Saturday – Ordination Service
We had a glorious Ordination Service last Saturday in Bordeaux when Charlotte Sullivan was ordained by the Rt. Revd. Robert Innes. Charlotte will now be resident in Bordeaux as part of the Chaplaincy of Aquitaine Ministry Team.
Below is an excerpt from Bishop Robert’s blog:
An ordination is always a special event. For the weekend of 17th/18th March, Helen and I took the train to Bordeaux for the ordination of Charlotte Sullivan on the Saturday and a confirmation service in Bertric-Burée on the Sunday. We travelled on one of the new Euroduplex ‘InOui’ branded trains that cover the 528km between Paris and Bordeaux in just two hours, and the train arrived on time, to the minute.
A further half hour train ride to Libourne, then an hour in the car took us to the peaceful Abbaye de l’Echourgnac convent where Charlotte had been on her pre-ordination retreat in the company of our Advisor on Women’s Ministry, Carolyn Cook
After an overnight stay with Chaplain Tony and Ingrid Lomas, we drove on the Saturday morning for nearly two hours through the beautiful wine-making area of St. Emilion to the worship centre in Bordeaux. Aquitaine includes 14 Anglican worship centres. Charlotte is to be based in Bordeaux itself, which is a major city and rather different in character from the smaller towns and villages in which the other worship centres are located.
The ordination service opened with a confident rendition of ‘My Jesus, My Saviour’ by the children’s choir. The music for the rest of the service was supported by a very good adult choir. Amongst other items, they sang John Ireland’s ‘Greater Love’, an anthem which sets out the message of the gospel as clearly and powerfully as any other English-language music I know, and finished with a spirited rendition of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
Charlotte’s ordination as a priest is a cause of huge thanksgiving for the Aquitaine chaplaincy, where she is much loved and respected. She was supported by family and friends and many chaplaincy members in a full church.
Later in the service we commissioned Tony Lomas as Area Dean. He will look after the clergy and congregations of South Western France. Distances are big in this part of the diocese, and I hope Tony will be able to support and encourage fellow clergy working in isolated circumstances.
Supplementary Postscript from Bishop Robert
Aficionados of Anglican Canon Law will be aware that Ordinations may only be conducted on certain major feast days. It may be wondered whether March 17th, the Feast of St. Patrick, has sufficient weight to count as a proper major feast. In the event, St. Patrick’s Day coincided with the last game in the Rugby Six Nations, in which Ireland decisively beat England to take the Grand Slam. Bordeaux being a keen rugby city, the anxious would have been left in no doubt that St. Patrick’s Day 2018 in Bordeaux was a major feast !
Sunday – Holy Communion Service
The Revd Richard Bromley, Mission Director of ICS, led our Sunday Worship Service and concluded his sermon with some exciting words:
Allow me to say three things to you in conclusion.
I believe this is your time, Now the hour has come…
This Bordeaux church is at pivotal moment. With Charlotte, this is not about business as usual with a new priest. This is about so much more as we adventure forward.
Secondly, I pray this church continues to develop as a community of welcome. To be a community where the invitation is open. Making space for people to belong. Christ will draw all people…
Finally I want to say. It is time to dare greatly.
Daring greatly: About vulnerability. About risk. About stepping out when everything in you screams no. Refusing to play safe because it is the safe thing to do. About remembering what it is that Christ has called you to.
As Jesus put it… About dying to self. About wheat falling in the ground, but life comes.
I finish with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of USA.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the person who points out how others stumble, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if they fail, at least fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
A photo album of the ordination service and reception afterwards is available here
