Therefore, there will be times in our Christian life –
particularly at its beginnings – which will be like falling in love. But
in order for our Christian life to deepen and mature we have to land.
It is in those times of trial, hardship and challenge – times like these
- that this happens.
I am delighted and humbled to be the 98th
Archbishop of York, but I know I begin my ministry at such a time of
hardship and challenge. Many of the familiarities of our life are being
stripped away and this, of course, affects the church as well. Many,
many people in our diocese and our nation have not been able to gather
for worship, not received the comfort of the sacraments, have had to
have weddings, baptisms, confirmations and ordinations postponed; even
funerals have been affected and sometimes bereaved families have had to
sit in separation from each other or not even be able to attend the
funeral at all. All this is enormously hard and the church itself has
had to make painfully difficult decisions about how we order our life
and respond to both the coronavirus itself and the regulations imposed
by government. We have not always got it right. But I would like to make
my first act as president of this Synod to thank the bishops
archdeacons, Peter Warry, the diocesan secretary and his staff at the
Diocesan Offices, and the clergy and people of this great diocese for
their resilience and creativity in sustaining the life of the church in
these most difficult circumstances, and particularly for the hundreds
and hundreds of initiatives, large and small, where the church has
reached out to its local community to alleviate suffering, be alongside
people in isolation, and offer the healing medicine of the gospel.
But
I also want to say, that painful and challenging though these times
are, this is also an invitation for us to deepen our faith. For when all
the familiarities of our life and worship are stripped away, what we
are left with is Christ, and only Christ.
As some of you know I am
heading up a process for the Church of England, discerning vision and
strategy for the next 10 years. At some point I hope to share this with
you more fully. However, I note that at the heart of this vision and
strategy are two phrases which I believe are very relevant for where we
are at the moment as a diocese and as a national church: we believe God
is calling us to be a Christ centred and Jesus shaped church. On the one
hand, this is a perfectly obvious and unsurprising thing to be saying;
on the other, it is an invitation to a radical re-aligning of our life
around that which is most basic to our vocation: the call to be a Christ
centred church, is the call to a renewal of prayer and worship; a
declaration that both the highest doctrine of the Church and the most
basic way of understanding the Church is that we are the women and men
whose lives have been so impacted by the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ that we are formed into a community around him, and it is
his life, his values, his teaching that are the pulse and yardstick of
our lives. Therefore – the second phrase at the heart of the vision – we
are called to be Jesus shaped. This is actually a phrase that is widely
used around the Anglican Communion and it flows from what are known as
the five marks of mission, that is to –
To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
To respond to human need by loving service
To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge
violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
Or in their more popular and memorable form: to tell, teach, tend, transform and treasure.
But
these five marks of mission are not just a description of the witness
and ministry of every Christian community, they can also be a descriptor
of the Christian life itself, the life of missionary discipleship that
each of us is called to.
We already have a strategy in the York
diocese, usually summed up in the three words reach, grow, sustain. In
the few weeks that I have been your Archbishop I have been working with
my colleagues in the York Diocesan Leadership Team to think how we can
reboot and re-express this strategy, mindful that the circumstances in
which we now minister, and the very focused challenges we face, not
least financial challenges, require us to look at this afresh. I don’t
imagine the strategy will change much. We still need to reach. We still
need to grow. And we most certainly need to find sustainable ways of
maintaining our life and mission. But we may need to develop our
strategic thinking and we are certainly going to have to face some hard
questions about resourcing. We face a huge financial deficit. It would
be irresponsible for me as your bishop and for us as a Synod if we did
not face up to this with vigorous Yorkshire candour and find ways
forward, however tough.
We are committed to addressing these
questions in the next few months and I very much hope we will be
returning to this Synod early next year with some specific proposals
about our vision and the strategic priorities and other decisions that
flow from it. Synod, I do ask for your prayers as we go about this work.
We have some important decisions ahead of us.
In my own thinking
about this, alongside the vision and strategic priorities the Church of
England is discerning, I have been deeply moved by some of the things I
have I have observed God doing here in the York diocese, and especially
the Multiply and Mustard Seed projects. These tiny new beginnings and
new ministries are not only sources of hope, they may also provide
initiative and impetus for the other things we need to do. It would be
wrong to say too much more at the moment, since we are still at the
stage of renewing our vision and strategy is a priority, but I do want
to affirm as a first principle my belief that we must continue to be the
Church for every community in this diocese, even if the shape and
ordering of ministry changes. This commitment is fundamental.
Furthermore, in saying this, we also acknowledge a particular commitment
and therefore a priority of resources, for our poorest communities and
those facing the greatest need. This will require an expansive vision
and a generous heart. This can only come about by the spiritual renewal
whereby we draw close to Christ and learn from him, recognising that the
Church is his not ours, his beloved bride which he is committed to and
loves. Each day God asks us to make a fresh commitment to follow Jesus,
to learn from him, and to find the ways of using our time, at energy and
resources for the building of his kingdom here. This is the way of
love, the way we see in Jesus, who loved us and gave himself for us.
Finally,
all my instincts as a minister of the gospel is to want to get stuck in
by getting out and about in local communities, meeting people, getting
to know them and sharing the good news of Christ as best I can. This is
hard to do in these constrained times, and I’m doing the best that I can
on zoom conferences and in whatever actual meetings are safe and
possible. But also, as Archbishop of York, I have responsibilities for
the northern province and for the nation that mean I cannot be bishop to
the diocese of York in the same way that I have been bishop to other
dioceses. That is why I am delegating and sharing episcopal
responsibilities with my colleagues. This, I hope, will itself be a sign
that ministry is shared and should always be collaborative. But it also
means change for the diocese as you get used to more things being led
by the other bishops. I believe my role will be much more about casting
an expanded vision, reminding us of our core vocation as disciples of
Jesus, and then giving my time and energy to very specific projects and
initiatives within the diocese. Its day-to-day running will be in the
hands of my trusted colleagues.
But do not think this means I will
be any less committed to the diocese than my predecessors – and, I
pray, a great deal more committed than some of them who in the distant
past spent very little time in the diocese at all! But some of my great
heroes in the Christian faith – William Temple, Michael Ramsey, David
Hope, who was my principal at theological college, and my immediate
predecessor John Sentamu – were archbishops of York. I am humbled to be
following in their steps. All I can promise you is that I will give my
best powers of wit, energy and creativity to making Jesus known in this
diocese and in this nation so that the world may believe and Christ’s
kingdom be established. More than ever, our nation needs the stability
that comes from faith in Christ.
And that word stability feels to
me to be an important one for our life together at the moment. It is one
of the three vows of the Benedictine life which, of course, has had
such an influence in shaping the Church and culture of Europe.
Benedict’s rule opens with his clear intention to “establish a school
for the Lord’s service”. In this school of discipleship, we learn how to
navigate our way through the chances and challenges of life by holding
onto Christ and following him, and also, because we have our security in
him, being sent out to do his work.
Stability comes when we order
our lives according to the way of Christ. In the early catechumenates
of the Church this was achieved by receiving and shaping one’s life
around key biblical texts, particularly the Lord’s prayer and the
Beatitudes. With my work in the National church, and here in the York
diocese, I hope that we can begin to look very closely at these texts
and how they shape our lives and deepen our commitment to Christ,
enabling us to joyfully inhabit this troubled world and, by our example,
offer the world the help and indeed the stability which is in Christ.
At
this, my first Synod, I pledge myself to working with you to build
Christian communities that are committed to Christ and therefore able to
maintain their life and fulfil their vocation whatever the constraints,
whatever the challenges and whatever the further suffering and
privation we may have to face.
This is the message we need to bear
to the world: echoing the words of the prophet Habakkuk who declared
his delight in the Lord even though the olive crop fails and the sheep
are lost (see Habakkuk 3.17-18): so, even though we cannot meet as we
would like to; even though there is severe economic hardship; even
though there is suffering and death; and even though we feel that we are
being stretched to the limit of our resources; there is hope, hope that
even in the midst of this pandemic, Christ is with us, bearing as ever
the marks of his passion, which are the signs of his committed love to
us and to the world.
We too will have to bear the scars of love as
we commit ourselves afresh to Christ and to each other, and allow his
Spirit to purge and refine us, so that, even with the tiny mustard seeds
of faith, we may land and be planted and grow and prosper in love.
Sisters
and brothers, let us love one another, that deep committed,
self-forgetful love that we see in Christ. May it be ours. And through
it and because of it, may we bring healing to the world.
archbishopofyork.org