, Chichester, and the dates are Monday 3rd to Thursday 6th September 2007. I am very much hoping that we shall have Melvyn Bragg among the speakers – you may recall we had him lined up for last year’s Clergy Day, which was cancelled for reasons we all know well, and he is keen to visit us. But we already have Notker Wolf, Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Order, who will bring a creative, global dimension to our deliberations. Other speakers are being approached. Laity will be involved for part of the time, and we hope to have a youth-orientated evening. The theme: Discipleship.
An issue which may have attracted your attention is the widely held prospect of a ‘flu pandemic. Clearly this could have a significant impact on the clergy for pastoral reasons. Along with my staff and thee Social Responsibility Team, I am keeping a close eye on developments, and liaising with the relevant civic and welfare authorities about planning appropriate responses.
As Holy Week approaches, our human fragility keeps coming to the fore. I do not think it is possible to pass by Calvary without being aware of our own vulnerability, however hard it is for us sometimes to face up to it. And my own thoughts on the Transfiguration keep pointing me to the cross. A Roman Catholic biblical scholar, John Paul Heil, has written a fascinating study of the Transfiguration narratives in their intricate variety and in the wider context of each gospel. His constant theme is to point out how the mountain-top experience for each of the three disciples is a ‘pivot’, that both draws them back to ‘listen to’ Christ’s previous teaching, and unique events like his baptism, and the parallel ‘voice’, this time not from the ‘cloud’, but from heaven itself, and at the same time pushes them forward to Christ’s needful suffering and death, resurrection and ascension. This means putting ourselves in the position of going back, yet again, and attending to the voice of Jesus, whether in his teaching, his miracles, his relationships with people; and being ready to go forward with him to Jerusalem, towards the central events of our salvation, without thinking that we have it all neatly sown up in advance.
It’s strange how we’ve not seen Transfiguration in those ‘pivotal’ terms. But it’s a description that fits so well, both with the biblical narratives and with our lives of faith. Dorothy Lee, another modern New Testament scholar, summarizes this truth in the following terms: ‘The one who is transfigured on the mountain is the one who is disfigured by anguish, pain and death on the cross.’ This is a message of hope – not of wallowing in the treacle of our religious existences.
A Happy Easter to you all
With every blessing
+ Kenneth
