You shall be called the priests of the LORD, men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God. (Isaiah 61: 6a)

HIS IS my third Chrism Mass homily. In previous years I have used this sermon to give an idea of where we are going on our voyage together in the Good Ship Ebbsfleet - which we trust is a lifeboat, albeit a lifeboat not yet fully lowered into the waves. This year I have contributed a long article to April's New Directions instead. Another reason for reticence now is that I shall have chance to speak again to you all at the Ebbsfleet Festival of Faith on 10th May at Bristol Cathedral. More to the point, I think, is that we are hitting quite a bit of sea mist as the end of the original financial provisions next February comes towards us and, behind that, in freezing fog, are campaigns for women bishops, and even, I am told, against flying bishops. As if… In mist and fog it's important to sail slowly, to make yourself as visible as possible - by wearing brightly coloured vestments, perhaps - and to keep your eyes on the sea lanes ahead, watching out especially for enormous ferries coming in the opposite direction which, not knowing quite where they are going, can crush smaller vessels.

The other morning I was very struck by a passage in the Office of Readings (Tuesday Lent: Week 5). It was a sermon of Pope Leo on the Passion, or, to be more exact, a prayer in the middle of his eighth sermon on the Passion:

Lord, you drew all things to yourself
so that all nations everywhere in their dedication to you
might celebrate in a full, clear sacramental rite
what was done only in the Jewish temple and in signs and shadows.
Now the order of the levites is more glorious,
the dignity of the elders more exalted,
and the anointing of the priests more holy:
for your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces.

We are very familiar nowadays with the idea of the royal priesthood of the People of God, both from the much-used passage from 1 Peter:

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. (1 Peter 2:9a)

and from today's first reading:

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. (Revelation 1:5b)

We understand clearly, I know, that baptism - the beginning of our life in Christ - and confirmation - its sealing by a further out-pouring of the gifts of the Spirit - are the fundamental mandate for Christian ministry, just as the Eucharist is food for the missionary journey which we are all called to undertake. For it belongs as much to the laity as to the clergy to

proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. (1 Peter 2:9b)

Pope Leo's prayer itself includes the notion of the royal priesthood of the laity:

Lord, you drew all things to yourself
so that all nations everywhere in their dedication to you
might celebrate in a full, clear sacramental rite ...

One can but speculate but I suspect that at the back of Leo's mind as he wrote that was one of the favourite texts of the fathers - not to mention Sir F A G Ouseley and Dom Cipriano Vagaggini or whoever dominated the composition of the third Roman Eucharistic Prayer:

From the rising of the sun to its setting
my name will be great among the nations,
and in every place incense will be offered to my name,
and a pure offering. (Malachi 1:11)

The vision is of universal worship, under the reign of God: mass offered for all peoples and by all peoples in one communion and fellowship. And it's the task of the royal priesthood of the People of God, under God, to work for and bring about that vision of universal worship. The Gospel must be preached and the unity of the Church must be discerned, not by plodding on in ever more divisive ways in the hope of eventual convergence, but by tracing our way back to where we first got lost. This means patiently reconnecting stranded individuals, as we are trying to do with the Ebbsfleet Fellowship Groups, and then taking our little caravan back towards the main road, the road of Catholic Christianity - the great Church of the West. There we shall join a bigger caravan, in search of the united Church of East and West, the Church of Pope St Leo the Great and the Church of St Gregory the Great, the patron of the See of Ebbsfleet.

I have been thinking how best we can construct our caravan. Bishop John used to talk about centres of excellence - and that I certainly endorse as an aim. My own emphasis is on each congregation being as fully as it can an expression of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Every church being a little Benedictine abbey, a city set on a hill, a lamp on a lampstand.

Not every church can manage every facet of the Catholic life but there is something wrong with a community which celebrates only a few of the sacraments, knows about noise but not silence, splendour but not simplicity, participation but not contemplation.And, painfully, there is something wrong with a community which does not express the diversity of people - men as well as women, single people as well as the married, children as well as the old, the wise as well as the simple, black as well as white, rich as well as poor, those with special needs as well as the very able. You cannot help but specialise but it would be good if every parish priest and PCC asked themselves 'what are we not so good at in our church?' I know of parishes which have introduced a little recorded music as people come in: 'we can't sing the Allegri Miserere here but let's listen to it!' Other parishes, with few young marrieds and children, might tackle a new project of children's work - an after-school club. Others have outreach services or youth masses: why let the Evangelicals have the best tunes? I have been to a splendid Youth Mass in Longford this year - with computer riffs as the accompaniment - and a Rock Mass in Reading with a full-scale band of cool Christians. Every congregation, being as fully as it can, an expression of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, a little Benedictine abbey, a city set on a hill, a lamp on a lampstand.

But St Leo goes beyond the royal priesthood of the people of God - as we do in this Mass of Chrism - to focus on the specific role of the ordained ministry. He contrasts the

full, clear sacramental rite

with

what was done only in the Jewish temple and in signs and shadows.

It's an earlier version of Aquinas'

Types and shadows have their ending
for the newer rite is here.

Leo exultantly concludes

Now the order of the levites is more glorious,
the dignity of the elders more exalted,
and the anointing of the priests more holy:
for your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces.

By 'levites' he means deacons, by 'elders' he means 'presbyters' or 'priests' and by 'priests' he means 'bishops'.

Like Pope Leo, let us meditate on the glory and dignity of Holy Orders and on the holiness of our anointed task. I say this, my brothers, not to make you feel in any way superior: St Paul's words in the Epistle to the Romans are a continual reminder:

I say to every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think (Romans 12:3)

Each of us should be well-practised in - and continue to practise - separating out the office of bishop, priest and deacon from who we ourselves are, miserable sinners who fall short every bit as much as anyone else.

One of my favourite stories is the story of the Principal of Cuddesdon - perhaps it was Edward Knapp-Fisher, who died recently - who said to his new intake of ordinands, 'Don't think you're anyone special because you are hoping to be ordained. It's just that God couldn't find any other way of saving your immortal souls'. When I meet laity whose piety and sheer goodness far exceed mine - and it happens disturbingly frequently - I remember that story. My vocation to ordained ministry - like yours - is essentially God's rescue plan: extra protection for a sheep that is extra likely to stray far from the fold.

Today is a day for renewal as bishops, priests and deacons: a renewal of promises and a renewal of priestly life. The support of the laity in such large numbers is an indication of what they think of Holy Orders and what they think of the clergy. Coming to the Chrism Mass, they are coming not only to support you but to thank you for all you do for them - and with them - day by day and week by week. You are 'their' priest, warts and all, and, even if they get impatient with you, they love you. I hear tributes all the time to what you do - every time I circumnavigate the inevitable - and, with my diet, inedible - sausage rolls. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of complaints I have received - and these tend to be about which way you face the altar or which altar you use, the Baroque special behind the screen or the card-table by the pulpit.

Today is an opportunity once more to resolve to make the daily mass a joy and a delight rather than a burden. For that to happen we need prayer and preparation but we also need to work on our context and surroundings. It's not always possible to make a side chapel into a beautiful and warm environment. But if it isn't a place of stillness and loveliness, we shall eventually find ourselves alone there. And if we're alone there too often, we too shall probably stop going.

Today is an opportunity to commit ourselves once more to the recitation of the Divine Office, whether alone or in groups. And if parish groups gathering for the Office don't really work, why shouldn't the clergy support each other in saying the Office? The Ebbsfleet Clergy Retreat at Walsingham was a time of real refreshment and renewal not least because of the Office celebrated in common. What is possible in Walsingham - in this respect at least - is possible in Wolverhampton or Plymouth. Myself, I have ecumenical Morning Prayer with the local Vicar every Friday and, though it isn't the rite I use during the rest of the week, I have come to value the occasion greatly. Incidentally I am hoping to produce a lectionary soon so that those who use Common Worship: Daily Prayer will nonetheless be able to share fully in the psalms and readings of the Western Office.

Today is a chance to examine our rule of life - SSC or whatever - and see if we can joyfully embrace a bit more of it or indeed embrace it a bit more joyfully. It's because the

cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces,

as Leo says, that

the order of the levites is more glorious,
the dignity of the elders more exalted,
and the anointing of the priests more holy

Finally, and in summary, here are some words from a Maundy Thursday letter, written by the present Pope. In Dominicae Coenae written nearly a quarter of a century ago (1980) the Holy Father has this to say:

Through our ordination - the celebration of which is linked to the holy Mass from the very first liturgical evidence - we are united in a singular and exceptional way to the Eucharist. In a certain way we derive from it and exist for it. We are also, and in a special way, responsible for it - each priest in his own community and each bishop by virtue of the care of all the communities entrusted to him, on the basis of 'the care of all the churches' that St Paul speaks of. Thus we bishops and priests are entrusted with the great 'mystery of Faith,' and while it is also given to the whole People of God, to all believers in Christ, yet to us has been entrusted the Eucharist also 'for' others, who expect from us a particular witness of veneration and love towards this sacrament, so that they too may be able to be built up and vivified 'to offer spiritual sacrifices.'

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet
April 10th 2003

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
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