You are God's saints…he loves you - Colossians 3

I shall not call you servants any more…... I call you friends - John 15

Two snippets from the readings chosen for this Lay Congress.

NE OF THE REASONS for calling a Lay Congress and having a Lay Council is to make sure that we never again fall into the temptation of having an over-clerical church. You know how it used to be: those getting ordained were described as 'going into the Church'. Everything of any importance was decided by the clergy. The laity, in the well-known phrase, had to 'pay-up and shut-up'.

It's not only the clergy who are called to be God's saints.

Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, the archbishop of Mexico City, in a pastoral letter this week, said that the 'great in the Church are not the priests but the saints'. It is all of us, as baptised Christians, who are called to be God's saints. It is all of us, as baptised Christians, who Jesus calls 'not servants but friends'.

There are important differences of usage with regard to the word 'saint' and I think much the same can be said about the words 'servant' and 'friend'.

In New Testament understanding - and in modern Evangelical use - the saints are those who have confessed their faith in Jesus Christ and been baptised in his name. In this sense all of us here, I am sure, are already saints. In Catholic use - particularly since baptism of all and sundry became established - 'saints' are those who have passed to their heavenly reward and, amongst them are a very large company of people whose heroic saintliness has been publicly recognised by the Church. There will be a lot of those here today but, like the angels, they will be remaining invisible.

I like to think that all of us are living a life in which God has already declared us his saints but that, until we have completed the journey, we have not yet fulfilled our promise - or, rather, God's promise to us. We are already saints but we are also saints-in-the-making.

We can do a similar job on the words 'servant' and 'friend'. Jesus tells the apostles that they are no longer 'servants' but 'friends'. That is an indication of how God regards us but, in our own lives, we have to undertake a journey from being servants to becoming friends. 'Almighty God whose service is perfect freedom'. From service to liberty. From service to friendship.

Back to the Cardinal Archbishop of Mexico: the 'great in the Church are not the priests but the saints'. We, in this Lay Congress, need to be very sure that the Church doesn't belong to the priests for we - God's holy people - are the Church. We are already 'great in the Church' because we are already God's saints. We are gradually becoming 'great in the Church' by walking the way of the cross and learning fully how to become the saints we already are.

Today we are meeting for a Lay Congress. It is an important sign of the rôle of the laity in the Church. You are not excluded - as you once were. But, unlike the laity of the General Synod, you represent parishes. Unlike the laity of the General Synod, you are not being asked to decide doctrinal matters by majority vote. And, unlike the laity of the General Synod, and despite a diversity of opinions and views, you are united in all the fundamentals of the Faith - Scripture, Creeds, Orders and Sacraments. But, most of all, you are not a gathering of lay people but a congregation of the saints and a meeting together of friends.

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet
All Saints, Clifton, Bristol, September 28th 2002

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
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