Service of Cleansing

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#Cleansing #HistoricAbuse

Service of Cleansing of a Church following Historical Clergy Sexual Abuse

Prayers of Penitence

The Lord said to Solomon: If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land

2 Chronicles 7:14

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,

have mercy on us.

Trinity of love,

have mercy on us.

Most merciful God,

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

we confess that we have sinned

in thought, word and deed,

on our own account and as a church,

in the present day and in the distant past.

We have harmed your little ones,

we have abused the trust placed in us,

we have violated bodies, minds and spirits.

Lord, have mercy.

We have failed to listen to those in pain;

we have not stood alongside those who suffer;

we have averted our gaze from the evil in our midst.

Lord, have mercy.

We have failed the community we serve,

hiding behind our great walls

and not sharing your love with the people of Bensham & Teams.

We have been indifferent to their needs.

Lord, have mercy.

We have turned people away when they came to seek you

because we have been self-serving,

because we have been full of grumbling and negative attitudes.

Lord, have mercy.

Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us.

Hear us, for your mercy is great.

Accomplish in us the work of your salvation

that we may show your glory in the world.

By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,

bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

Adapted from the Litany, Common Worship Times & Seasons, pp226-227

Additional prayers of penitence may be offered by those present.

May Almighty God,

who sent his Son into the world to save sinners,

forgive us,

and cleanse us and this church from all unrighteousness,

and bring us his pardon and peace.

And may the Holy Spirit come upon us now

to renew us in faith and hope and love,

that we may live and serve this community to the glory of God. Amen

Collect

Jesus our Saviour,

you bore in your body

the pain that we have inflicted on each other.

Heal all those who have been hurt

by the clergy and people of this church.

Teach us once again how to be your body in this place.

Restore us and renew us

that we may rejoice in your resurrection

to the glory of the Father

and in the power of the Spirit. Amen

Old Testament : Jeremiah 30:12-22

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.

I sought the Lord and he answered me

and delivered me from all my fears.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,

to root out the remembrance of them from the earth.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.

The righteous cry and the Lord hears them

and delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted

and will save those who are crushed in spirit.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.

The Lord ransoms the life of his servants

and will condemn none who seek refuge in him.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.

Verses from Psalm 34

Gospel :    Matthew 18:1-9

Prayers

Loving Father,

we hold before you all those who have been abused

by clergy and leaders from this church.

Some buried their memories deep.

Some took them to the grave.

Some live with the pain even now,

the degradation and the shame.

We pray for your healing

for painful memories,

for damaged souls,

for difficult relationships.

Give them the opportunities they need

to tell their stories to people who will listen,

and give them your peace. Amen

Eternal judge,

those who came before us did great harm to your little ones.

We pray for them, wherever they are,

that they might have the opportunity

to recognise and acknowledge

the harm they caused in this place,

that they may turn to you

to seek your mercy

and know your pardon and peace. Amen

Living Lord,

bring new life to your church here in Bensham & Teams.

Help us to proclaim your name in word and deed,

to bring your love and care to all your children,

to stand alongside them in their fears and anxieties,

and to rejoice in your loving presence in our midst.

May these old bones live again to your glory. Amen

Lord of the Church,

we pray for this church community,

that it may be a blessing to Bensham & Teams,

welcoming all those who come to seek you.

Turn our negative attitudes into hope;

turn our gossip into compassion;

turn our grabbing into generosity;

turn our miserable moaning into great rejoicing.

Renew and refresh us

that we may serve you in faith and hope and love. Amen.

Those present may wish to add their own prayers.

Blessing of Water

As this prayer is said, salt is sprinkled into the water.

Almighty God,

you gave us salt to bring purity and health,

and your Son Jesus gave us living water to cleanse and refresh us.

By the means of this salt and water,

bring a blessing on this church:

cleanse and purify this building and this church community,

take away all that causes hurt and harm,

and wash us clean from all the sins of past and present,

that we may glorify you and be a blessing to this area,

in the name of your Son, our Lord,

refreshed and renewed in the power of the Spirit. Amen

Every part of the church building is sprinkled with water.

Prayers may be said by anyone present.

Peace

Jesus said: Abide in my love.

Love one another as I have loved you.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

Eucharistic Preface

And now we give you thanks

for you created men, women and children in dignity and honour,

and call them all to live together in love and respect

to mirror your care and compassion for all your little ones.

You plant in us a desire for your kingdom here on earth

where everyone may live in peace,

that with angels and saints

we may sing with joy the unceasing song of your glory:

Holy, holy, holy, ….

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ,

who is present with us now in his risen power,

abide in this place

and with the people of this church

and with those here today.

Protect us from all harm.

Take away anything that causes us to stumble.

Remove the barriers that get in the way of doing your will.

Make us ever alert to the evil that creeps in to the corners.

Give us your healing and your peace,

now and always. Amen

Blessing

May God who made us

restore in us the image of his glory.

May Christ who saved us,

bring us his peace.

May the Spirit who guides and strengthens us,

protect us from all harm.

And the blessing of God Almighty …

Acknowledgments:

Some material used in this service is © Archbishops’ Council 2000, but heavily adapted.

Some material inspired by Russ Parker & Michael Mitton, Healing Wounded History Workbook, 2001

Collect inspired by Janet Morley, All Desires Known.

Eucharistic preface inspired by Alan Griffiths, We Give you thanks and praise.

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Choosing Jesus

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#Proper16 #WordLife

There was a story on Jeremy Kyle about a family with problems. Dad had walked out on the family 14 years ago. He was an alcoholic and he took heroin. He had taken no part in bringing up his daughter and his son for many years. They were giving him one last chance – get clean of the addictions or he wouldn’t see his children any more, ever.

A doctor came on the programme and told the man about his poor state of health: his joints were painful, his lungs were in a bad way, he found it difficult to breathe. If he didn’t give up the booze and the heroin he was going to die.

Jeremy Kyle gave him the chance to attend a rehab centre for 28 days. All he had to do is get into the waiting car. It was the best chance he was going to get. But the man refused. He wasn’t ready for it. The family pleaded with him. But the man refused. He didn’t want to change his life. The beer and the heroin were more important to him than his family. He recognised the truth about his own health, and the family being at the point where there was no turning back, but it wasn’t going to make any difference to him. He got the truth, but he just could not choose life.

It’s about hearing the truth, recognising the truth when it’s in front of you and accepting it, and then being prepared to act on the truth.

The way John tells the story, Jesus has been teaching his disciples about the living bread, about how he is the bread that comes from heaven, and how when you eat this bread, you will have eternal life.

The people who were listening found that really difficult. It sounded almost like cannibalism, like you have to eat Jesus. And we say it every week in the Eucharistic prayer, and I will say it again in a few minutes: This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you. They couldn’t get their heads round it. So they were muttering away in the background, saying it was all too much, and he’d gone too far this time.

And Jesus tries to explain it some more. He tells them that he is talking about spiritual things and they need to understand it spiritually. They need to feed on him spiritually, take their life from him.

It was beyond them. Despite all that they had seen, how 5 loaves and 2 fishes had become enough food to feed 5,000, despite all that they had heard him say, they didn’t get it. And some of his followers turned away and left him. They saw that there was truth there – but they couldn’t quite grasp it – but they just could not stick with Jesus and choose life. They would have put it in their own words: Jesus? Dodgy fella! He was weird! When he started talking about eating the living bread from heaven, which was himself – it was a step too far. So they went away, and they didn’t have a clue about how they were missing out.

It’s like the story of the sower told by Matthew, Mark and Luke, where the sower sows seed in all different kinds of soil and some seeds sprout but fail to thrive, while some seeds grow well and produce a great harvest. And Jesus says that it was like people and faith – sometimes the seeds of faith would sprout but wouldn’t last long, while for other people the seeds of faith would take root and be truly fruitful.

People followed Jesus because they liked the stories that he told, and were amazed at the miracles and were happy to take the free food, but when it became challenging and they really had to make a commitment, that was enough, and they were off. Like the man on Jeremy Kyle, they couldn’t go all the way and make a commitment to change, even if that was the way to real life.

The story from the Old Testament, from Joshua, is about making a commitment. The 12 tribes of Israel have crossed over into the promised land and have conquered the inhabitants and claimed their tribal territories. Joshua challenges them about their faith: are they going to follow the Lord their God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt, or will they take on the gods of the lands they have adopted. And the people of Israel make a commitment to God, the living God, and they promise to serve him.

There are times in our lives when we have to choose once again where we put our faith and trust. And this was a moment when the whole nation was challenged to choose. That’s why Confirmation is important in the Anglican order, when we choose for ourselves to follow Jesus. But there are other times in our lives, when circumstances bring us to a point when we can either turn away or choose again to be the people of Jesus. For some people, it is a bereavement or an illness or some other tragedy or disappointment and they just feel abandoned by God. I met a man recently who told me he lost his faith when his wife died.

So in John’s story, Jesus is left with the 12 disciples. A lot of the followers have gone. So he turns to the 12 and asks them: are you going too? And there’s that moment, that quiet moment when things could go either way, the moment when you make a choice. So when Jesus asks you: are you going too? What do you say?

In the Gospel, it’s Peter who answers. Of course it’s Peter. Peter is the one who jumps in first with both feet, but his heart is in the right place. “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

That’s a powerful prayer of commitment to follow Jesus!

You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

Who do you think you are?

Do you ever watch “Who do you think you are” on the television? I enjoy it when I can get to see it. I find it really interesting to follow the journey that people make to try and find out about their ancestors. There’s an underlying assumption in the programme that who our ancestors were and what they did says something about us and our lives today. Certainly there’s a huge interest these days in doing family history. People seem to have a real hunger to connect with their ancestors and find out the stories of their forebears in order to help shed light on their own lives and identity.

There was a man came to church this week, wanting to know about a grandfather by the name of Farrimond who lived on Whitehall Road and died in the 1980s. He had all sorts of questions about his forebears – and when it came down to it, he wanted to understand himself a bit better. And I get that.

The title of the TV programme is also interesting – it can be used as a retort to someone who is getting a bit above themselves – “who do you think you are?” – and the programme takes that question and turns it round and relates it to where we come from, who are ancestors are.

In today’s bible reading the Jewish authorities are saying, in effect, who does Jesus think he is? Today’s Gospel reading continues the story we’ve been following over the last couple of weeks. It started with Jesus feeding the crowds with the 5 loaves and 2 fishes and then continued last week – at least for those who got to the Communion service – with Jesus’ talking to the crowd about the meaning of the miracle and how they needed to look for the true bread which would satisfy their deepest spiritual hunger. And today, we get the reaction of the Jewish authorities to Jesus saying that he is the bread of life.

The Jewish authorities didn’t like it one bit. They obviously thought that Jesus was a bit up himself. And they said, we know his ancestors, his mother and his father, and they’re nothing special, so why does he think he can go round talking like he’s the Son of God or something.

And that’s the whole joke of course, because that’s just who Jesus is.

Jesus starts talking to them about his Father, and we know that he means God. We know that Jesus is God’s Son and he has a right to talk like this. And Jesus says, if you want to know about God, look at me. He is turning the whole idea of looking for the ancestors on its head. Instead of searching the family history to understand the present, he says, look at me and you will come to know my Father, the ultimate ancestor.

And not only will you come to know God, if you come to Jesus and let him feed your soul and nourish your spirit, then you will live forever. Jesus feeds us with the living bread which is himself. And we come together week by week to eat of that living bread. We are turning to Jesus and asking him to feed us with himself.

The Old Testament reading we had just now was the story of another miraculous meal. The prophet Elijah was running away because the king’s wife, Jezebel, was threatening him. Elijah has had enough and he just wants to die, so he lies down under a bush in the desert and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he finds food and water. He eats them and goes back to sleep. He wakes a second time and finds more food and on the strength of these two miraculous meals he is able to travel to the holy mountain of Horeb, where he encounters God in the still small voice. And that’s how he discovers who he is and who God is calling him to be and what God is calling him to do.

God nurtures us for a purpose. When God feeds us, it’s not just so that we can enjoy the experience and have that satisfying feeling of being full – even when we’re talking spiritual here. God nurtures us so that we can meet him, so that we can get to know him better and love him more. God nurtures us so that we can serve him, so that we can do the task he sets for us, whatever it is, and love our neighbours better.

When we come to Communion, it’s not just so that we can feel better in ourselves. It’s so that we can get to know God a little better and love him more, and it’s so that we can be nourished and ready to do whatever it is that he is wanting us to do.

So who do you think you are?

When I do a baptism, I often talk about the story of Jesus being baptised and the voice of God saying, “this is my son. He is very special to me and I love him very much.” And I like to say that every person who is baptised is a child of God. Each one is special to God and God loves them very much.
So that is who you are. Each one of us is God’s child. God is our spiritual ancestor. We come from God. If we want to know who we are, we need to look at God. And if people want to know about God, they will look at us first and foremost. And as God’s children, he nurtures us and feeds us. And God does that for a reason, because he wants us to get to know him more deeply, and so that he can work through us in this world.

So get looking for your ancestor. Look at Jesus and find God. Let him feed you and things will happen. Who knows what?

Not just Free Food

What was the best meal you ever ate? A great celebration feast in a posh restaurant? Tasting something new that blew your mind? Eating something simple that was beautifully cooked? A simple meal when you had been working hard and were very hungry?

Food is essential to our lives: it nurtures us and keeps us alive, it gives us pleasure, it is central to our celebrations, it is a key way in which we show hospitality.

And because it is so important, food is a political issue. We have laws to make sure food is safe to eat. We campaign to make sure that those who produce food are properly rewarded. We write to our MPs because the benefit regulations, especially sanctions, mean that people in our neighbourhood don’t have enough to eat. And we set up and support Foodbanks to feed them. The latest issue is holiday hunger, when children who normally get free school meals during term time, don’t get them in the school holidays, and the families struggle to feed the kids. So St Chad’s Community Project is having special events to feed the kids twice a week during the summer holidays. There is some really good work being done, but we shouldn’t have to do it. Our society and our politics should be big enough to feed the children.

Food has always been central to politics. In the OT reading we had just now, the Israelites are in the wilderness complaining to Moses for liberating them from Egypt, because at least they got food in their oppression. In the wilderness there is nothing to eat. They may be free, but they’re not going to survive. So God gives them bread from heaven, bread that settles on the camp each night and which they gather in the morning, so that they always have enough to eat. Food is never just food. God was trying to teach the Israelites about trusting in him, about living their lives with God at the centre.

And so we’re touching on another point there: food is essential, food is political, and food is also spiritual. Ultimately, God gives it to us. God gives us life and God gives us the means to go on living. So we should give thanks to God always.

The people who came to find Jesus hadn’t got it. He had fed them all from 5 loaves and 2 fishes. He was trying to teach them about turning to God, trusting in God, giving thanks to God. But free food was a big attraction. The big celeb preacher was a big attraction. The promise of a better life was a big attraction. They wanted all of that. They wanted easy food, easy politics, easy religion. And if they made Jesus king, he would give them everything they ever wanted. Maybe. Maybe.

But that’s not what it was about. And Jesus tries to tell them that: “You’re just wanting the free food,” he says, but that whole miracle thing – it wasn’t about the meal, it was about your relationship with God. Faith is like bread, as essential to your life as the food you eat, but you’re just focussing on the food that fills your bellies. Look a little higher, come a little closer to your God – have faith, have trust.

And the people reply: Moses the liberator, our hero, gave us food every day for 40 years, not just one huge picnic on the mountain. Prove to us that you are as good as Moses.

And Jesus points out: it wasn’t Moses that gave you that food, it was my Father in heaven. The bread of God comes from heaven giving life to the world.

And they say: Yeah! So give us bread, every day, give us bread. Maybe they would believe if they got free food every day, like their ancestors in the wilderness.

Jesus spells it out to them in words of one syllable: I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never by hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Jesus is talking faith again. Jesus nurtures our hungry souls. Jesus refreshes us deep down. When we look to Jesus, our souls will never be hungry. We will always be satisfied.

So we come week by week, here to this church, thousands of miles and two thousand years away from the gathering on the mountainside when all those people were fed, and we eat the bread of heaven. I am the bread of life, says Jesus, and he feeds us here with bread and wine, with his body and his blood.

If that’s all it means, that the bread of life is spiritual, should be bother supporting the Food Bank and Holiday Hunger? Is Jesus saying that real food doesn’t matter when our neighbours are hungry? No, not at all. Jesus feeds us, physically and spiritually. God gives us everything we put on our plates. So we give thanks to God. And as part of the way we give thanks is to make sure our neighbours are also fed. Jesus gives us spiritual food. We are nurtured here, every week. And we give thanks to God. Part of that thanksgiving is to share the food we have, spiritual and physical.

There will always be those who exploit the system, who use every opportunity to get free food. When I was at Tesco last month helping with the food collection, one woman told me: I don’t give to the Food Bank because I overheard a woman saying to her friend, “I got a parcel from the Food Bank, so I can use the money to go out tonight, because I don’t have to buy food.” But for every one who swings the lead, there are dozens of genuinely hungry needy people.

Jesus feeds us, body, mind and spirit. And he calls on us to share our food, physical and spiritual, with all those who have need.