Dear Friends

A parishioner stopped me in the street last week and gripped my shoulder. ?You haven?t long now?, he said sympathetically. I was a bit taken aback. Did he know something that I didn?t? Was the bishop giving me another job? Or, worse, was my time on earth nearly up? What did he mean? ?Your ordination?, he explained. ?You?ll be your own man then?. And he winked suggestively. I like the idea of being my own man, of being a bit independent. But I can?t think of myself as a priest without thinking of all the people I?m supposed to serve. Being a priest means being related to a community.

Why? Because priesthood is defined by responsibility. In our Old Testament the high priest went into the altar wearing a breastplate engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. At Exodus 28: 29 the Lord says that the high priest:

shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the LORD continually.

This was to symbolize that when the high priest came before God he carried the people of God in his heart. He stood as their representative and prayed in their name. So being a priest means keeping God?s people in my heart, praying for them and bringing their needs before God. It means having the responsibility of representing them at the altar.

It also means representing Christ. The high priest carried God?s word back to the people. He represented God to them. And being a priest means remembering and celebrating Jesus. It means reminding people of the presence of God in our everyday lives and encouraging them to live more deeply into God. It means having the responsibility of representing God?s love.

I won?t get any supernatural powers at ordination and it won?t make me a better Christian. I?ll still be Ernest. But becoming a priest does mean taking on a new responsibility ? mediating God?s passion for the world. That?s why ordination is about the people God is calling me to serve. And that?s why I need those people to pray for me. Pray that I will grow into the likeness of Christ and learn to love the world as Jesus did. Pray that I?ll be my own man - and that I?ll be God?s man too.

Your servant

Ernest