25.09.2017
‘God Creates With What He Has Put in Our Hands’ – Ordination to the Priesthood in Dublin & Glendalough
The Revd Rebecca Guildea and the Revd Ross Styles were ordained to the Priesthood yesterday afternoon (Sunday September 24) in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Archbishop Michael Jackson presided at the service. Rebecca will serve as an NSM in the Dioceses, assigned to St Patrick’s Parish, Greystones. Ross will serve as Curate to the Christ Church Cathedral Group of Parishes.
The preacher was Canon Kevin Brew, Rector of St Mary’s, Howth, who guided the large congregation of family, friends and well wishers through the Ordination Service and the promises made during ordination. He noted that Rebecca and Ross were embarking on ministry in a rapidly evolving Church and while many of the things that would have been taken for granted when he was ordained were no longer the same, the Ordination Service and the promises of ordination had provided a framework which had stood the test of time. He said that the ordination vows put a shape on ministry.
Canon Brew said that Rebecca and Ross brought their own distinct gifts to ministry. “There are things you are very good at and there are things you will not be so good at. That is how God has made you and this is what you offer to God in service,” he said. Quoting Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche Community for people with intellectual disabilities, he said: “God creates with what he puts in our hands”. “Originally used in the context of the Eucharist, I think it has a great deal to say about vocation, your vocation, your ministry – the gifts God has placed in your hands, the gifts you offer back to God,” the preacher explained.
In the course of their ministry in addition to leading worship and pastoral work, Canon Brew said they would be asked to do many things from chairing Vestry meetings to weeding paths. But he urged Rebecca and Ross to remember that their whole ministry must be based on the bed rock of commitment to the Gospel. “That must come through in our ministry of teaching, our pastoral work and yes even in the stacking of chairs, the clearing of weeds. We live in a world of hierarchies and even in the life of the Church it is easy to slip into the mindset of hierarchies,” he said. He added that pastoral ministry and the ministry of word and sacrament were not separate but two sides of the same coin which would enrich each other.
He reminded Rebecca and Ross that they could not bear the weight of ministry alone “but only by the grace and power of God” and said it was important, despite all the calls that will be made on their time, to devote time to study, prayer and reflection.
“In a few minutes you will take your vows of ordination. You come responding to God’s call on your life, that sense of compulsion, almost coercion we were thinking about earlier. You bring your strengths and your weaknesses – God has a way of working through both. May God bless you in your ministry of word, of sacrament, of prayer, of service among the people of the Christ Church Group, of Greystones – and wherever else God leads you in the years to come. In your quiet times with the Lord, may you know his presence, his refreshment and his peace. May God bless you and your families – never take your families for granted,” Canon Brew concluded.
You can read Canon Brew’s sermon in full here.
