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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...
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Easter Vestry

The Vestry, who look after SMR's investments, meet on the Tuesday after Easter. Normally, the Vestry meetings are like any other committee meeting. But the Easter Vestry is different - much more funny. I'm probably breaking the official secrets act (or SMR's equivalent) by blogging about this, but what the heck ... We all went up to a special room in the rafters of the church, only ever used for the Vestry at their Easter meeting. The Vestrymen, some of whom are women, sit in strict order of seniority. Vestrymen who have been churchwardens are Senior Vestrymen, and consequently out-rank those who have not been churchwarden. I was done up in a certain amount of finery - cassock, gown and hood (which didn't match, not that anyone noticed!). At a small table to one end of the room sits the current churchwarden, with the vicar (or priest in charge) on her left and the Vestry Clerk on her right. The churchwarden then turns over an hour glass and the Vestry Clerk reads...
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So Where Now? After the Synod's 'No'

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It’s a dark evening for the Church of England.  The Measure to allow the ordination of women as bishops failed at the General Synod by six votes in the house of laity.  The Church remains a place where discrimination on the grounds of gender is permitted.  How can we seriously proclaim a God who loves all people, when we qualify how different groups of people are to be treated?  How can we expect people to take seriously the discussion tomorrow about the Living Wage when we institutionalize treating some people as less than others.  This is a night of sorrow, of grief and of anger. Earlier this evening, leading evening prayer at the Cathedral I prayed for the Synod (then in the last throws of the debate) that the Holy Spirit would guide them.  I can’t honestly say that I believe that the result was the will of God.  But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things to learn. First of all, buried in the agony there is in fa...
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