The ordination as priest of Rev. Santou Beurklian-Carter, curate at St John's Seven Kings, took place this morning at St Mary's Chigwell. Santou was ordained along with Rev. Sharon Guest (Chigwell and Chigwell Team Ministry) and Rev. Young Lee (Walthamstow Team Ministry). Our prayers are with them and all those being ordained in the Chelmsford Diocese today as they enter this new phase of their ministries.
Here are some thoughts on what their ordination means from Nicholas Anderson, Chair of the House of Clergy in Liverpool Diocese:
“Through your ordination into the presbyterate [you] commit yourselves as members of that group of men and women whom we call the ordained ministers of our Church. You will declare before all your willingness to do your best to rise to the great challenges which this way of life will put before you, and through the laying on of hands and the prayer of consecration, the Holy Spirit will take hold of you just as the same Holy Spirit once took hold of the prophets and saints of old enabling you to rise to the challenges which your unique vocation places before you.
As you stand there on Sunday, I would like to invite all to think of you carefully with the eyes of faith.
Through your ordination to the presbyterate, as well as being our friends, our brothers and sisters in faith, you become something more. In the mystery of God’s love, you become a living sign of the presence of Jesus among us in a whole new way. From now on as we look at you with the eyes of faith, we will see something more of the mystery of the Lord’s love for us unfolding in front of our eyes …
What then of you our new priests? To what are you called as witnesses in committing yourselves on Sunday? Of what are you now called to be a living sign? We will hear the answer to all of this in the questions posed to you in The Declarations. We will hear about willing and generous service. We will hear about the faithful proclamation of the faith. We will hear about a ministry of prayer on behalf of the Church and the whole world. We will hear about respect and obedience. We will hear about sincere love, concern for the poor, unassuming authority, self-discipline and holiness. And at the end of The Declarations, we who are there will be asked: “Brothers and sisters, you have heard how great is the charge that these ordinands are ready to undertake, and you have heard their declarations. Is it now your will that they should be ordained?” Our response is a simple, “It is.”
There it is. It is this which your whole life must now be about. This is what you take on this Sunday, this is what God is calling you and empowering you to be and to do – that in every pastoral encounter, people now encounter, in a new and deeper way than was already the case, a living image, a living icon of Jesus the servant.”
This is the charge that St Alcuin made to his monks. It is also of relevance to those being ordained and may be something we could pray for Santou:
“Be an honour to the church, follow Christ’s word, clear in thy task and careful in thy speech. Be thine an open hand, a merry heart, Christ in thy mouth, life that all may know a lover of righteousness and compassion. Let none come to thee and go sad away. Hope of the poor, and solace to the sad, go thou before God’s people to God’s realm, that those who follow thee may come to the stars. Sow living seeds, words that are quick with life, that faith may be the harvest in their hearts. In word and in example let thy light shine in the black dark like the morning star.
Let not the wealth of the world nor its dominion flatter thee into silence as to truth, nor king, nor judge, yea, nor thy dearest friend muzzle thy lips from righteousness.”
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John Rutter - The Lord Bless You And Keep You.
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