Today there are three Readers in Christ Church. So we are left with the question "What is the collective noun for Readers?" A Library? A sentence? A paragraph? - my favourite so far, and suggestions?
The fact that we have one more means that Margaret has finally been licensed. Yesterday we were at the Cathedral for the Reader's Day, which starts with the licensing. Is was a brilliant service, and Bishop Laurie (Bradwell episcopal area) preached a very good sermon. As Reader Ministry is about preaching and teaching he would have to. He started by saying that he wasn't qualified to be a Reader - because Readers have one foot in the world, and can help the clergy stay down to earth. "Keeping it real" as the younger generation might say. The clergy on the other hand are so busy with church business that they have no time to get 'out and about'.
His sermon was though provoking. The main thought that it provoked, amongst the splendour that is the C of E at its ceremonial best, was:
"If Readers are supposed to be out there in the world, why is it that the very first thing that happens in their official ministry is to make them look as much like clergy as at all possible?"
Congratulation Margaret, and welcome to the Reader ministry at Christ Church, we are all very please, and give thanks to God that you are licensed to work with us at Christ Church.
The next part of Reader's Day was Robin, telling us all the inside story of the Lambeth Conference. He is a General Synod representative, and a very good presenter. One image in particular stuck in my mind. A picture of a bridge that once spanned a river. Now after the floods the river takes a different path, and the bridge is irrelevant, but still a good fully functional bridge. The church he suggested is like that bridge - fully functional, but now things have moved and the church is irrelevant.
For a bridge in the wrong place there is only one remedy - demolition and rebuilding. What is the remedy for a church in the wrong place?
These are the two questions I am left with from yesterday.
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