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The Parish Church of St Mary and St Melor in Amesbury provided the backdrop for a service of Celebration for our Associate Clergy, and the Licensing of the Rev’d Jenny Taylor, and the Rev’d Laurence Mathew, as the Associate Ministry Support Officers for the Sarum and Wilts archdeaconries respectively.

The Bishop of Ramsbury presiding and licensing, and the Archdeacon of Sarum preaching on the Gospel of Luke; suggesting that Associate Ministry was at last becoming recognised for the sacrificial and incarnational ministry rooted where people both work and play.  In conclusion Alan suggested:

So what will this mean for us all gathered here tonight?  We celebrate all that has been—the struggle to get Associate ministry recognised and rooted into the church as a equal partnership in word and sacrament, in gospel proclamation and lived experience, in all places within community and beyond.  On behalf of the church catholic and apostolic—thank you, and please, please continue in the obedient and sacrificial way that you have companioned and partnered until now.  Our past has shaped us, and today is God’s day.  Rejoice, and give thanks.

But what about our future?  Where is that liberation in Jesus, that the church and the world long for?  That is  what I’d like the Bishops to hear from our Associate priest and deacons. I have been privileged to see Associate Ministers uproot themselves from the familiar and comfortable, and allow themselves to be replanted into new contexts of parish and workplace.

That is why we are here to celebrate—and pray that Jenny, and Laurence, with Alan, encourage and equip you in all you seek to do.  Dare we take that risk?  My biggest fear is if we do not take the risk.  Perhaps someone might dare to suggest that it is those who receive a stipend should properly companion and partner those of you, who minister in the market places and gathering spaces in daily life. But what will happen when the churches become places of freedom, healing, and proclamation of God’s today? That’s a question for all of us tonight, reflecting on our past, moving into our future, and living each day in the presence of God who sets us free, to serve him, in every place, in many ways.         Amen

Thank you to those who braved a late Sunday evening, and a cold night to pray with Jenny and Laurence as they begin there new ministry among us.  Thanks too to the people of Amesbury for their generous hospitality in hosting the service.