HIS IS MY eighth Chrism Mass sermon and to make sure I am not repeating myself endlessly, I thought I might look through and see what topics I have covered. All of these topics arise from this particular occasion, the Chrism Mass, when we bishops, priests and deacons renew our commitment as ministers of the mysteries of the altar and re-tool ourselves with the sacred oils, oils of consecration and comfort, oils of healing and sealing. This year I am giving myself a new topic. Following last year's exploration of Sacramentum Caritatis, the Eucharist, I want to focus on Baptism and Confirmation, not on the baptized but on the work of Christian initiation: after all two of the three oils - the oil of exorcism and the perfume of chrism - are used mostly in the rites of Baptism and Confirmation.

Many of you will have heard me say that the problem with our emphasis on 'mission and evangelism' - a phrase we hear everywhere - is that it concentrates on recruiting new Christians - persuading people to come to Church - without a deep engagement with Christian formation, teaching people the faith. If the wineskins have perished, there's little point in pouring new wine into them. Over forty years ago, when Billy Graham came to Earl's Court, there were many thousands who were converted to Christ amidst the excitement of those great events only to find that, when they turned up at the local church, things were very different indeed. The same old musty hymns and musty services as when they went to church last time. New wine in old skins.

In his great commission - the closing words of St Matthew's Gospel (and this is the Year of Matthew) - the Lord said:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age. (28:19-20)

Recently I have found myself noticing - and saying - that the Lord did not say 'Go therefore and recruit new members', nor even here, as he says in the parable of the marriage feast a few chapters earlier 'go therefore to the streets and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find' (22:9). What he says is 'make disciples'. Mission: yes. But not so much evangelism as discipling. Helping people to be disciples of the Master. Catechesis. Education. Formation.

You can persuade people from the streets to come along to the marriage feast, but this is not the great commission. They may even be drawn further in by the beauty of the Mass, its glory and its mystery, and this is all to the good, but it is not the great commission. The great commission - as the teaching orders of the Church have always known and the schools and universities of our country used to know - is the work of education in the Christian Faith, the making of disciples.

On the Second Sunday of the Year, I was invited outside the district to preside and preach at Ruislip, at services marking the beginning of the rites of initiation. Some thirty people from that parish - children, young people, adults - were setting out on the journey, a journey leading to Easter and the sacraments of initiation. There were no gimmicks and whistles: four masses on a Sunday - including two full-size parish masses, one fairly trad. and the other more informal - had been built up over the years from this programme of initiation. We were in the successful suburbs and not everything works as well as that elsewhere, but here was a parish that took the work of Christian discipling seriously, and the results were plain to see. I couldn't recall being invited, in the Ebbsfleet district, to preside over such a liturgy and it is not very often that I find myself confirming large numbers from any one parish. How many of our parishes - I wonder - were using the Year A Lent readings this year as the signposts for the sacraments of initiation that they are designed to be?

But on the other side of the balance sheet, I shall be busy with confirmations between Easter and the summer. Not only that but when I asked the Council of Priests what their practice was with regard to Baptism and Confirmation preparation, I was very encouraged by the response and working parties of the Ebbsfleet Formation Council are hard at work looking at what resources there are, electronic and otherwise, for catechesis. I am expecting reports by Pentecost this year so that we can have a good run-up to next year's rites of initiation.

The issue is not just what should be taught, but how it is taught. However good the curriculum, teaching methods are crucial. Another sign of encouragement has been the third annual Ebbsfleet Parish Evangelism Weekend, held this year at Ascot Priory. The number of parishes involved was disappointing - only 13 - not a very high response to a free and highly enjoyable weekend. And yet the 18 lay participants were a wonderful lot, very committed and eager to become more involved.

One of the priests referred to them as Ebbsfleet Parish Evangelists - a happy mistake which gave some of them chance to rethink their possibilities. There was the young woman working only four days a week to free up a day for church work. There was the church treasurer who wanted to explore lay ministry. There were those who went away with resources, eager to try them out in the parish. Everyone went away with fresh ideas and a resolve to get involved in catechesis and formation.

Soon we shall be beginning 'the Pauline Year'. Called by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, this Year of Paul will run from June 28, 2008, to June 29, 2009, and will commemorate the second millennium of the birth of St Paul. You will notice that it is starting and finishing with the Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul, traditionally ordination-time in the Church of England. I wonder if we can summon up the energy to make this Year of Paul a Year of Teaching. I am pleased to say that I have already been asked to an SSC Chapter and given as a topic 'anything to do with St Paul'.

My hunch is that, though Paul was a great evangelist, founding churches throughout Asia Minor, his real strength was his ability as a theologian and teacher. He not only spread the Good News but taught people to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Looking ahead to later in the year, there will be a fresh opportunity to think out what to do about next season's baptisms and confirmations. I hope every priest and every parish will have a hard look at what resources are on offer - watch this space - and how the teaching and formation is best delivered. Many parishes have qualified teachers - and some of our brother priests are qualified teachers. There should be lots of sharing of good practice, ideas, effective resources. I am hoping that our reports from the Ebbsfleet Formation Council will be on the website by the summer, in time for the Year of Paul, the Year of Teaching.

I hope too that priests and parishes will look again at three very important aspects of Baptism and Confirmation policy. One is the whole question of pre-evangelism, explorers' groups, Alpha and the rest. Some of the parishes which have tried Alpha have had extraordinarily good results. Explorers' and Alpha Groups are not catechetics. They don't teach the Christian Faith. They introduce people to Jesus Christ and to the possibilities of a living Faith. When there is some engagement, then the work of catechetics begins. It doesn't have to be Alpha. Some of the Catholic CaFE resources work just as well. It is important to involve as many of the congregation as possible: in fact, the first three Alpha courses - the first year - could profitably be three groups drawn from the congregation. Many people's rather conventional and sterile faith has been brought to life by exactly this process. And you sometimes have to work through the pain barrier of a not very well attended second or third course to get to the point where new people are drawn in: not least Baptism families, wedding couples, the bereaved.

A second aspect of Baptism and Confirmation policy is what you require of those who come forward. I know from my own experience - as a curate in two very different parishes - that neither a discriminating policy ('come to Church for a year or come to a course for six months') nor an indiscriminate policy ('Baptism by hosepipe') works. What to my sure and certain knowledge works is a policy which allows people to find a place at their own level in the life of the Church, perhaps, to begin with at least, at an occasional non-eucharistic service, perhaps at a monthly Family Mass, at which similar baptisms also take place. A non-eucharistic service with Baptism in it is a proper liturgy: it is the Liturgy of the Word, however informal, followed by the Liturgy of Baptism, and we should make much more use of this.

A third aspect that we need to look at (and of course you may think of more aspects too) is how to enmesh a programme of catechetics with the liturgical life of the Church, and in particular the Year A Lent lectionary. The Church of England has come up with Rites on the Way which includes resources for presenting the Four Texts - Jesus' summary of the Law, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed and the Beatitudes - to new disciples. This mirrors some of what is provided in the Roman Catholic Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. My hunch is that most parishes have not bothered with Rites on the Way because it is 'too C of E' nor with RCIA because it is 'too Roman Catholic' and have ended up maintaining the old pattern of a dozen Confirmation classes, out of sight of the congregation, in the Vicar's sitting room. I notice that the success of Ruislip, which I mentioned earlier, is not least that it has taken seriously the liturgical marking of the journey towards Baptism and Confirmation. And I could mention one or two of our own parishes which have done the same.

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This has been a different sort of Chrism Mass sermon, a different topic from the previous seven, and practical and pastoral rather than theological. I normally conclude - though last year I started - with a 'State of the Union' message. The 'State of the Union' in not good: a majority of Anglican bishops, including me, plan to be at Lambeth this year, but we shall represent a minority of Anglicans. Huge numbers of black African Christians will be underrepresented, as whole Provinces stay away. Small numbers of white North American Christians, because of the size of their dioceses, will be overrepresented. How all this - the battles between the conservatives and the liberals - plays out in terms of the Church of England in the next ten to twenty years is anybody's guess. Meanwhile the Manchester Group report, I understand, is written. We shall soon know what the House of Bishops and the General Synod think of its proposals for providing for us traditionalist Anglo-Catholics. I have always said that it will come up with provisions which are thought adequate by some people and not by others. At the moment the message is 'Watch and Pray'.

I am inviting you all, to take part in a Day of Prayer on Monday 19th May, the day the Bishops meet to begin to consider Manchester. It is a co-incidence, I promise, (though, in view of our warnings about collapsing ecclesiology, an apt one) that Saint Dunstan has associations with the Blind. More to the point, Dunstan (who lived in the tenth century) was Abbot Glastonbury, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury - three of which offices are highly relevant to us in the See of Ebbsfleet.

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In the new Times & Seasons book in the Common Worship Series, the Church of England has written prayers for the reception of Holy Oils in parish churches at the beginning of the liturgy on the evening of Maundy Thursday. The prayers are introduced with the following words:

On this most holy night we enter into the three days of the celebration of our Lord's paschal victory, his death and resurrection. Those of our community who are to be baptized this Eastertide will be made one with Christ, dying to sin and rising to newness of life in him. As we begin, therefore, we receive from our bishop N, the holy oils blessed and set apart for the sacramental life of our parish. Time & Seasons p292

This is a well-phrased reminder to us all - and to those not present at the Chrism Mass - that the real business begins on Maundy Thursday night, that the real business is the Easter Triduum and that what we are doing here and now is getting ready for that.

Watch and Pray

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
Bishop's House, Dry Sandford, Abingdon, OXON OX13 6JP
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