A Response and Comments to the Helpful article that David Watson Presented Titled, “A question of Identity”
By Bob Moffett
Thank you David for your article. We all need to be challenged, and it made me step back to view how I view my role.
In terms of identity I struggle with any of my titles, LLM and Reader. Firstly, Reader and LLM have very little meaning for most people outside the church. Why “Licenced”? Are there Readers who are not licenced? Why “Lay” minister as the adjective suggests that we are not as qualified as the “real thing” and again I am not convinced that the 98% of those who are not electoral members of our Diocese really understand our terms of reference of these titles. My friends where I play tennis look on with bewilderment when and if I use these terms!!!
Our identity, of course is in Christ. As Anglicans, like the majority of Christendom, we believe in the priesthood of all believers. In our Pentecost Communion, yesterday, it is claimed that,” Your Spirit gives us grace to call you Father, to proclaim your Gospel to all nations and to serve you as a royal priesthood………”. I am excited by the plethora of gifts that are being used by our wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ, Worship leaders, evangelists, pioneer ministers and pastoral ministers. I am of the conviction that our identity is not being “dumbing down” as David suggests. David writes,
“Indeed, the introduction of the term ‘lay’ diluted the credibility and recognition of the depth and commitment of Reader ministry by immersing it in the swamp of emerging ‘ministries of convenience’. It lost its identity and with it the sense of collegiate belonging felt by its practitioners.”
On the contrary I am very excited by the, “…the swamp of emerging ministries of convenience”
With a significant drop of 40% priests in training over the last few years we can see that with retirees we are in a steep decline as we are with the numbers that attend our churches in this Diocese. In a real sense with the age of our attendees, we are a dying church! In terms of LLMs/Readers the majority are over 70 with quite a large percentage over 80!!
The more we seek issues of identity we fail to understand that our “collegiate” are those who are the “royal priesthood” who have significant gifts building the Kingdom of God. Most have no titles but minister in their work and home. We have created a priesthood where we give the appearance of a hierarchy of ministries and gifts…those who can and those who cannot. On the day of Pentecost, the cry went up,
“Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Acts 2: 7,8
Ordinary people gifted by God with an identity given by God.
If I had my way I would have all those who wanted to attend the Bishops Study Day would be invited. Of course, there are logistical problems so probably a non-starter. I would seek to have this open as a way of saying we are in this together whether we have titles or not.
Am I naive in believing that we are all children of God, a royal priesthood, seeking to offer the Kingdom of God with the gifting that God has given us without titles other than, SERVANT.