• Easter Sermon 2013

    In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

    Early in the morning, in the cold early light of the day, some of us gathered to celebrate this Great Feast. Bishop Gregor lit the Easter Fire outside and then we processed into church to welcome the risen Saviour with hymns and confirmations and baptisms and great rejoicing. And afterwards we made our way to the Synod Hall for a splendid breakfast rejoicing in the good news that on Easter Day there are no calories in anything.

    I was reminded as we ate our breakfast together of an Easter celebration that took place some years ago whilst I was at college.

    It was the custom in that University Chapel for a great basket of Scottish Morning Rolls to be processed to the altar to be blessed. One of the rolls would be chosen to be the bread for communion on the altar and the rest would be put to one side and then these were shared as a breakfast after the service.

    One this particular occasion, I remember the University Chaplain choosing the bread roll carefully from amongst those offered to him. It was to become the Bread of Promise after all.

    He put it upon the silver paten. He said, The Lord be With You and went on to bid us Lift Up Our Hearts.

    It was easy to do. It was Easter and our hearts were all rejoicing.

    When he finished the Eucharistic Prayer, he carefully and devoutly took the Bread of Heaven in his hands and broke it carefully. And as he did so, I thought I saw a moment of deep prayer.

    He stood frozen to the spot and then a shiver appeared to go through him. It was as though the Holy Spirit has suddenly descended upon him.

    We waited a moment and then he said, “oooh”.

    We looked at him in anticipation. (more…)

15 responses to “Listening. Talking. Discussing. LGBT”

  1. Kimberly Avatar

    Ryan, I think you are right on principle, and I know lots of churches that have made the switch in the States. It’s easy enough to do on paper, too. But somehow it is just so much easier to say LGBT than GLBT (though GBTL would be OK verbally).

  2. Kimberly Avatar

    p.s. — Kelvin, I find it a really helpful list. It seems like something that should be circulated beyond the readership of your blog (wide though that is). Clergy mailing, perhaps? Inspires? MU newsletters? My Weekly and The People’s Friend?

  3. Elizabeth Avatar
    Elizabeth

    I agree with Kimberley. It’s a very good list and has wide applicability for a number of justice issues I think. Six is a nice round number and the bolded captions are memorable with the resulting explanation clear and direct. I wonder if it could be re-worded to make a handy acrostic or is that just too kitschy? Will think more when my brain recovers from current struggle (marking).

  4. kelvin Avatar

    Thanks for all comments. (Particularly to Gina, who points us to an organisation that I previously did not know about).

    Kimberly – I’m happy for this to be reproduced with acknowledgement and happy for others to point towards it from other blogs.

    I’ve not been clever enough to make an acrostic. Personally, I think that I use chiasma more frequently when speaking in public than I use acrostics.

  5. Kimberly Avatar

    and presumably chiasm is the correct form for this discussion anyway.

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