Being a Priest Today
Christopher Cocksworth is Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, having been Director of the Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme. He is the author of a number of books including Evangelical Eucharistic Thought in the Church of England (Cambridge University Press, 1993) and Holy, Holy, Holy: Worshipping the Trinitarian God (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1997). Christopher is married with five children.
Rosalind Brown is a residentiary canon at Durham Cathedral. Prior to this she taught on two ordination training schemes in Salisbury. She was ordained in the United States where she lived for several years and was a member of an Episcopal Religious Community. Rosalind is the author of several prize winning hymns, some of which are published in Sing! New Words for Worship (Sarum College Press, 2004), and of Being a Deacon Today (Canterbury Press, 2005).
Being a Priest Today
Christopher Cocksworth and Rosalind Brown
Second Edition
Copyright information
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Canterbury Press.
Text © Christopher Cocksworth and Rosalind Brown 2002, 2006
First published in 2002 by the Canterbury Press Norwich (a publishing imprint of Hymns Ancient and Modern Limited, a registered charity)
13–17 Long Lane, London
EC1A 9PN
Fourth impression 2004
Second Edition 2006
Second impression 2007
The authors assert their moral rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Authors of this Work
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 1-85311-729-3/978-1-85311-729-9
Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London
Printed and bound in Great Britain by William Clowes, Beccles, Suffolk
Contents
Part 1: The Root of Priestly Life
Part 2: The Shape of Priestly Life
Part 3: The Fruit of Priestly Life
Acknowledgements
Material from Common Worship: The Ordination of Priests, also called Presbyters, copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2005, is reproduced by permission.
‘Madam’, by Micheal O’Siadhail is reproduced from Our Double Time, 1988, by permission of Bloodaxe Books, publishers.
‘The Minister’, ‘The Belfry’, ‘The Bright Field’, ‘Waiting for It’, ‘In Church’, by R. S. Thomas are reproduced by permission of J. M. Dent, publishers.
Unless otherwise indicated, the scripture quotations herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
To all those whom we have helped to prepare for ordained ministry at The Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme Diocese of Salisbury Ordained Local Ministry Scheme and Ridley Hall, Cambridge
Some Introductory Words
It just so happens that the day we are writing this introduction is the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church’s year. This year, the Old Testament reading is from Jeremiah 23. It tells of God’s judgement on the leaders of Israel, who had failed to serve God’s people, and then speaks the promise of God:
Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them. (Jeremiah 23:3–4)
The prophecy goes on to say that the way God will come to his people to lead them in his paths will be through the righteous one, the one who will reign over the people of God, embodying the presence and purposes of God among them.
This is a vision of the Church of Jesus Christ – a people gathered around the saving God, a people among whom God rules as the righteous one who gives himself for the life of the world. And it is a people among whom some are called to serve after the manner of this God, in the pattern of Jesus Christ, to care for God’s people so that they become all that God longs for them to be – a community that bears fruit and multiplies.
The people of God are called to make music for the world. It is a music that sounds freedom in all the corners of the earth. It is the music of Jesus Christ – God’s gift of life for the world. The pastors of God’s people are called to help the Church enthral the world with the sound of Christ. Sometimes they are like the person who sweeps the floor making the place ready for the performance. Other times they are like the restorer, who skilfully repairs the instruments when they have been damaged. All of the time they are like the conductor whose overriding passion is to draw the best sound from each person, and to bring the sounds of each uniquely gifted person into an ordered whole, so that together, in time and in tune, the people of God can play the score of God’s mercy, truth and goodness to a world battered by its own noise but starved of the sound of God.
And this will be the sort of music making where everybody plays, where there is scope for individuality and spontaneity within the rhythm