I also get gray hairs

This reflection is prompted by the reflection of a dear friend and colleague Fr. Tony Clavier.  His article can be found here.  His reflection concerns how we do or do not do ministry.  What is the role of the parish priest in today’s environment, especially the North American context of ministry?

Both Tony and I are from England – he from the north where people “call a spade a spade.”  I come from the south where we try, and often fail, to be more nuanced in our speech thereby causing confusion.  All in all I prefer Tony’s approach to things.  Tony has always been a centrist and I a tad more to the right of things.  Having said that he used to be a bishop in part of the Anglican diaspora and has now returned as a parish priest.  I am now part of the diaspora having effectively given up on the Episcopal Church as an institution.  We both share an abiding passion for the ministry of the parish priest.

Tony’s piece laments “The latest assault on the model of parish priest has been clothed in an attack on George Herbert, whose little book, The Country Parson, it is alleged, created the pattern of priestly life which has now become irrelevant. I challenge that notion.” I wholeheartedly agree.

I spent several years pursuing a doctorate with special reference to “congregational development.”  I learned a huge amount.  A great deal of the learning was how to do things right, how to avoid all sorts of pitfalls.  We learned about such things as how to understand generational groups etc.  Sadly I think we missed the main point and that is Tony’s point.  In our Anglican world we are called to be parsons and not professionals.  Being a professional as I use it here is to be a member of a professional class, educated, trained and generally part of a kind of elite.  If that is true then all the degrees and such that I have might make me a better parson – however they do not.  My ability and effectiveness as a parson has to do with coming alongside people.  In fact, do people connect with me in spite of my pedigree?

In my years as a parish priest and as a college chaplain I used to spend huge amounts of time just hanging about with people.  I still do.  I also made it a point to be there in my “uniform.”  I know that some people see that as a barrier.  That has not been my experience.  On the college campus I would spend time in the coffee shop.  There conversations and relationships were built – some on my initiative but more often because someone was happy to chat.   In the USA, in places where I was a parish priest, the temptation was to spend time in an “office” and to expect people to come to me.  Indeed when I started in the US in the seventies clergy spent hours with counseling appointments and rarely got out into the community.

Some of the most heartwarming emails recently have come from shop assistants and community folk who say how much they miss our conversations and me dropping in.  Sometimes, indeed most often, the conversations were just that.  They were nice, friendly and not hugely life changing.  A few were really meaningful. Having built a relationship then someone would come to me when a crisis occurred because often they had no other church connection.   When in the community people would nod hello or stop to chat, as I would walk around.  I have two really interesting examples.  One is from Peru last week.  The other is from Belize a year or two past.  I was in central Lima this week on an errand.  I needed to pass some time and so was walking by some stalls by the river.  A man asked me if I was a priest;  would I pray for him and give him a blessing.  I did.  I was part of a youth group walking by the market in Belize City.  One of the market folk came up to me and asked me to pray for her.  In both cases I was in “uniform.”

I believe that our communities need “parsons.”  Our ministry as clergy is not simply to be preachers, liturgists and dispensers of the sacraments.  We are to be the visible presence of Christ in the communities that we serve.  It is not that we are that distinguished, though gray hair helps.  It is that Christ has set us aside for this particular ministry of presence.  It is not that every Christian is not called to this – we all are – it is that we are given a uniform and a role in the church.  We then are representatives of that church’s role in the local community. We are called to relate to people.  The temptation is to be professional, elite and sequestered.  Again Tony writes, “I suggest that it is precisely because we have turned vocation into profession, and imprisoned clergy in the church plant, that we have lost our sense of mission and identity. What goes on in the church has become our chief concern.” He continues,  “it is time we engaged “the village” again, whether it is an urban, suburban or rural “village” or even a cyber “village.” St. Paul spent over two years in one community, waiting, listening, engaging, before he broke through. He hired a “lecture hall.”  Perhaps we need to hire space in shopping malls, set up our coffee carts, plonk the priest and some lay people down, please dressed as a priest and not in disguise, not to advertise St. Titus the Tasteful’s bill of fare, but to listen, to learn, to embrace and to begin the task of reclaiming the parish.”

Jesus calls us metaphorically to be lamps on lamp stands, cities visibly set on hilltops.

“let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1Pet. 2:9 )

Thanks Tony for your reflection – mine is offered as a thanks for yours.

Doors open and doors close – this is the way of the Lord.

I have amended my previous post with the following paragraph.

For a while I have been in the nomination process as one of the area assistant bishops here in Peru.  I am no longer in the process.  The nominating college wants people with better Spanish skills and longer familiarity with Latin culture.  I was honored to be considered and nominated by the group in  Arequipa. I am deeply committed to the raising up of Peruvian clergy, bishops and leaders.  There will need to be more time before all the bishops can be Peruvian.  I have committed, and will dedicate, my time, to that leadership development.  We shall see what God will do!

How do we know what God wants us to do?
All too often we do not.  We take a step at a time and we do so in faith.  God leads and asks us to be faithful in following without the way ahead being all that clear.  I believe St Paul understood that when he said that  “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. “(1Cor. 13:12, ESV).  The critical thing for me is to try to be open to what God seems to be saying, to be available.  This becomes part of the adventure.  God then takes us to unexpected and often unlikely places.  Since I had a bunch of paperwork to get completed as well as get references put together I was able to take a look at these last forty years since I entered the discernment process for ordination.  I was humbled by the nice things said about me by those who wrote references.  In all of this I want to “Finish well.”

The expression “Finish well” comes from an organization that I have come to know and respect – The Finishers Project – who are one of our resources for our workshop at New Wineskins this April 8-11.  Their ministry is to place before people who are in or approaching retirement the challenge of foreign mission.  They provide resources to member mission organizations by helping inquirers match their skills, availability and commitment.  The number of “Baby Boomers” in the US who are at or close to retirement is huge.  They still have a sense of adventure, want to change the world and make a difference.  They now have a lifetime of experience and can – if they will – bring this to the mission field.

I am convinced that in the Church we can either be senders and supporters, OR we are to be sent ourselves.  There is no alternative in Scripture other than being disobedient.  I do not believe that the Great Commission is a suggestion!  So we are called to be obedient and involved in mission.  The question is how and where.  Mission is local and beyond.  Each person’s calling will be personal.  The local church has a responsibility to help people discover and then live out their missionary calling.  It is so exciting – at least to Polly and me.

Who would have thought that we would serve in the UK, USA, Belize, Kenya and Peru.  Who would have thought we would serve parishes in London, Amherst. MA, Nashville. TN, Menasha. WI?  Who would have known the myriad of incredible people whose lives we have been part of?  I keep thinking of St. Paul’s words – For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phil. 1:21 ESV.  So we live for the moment, one step at a time.  Sometimes we push on doors.  Sometimes one opens and another closes.  My question – usually reminded by Oswald Chambers – is am I available?  Lord use me today.

So this time no pictures.  Just reflection and thankfulness.  Bless you all.

Ian

God moves in mysterious ways – amended, again

January has been a month of transitions and new developments.

Mid-January we flew to Bolivia where we completed the “overseas” part of the residency process.  We could have simply gone down the coast to Chile (same distance) and done it at the seashore town of Arica, but we wanted to explore another part of South America and see what God is doing elsewhere.  I have been fascinated by the Anglican ministry in Bolivia ever since Frank Lyons became bishop.  We were able to visit Curt and Paola Little in La Paz, which was a delight.  Curt, Polly and I were on the same SAMS discernment conference three years ago. Curt is now married to Paola and their first child is due in February.  Currently they are involved with youth ministry in La Paz, but hope to move on to a more rural area about six hours away where they will work with children in the “selva.” We hope to see them again!

Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, was a stretching experience for us.  La Paz is huge (two million), and the city center is well developed with businesses, restaurants, hotels, historic buildings, churches, cobbled streets, markets and cultural museums. We were surrounded by busy people on their way to work and others patiently standing in long lines at government offices.  Often, eyes were downcast.  Many women wore colorful traditional dress from the colonial Spanish era: bombin (hats), shawls and multiple petticoats.  Many police strolled the streets and directed traffic. Rarely did they smile or greet the people the way they do here in Peru.  It was hard to find a smiling Bolivian!  My sense was one of heaviness and oppression.  This makes the ministry of Christian folk all the more vital and the Anglican Mission in particular.  I think of the words of John 20:30f -

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;  but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (ESV)

Meanwhile the residency process continues to make its expensive progress.  We have returned with our new category of “Religioso no Catolico.”  The Peruvian police and Interpol now have our mug shots, fingerprints and dental records on file, and the FBI have been asked for a report.  We hope next week to receive our “Carnets Extranjeros,” which will make us legally resident for our ministry here in Peru.  This is important because when we flew down here in November, the airline did not want us to board  since our return flights were dated after the current 90 day visa would have expired.  God intervened.  It does get confusing as the rules change on a regular basis.  One of the things that MTI (one of the best trainings that I have ever experienced and mandatory for all SAMS missionaries) reminded us of is that we must learn patience. Hopefully, the Spirit is at work within us, changing us (2 Cor. 3:18).

For a while I have been in the nomination process as one of the area assistant bishops here in Peru.  I am no longer in the process.  The nominating college wants people with better Spanish skills and longer familiarity with Latin culture.  I was honored to be considered and nominated by the group in  Arequipa. I am deeply committed to the raising up of Peruvian clergy, bishops and leaders.  There will need to be more time before all the bishops can be Peruvian.  I have committed, and will dedicate, my time, to that leadership development.  We shall see what God will do!

Flexibility seems to be the recurring lesson of being on the mission field in a fluid and growing place.  Here we have a Diocese and a nascent structure that is seeking to serve the mission of God’s Church.  That is the way it should and must be.  Tragically, we see so often the Church become an institution and not an organism.  The institution becomes self-serving rather than serving God’s mission.  To be the “Body of Christ” is to find our identity with Jesus and the Apostles.  We believe passionately in the Church and the need for it to be visible in our world, but never to the extent that the visible Church be confused with buildings that demand our worship (as did the Temple in Jerusalem of Jesus’ time).  These buildings, grand or modest, are places where the light of Christ is present so as to shine into their community.  Their purpose is to manifest Jesus through the people who worship in them and go out from them to bring Jesus Christ to our suffering world.

Here in Peru we are not known for our buildings.  I pray that we are known for our ministry among the people of Peru, especially the poor and the marginalized.  As part of the missionary community, we walk alongside and serve the Peruvian Church and the people of Peru.  We seek to serve the people and develop their mission and leadership.   I pray that we will always step aside and rejoice as new leaders emerge and shoulder the roles that God has for them.  The huge privilege is not only to see that happen but to help that happen.  My mentor in this is John the Baptist.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30 (ESV)

Prayer at work – God at work!

The picture here is a lovely prayer letter sent from Cecilia at St. Thomas in Menasha where she is part of the AWANA group.  What a privilege it is to know that we are prayed for and supported by so many people in so many places.  Thank you.

This has been a month of change.  I turned 65 and Polly gave me a mariachi guitar to celebrate.  Bishop Bill Godfrey serenaded me at the clergy Christmas party.

One of the things that we are learning is not to depend on plans,  as everything changes from one day to the next.  Somehow God tells us to be ready and take a day at a time.  Bishop Bill has given me a new task.

This Christmas the Bishop has asked the seminary faculty – I am counted among these – to spend three months being the interim clergy at a wonderful mission is Lima South.  The Church is Jesus el Salvador in the district called Villa el Salvador.  It is a gritty community where a wonderful Peruvian pastor – Juan Carlos Marces and his English wife Penny have established a church.  They have linked up with Compassion International to do midweek ministry amongst the very needy children.  Juan Carlos and Penny are moving to another church, so they now have four clergy and four seminarians to take turns holding down the fort.  That should tell you a lot about how hard and well Penny and Juan Carlos have worked these last fifteen years!

La Iglesia en verdad - la gente

We clergy  take turns celebrating communion, and the seminarians plan worship and often preach.  I am going to try personal testimony my first Sunday.  The worship band is great – drums, keyboard and guitar,  and I add the banjo when appropriate.  The congregation is vital and ardent.  They carry their bibles, look up references and interject their Alleluias and Amens.  They pray fervently, too.

Just before Christmas we celebrated the new ministry of Padre Anderson Sanchez.  Anderson became one of my best buddies in 2008 while showing me around Lima.  He has been an assistant and now is priest in charge of two churches.  Prayer really works – he has grown from a wildish young man from Lima and Los Angeles, where he was a truck driver, to a fine priest, husband and father.   His wife Isabel – had prayed for him and prayed and prayed and then prayed some more.  God brought Anderson back to Lima, they married,  and now have two great children.

Anderson and his flock

New ministry celebrations are a great time to get together and we really did.

The bishop celebrates

One last picture – courtesy of Joe who, with Virginia, visited us between Christmas and New Year.

I am wondering if this is the praying llama just released by Noah from the ark in the Andes?

Confession – it’s all about confession

Santa Maria Virgen - Villa Maria del Triunfo

We visited the Church of Santa Maria Virgen yesterday evening.  I was invited on Thursday by Padre Aurelio.  He is a magnetic and effusive priest, an inveterate evangelist and church planter.  His enthusiasm for Jesus is only matched by his passion for his flock and to share the Gospel.  Aurelio ministers on the south side of Lima in a sprawling poverty stricken area just close to Chorillos.

Hearing Confessions (note birds listening above)

Aurelio welcomed me by asking if I had brought my stole.  I had.  He sat me down on a chair outside the church door to hear confessions – he sat on the other side and was doing the same.  The idea is that confession is essential before coming to receive holy communion.  Therefore personal confession with a priest is available right there at the church door.  WOW!  I have to say that I agree totally about the need for confession before communion.  I had never seen it taken quite so literally!  I am hugely grateful to Aurelio for showing me this in a new way.  This is but another instance of my being led like a child into new parts of God’s Kingdom and ministry.

As I “heard” confessions two things were clear to me.  The first was that Aurelio had prepared the folk well as to how to examine their consciences and thus to make a proper confession.  The second was that I was simply a vehicle for people to unburden themselves to God.  I only understood a small part of what I heard as my language skills are still small.  I was there to make real God’s listening and God’s gift of forgiveness.  What a contrast to the priest in another place who ripped me up and down once for having confession at the Easter celebration! I sat there for about forty-five minutes; the service did not begin until all who needed to come had done so.

The service was joyful, boisterous, youthful.  The church was full; many stood at the back and just outside.  The majority were under twenty. We were celebrating two adult first communions and one adult baptism.  I was drafted to perform the baptism!  What a joy that was since I could understand those words.  The whole service became a lesson for the huge group of young folk who (as I later understood) came as part of their preparation for first communion.  This will happen tomorrow, Dec 8,  a national holiday that celebrates first communion. How wonderful to live in a country where the state celebrates Christian occasions and virtues.

Two things of note in the baptism service:

Lots of water!

Both the candidate for baptism and his sponsors/godparents signed documents in front of the congregation committing themselves to their vows taken at the service.  The second was the explicit use of words of exorcism prior to the baptism.  In older rites this used to happen at the church door prior to the liturgy.  Used here, it was a powerful reminder that all Christians take their place on the front line in Spiritual Warfare.  The enemy is driven out and the Holy Spirit enters in.  The armor of God protects without and the Holy Spirit makes us temples of the same Holy Spirit.

Polly the Peruana magnet

After the service Polly was surrounded by girls.  She is like a magnet to young Peruanas.  I was just amazed by her ability to relate, to have conversations.  While I know that she was blessed, I could see that she was blessing these young women.  What a joy for us both!

Click on the pictures to enlarge – worth it!

Boys having fun at church

Santa Maria Virgen – Villa Maria del Triunfo

Polly the Peruana magnet

Paul Tester and Elisabeth Varillas – Diocesan Youth Ministers

Lots of water!

Hearing Confessions

And Heaven comes down

San Andres - la nueva capilla

This Sunday evening we returned to the Mision San Andres.  It is on the far north side of Lima.  In May of last year I was adopted as a “godfather” of this new congregation.  Fr. Benjamin Salas and his wife Livia so faithfully pastor this flock.  Polly and I went with Bishop Godfrey to bless the new building and to celebrate the first communion of ten young people.

The matting building

20 months ago this was a bare piece of ground atop a hillside reached by a “goat path.”  Then they put up a tent.  Next they erected a building of poles, matting and a tarp.  Now they have a small wooden “capilla” (chapel).

The tent 2008

Polly and I found the tiny chapel full of fervent and busy children and adults.  They packed themselves in while milling around Benjamin and the Bishop.  We had an informal music practice.  I think that there were over forty in the building and many more standing outside listening.  Bishop Bill hung up his robes next to a wonderful new painting of San Andres (St. Andrew).  We all robed and off we went.

It seems to me that this was a foretaste of heaven as Communion is meant to be.  The dirt floor cannot be much changed from the type of place where  Jesus ministered.  The lighting was daylight from under the eaves and the doorway.  Those who could, sat on crude benches; the rest stood.  What does it take to celebrate?  We had bread, wine and the Bible. Father Benjamin and I played the music on guitar and banjo.  We were many more than “two or three gathered in His name.”  There he was in the midst of us – JESUS – Lord of His Church.  Alleleuia!

After the celebration, Livia shared papas huancaina – boiled potato slices on lettuce with a pepper sauce.  We ran out of plates so people ate off their hands sitting on the terraced hillside.  The food ran out,  so they ate bean stew that miraculously appeared.

Eventually we came down from the “mountain” – this goat path is now well trodden, but still steep!  As night fell, we said many fond farewells.  The same city (Lima) awaited us, but I know I was changed.  We had met Jesus on the mountain.  Heaven came down and surrounded us.  WOW!

Click on a picture to enlarge – they are worth it

And now we are off again!

This is our final weekend in Vermont.  This makes it bitter sweet.  At MTI they taught us about saying a good goodbye.  This last week has been a succession of goodbyes.  Last Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to our Newport Fellowship who all gathered around us to say “God Speed.”  This Sunday morning St. Luke’s in Chester will send us off.  Last Sunday they let us share about our ministry at each service.  Then I was asked to lead the music this Sunday – that is a huge blessing for me.  Do pray! Some of the songs are very traditional.  I will be introducing them to a new song that I had sung at our picnic this last summer for St. Lukes.  It was written by Dawn Rodgers and Eric Wyse.  Eric was my beloved organist in Nashville whose gifts have me in awe whenever I hear him play.  Let me share the words.

Wonderful, merciful Savior
Precious Redeemer and Friend
Who would have thought that a Lamb
Could rescue the souls of men
Could rescue the souls of men

Counselor, Comforter, Keeper
Spirit we long to embrace
You offer hope when our hearts have
Hopelessly lost the way
Oh, we hopelessly lost the way

You are the One that we praise
You are the One we adore
You give the healing and grace
Our hearts always hunger for
Oh, our hearts always hunger for

Almighty, infinite Father
Faithfully loving Your own
Here in our weakness You find us
Falling before Your throne
Oh, we’re falling before Your throne

You are the One that we praise
You are the One we adore
You give the healing and grace
Our hearts always hunger for
Oh, our hearts always hunger for

As we leave it is with a great sense of weakness and yet of God’s huge strength.  Says another song, “I was lost but now I’m found.”  In Jesus is LIFE in all its fullness.  Wherever we go he goes before.  So, I am always “found!”

Please pray for traveling mercies, sweet fellowship upon arrival and fruitful ministry amongst our Peruvian family.  As they say down there – A DIOS, vaya con Dios.

I was executed yesterday – just a simulation!

This week I was executed in a simulation exercise.  The situation was simple.  A group of missionaries were taken hostage and before rescue the insurgents executed certain ones.   The real purpose of the exercise was to see how we would react, respond, make decisions and who would exercise leadership in a highly stressed situation.  I have to be clear – this was a very well done simulation and the emotions were real.  This went beyond play-acting.  The folk at MTI are extraordinarily skilled.  They have moved us beyond cliché and opinion into emotion and transparency.  Emotion and transparency are essential ingredients to community, especially on the mission field.

What then did it feel like?  Firstly, I was at my age “expendable.”  Secondly there was the confidence that as Jesus has gone before so can I, in faith, follow him.  Jesus trusted the Father.  Paul’s axiom “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain” makes sense because our faith is founded upon the resurrection. In other words, there was a calm sense of this–the simulation had become real.  When I did not die – it was after all a simulation – my sense was one of God’s grace.  I have another day to live.

What about Polly?  Interestingly she also was executed.  They had divided us into two groups.  Her feelings were not dissimilar to mine.  We have had a wonderful life.

Will we be put into this kind of situation as missionaries?  Who knows!  The point is that we can only live a day at a time.  We cannot live simply with clichés and opinions.  We have emotions that need to be expressed and, God willing, be redeemed.  We are called to a transparency that is also a purifying, where that which is not of Christ may be taken to the cross and there abandoned.  That transparency is the essential ingredient in true Christian community and fellowship.  This is true on the mission field or in the local church.

I love this group of young and energetic, vibrant and dedicated young people.  I am so looking forward to hearing their stories as God uses them in the years ahead.  We have, all of us, another day to live.  To live for Christ.  How will we use it?

Mission Training – words of wisdom and some great pictures

I Corinthians 13

Missionary-Style:

If I speak with the tongue of a national, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal.

If I wear the national dress and understand the culture and all forms of etiquette, and if I copy mannerisms so that I could pass for a national, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor, and if I spend my energy without reserve, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love endures long hours of language study, and is kind to those who mock his accent; love does not envy those who stayed home; love does not exalt his home culture, is not proud of his national reputation,

Does not boast about the way we do it back home, does not seek his own ways, is not easily provoked into telling about the beauty of his home country, does not think evil about this culture.

Love bears all criticism about his home culture, believes all good things about this new culture, confidently anticipates being at home in this place, endures all inconveniences.

Love never fails; but where there is cultural anthropology, it will fail; where there is contextualization, it will cease; where there is linguistics, it will vanish.

For we know only part of the culture and we minister to only part.

But when Christ is reproduced in this culture, then our inadequacies will be insignificant.

When I was in America I spoke like an American, I understood as an American, I thought as an American; but when I left America, I became a learner of a new culture!

Now we adapt to this culture awkwardly; but He will live in it intimately; now I speak with a strange accent, but He will speak to the heart.

And now these three remain: cultural adaptation, language study and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

(Author Unknown)

Mission madness – meaning, mad for mission

Mision San Pablo - Lima

Polly and I are now in Colorado at the Mission Training Institute with thirty-seven other folk and many of their children all being trained, stretched and taught about the mission field.  What an amazing gathering.

First off, I am the oldest in the group.  There are a very few of us in out fifties and sixties.  Most are young and in their twenties and thirties.  There is an all pervading youthful energy and enthusiasm that makes this especially invigorating.  From my years as a parish priest I know the value of youth and young adults.  They are lively and enthusiastic, often vocal and ready to change the world.  In the parish they were a minority usually and all too often “controlled” by the “elders.”  Here they are the majority.  Their contribution is awesome and we are only at the end of day one!  There are going to be a full three weeks of this.  My prayer is that I become young again in spirit.  I know that my hair will still be grizzled and my body far less than youthful, but I pray to learn from them and be infected by their vibrancy.

Some stories:

We rode from the airport with a young man who is going to Afghanistan.  He will be in a town in a valley where he wants to set up a bicycle shop, maybe even hold bike races.  He will be joining other missionaries.

A couple – not much younger than us are going out to serve the Missionary Aviation fellowship to look after their computer systems in south central Africa.

A young woman is going to eastern China to work amongst Chinese Muslims.  She will seek out a local “underground church” and they will become her team.

Most folk have to learn a new language, raise support and expect to spend a lifetime overseas.  They will leave homes, careers, families, churches, all that is familiar and be “spliced” into a new culture where they will assimilate, raise children, bear children and God willing be witnesses to Jesus Christ in such a way as to win converts to Christ.

I am in AWE.

Mision Nazareno - the Cross over the hillside shanty towns