I've been reading Thomas Keneally's The Office of Innocence. It's a great novel, which says some very honest things about the illusions and fantasies of being in ministry. One phrase from the conclusion stood out: the main character is said to be "depending on the spaciousness of Christ". It's a beautiful phrase that rang so many bells for me. I suspect that Christ is more spacious than we give often think. But to depend on that spaciousness is to know that we are on the edge of ordinary religiosity. This is not a safe place ...
Prayers for Evensong
The BBC were at the Cathedral yesterday, recording our Choral Evensong . I wrote some new prayers for the occasion, which I share here: In the evening of the day, we come to you, O God, bringing those we have met, for your blessing, our hurts for your healing, our sins for your forgiveness, our labours as our offering and our lives as our worship; we come to you through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who became like us, that we might become like him. Amen. Lord Jesus, you call us into your church; help us to leave behind the things we cling to, coax us with the treasure of heaven, and in the age to come, when the first will be last and the last will be first, allow us simply to be found within your Kingdom, and to feast at your table, where there is abundant life for all your world, for with you all things are possible, and in your name we pray. Amen. God of all hope, may the light of your justice search out the darkness of our world; may the power of your love banish al...
Comments