TWO additions to the Common Worship calendar were welcomed after they received their first consideration on the Sunday afternoon.
This was the primary time that the Synod had engaged in liturgical business for 12 years, the National Liturgical Adviser, the Revd Dr Matthew Salisbury, said in a presentation. Reminding members how the method worked under the Standing Orders, he said: “These procedures may appear painstaking, but they’re thing,” to make sure that the Church’s worship was fastidiously tested and shaped by the Synod.
Introducing the controversy, the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, who chairs the Liturgical Commission and the steering committee, said that the church calendar did not only “recall events”, but drew Christians into them. The two proposed additions were a Festival of God the Creator, and a Commemoration of the Twenty-One Martyrs of Libya. Both expressed truths at the guts of Christian worship and discipleship, Dr Ipgrave said.
The festival was not about worshipping “Mother Nature” or an expression of our ecological crisis. Rather, it was about responding to God as maker of all things “visible and invisible”, because the Nicene Creed declared. “Creation shouldn’t be silent: it’s a choir, and we’re invited to hitch within the chorus,” Dr Ipgrave said.
In 1989, the then Ecumenical Patriarch had invited all Christians to look at 1 September as a day of prayer for the protection of creation. The day had since gained momentum. It was now being given formal liturgical shape, for instance, in a recent Roman Catholic mass for the care of creation. The feast must not be reduced either to “nature mysticism or moral exhortation”, Dr Ipgrave said, but “affirm our vocation as stewards of this world”.
The second addition would commemorate the Libyan martyrs on 15 February. In 2015, 21 Coptic Christian men and one Ghanaian had been captured by the Islamic State terrorist group and filmed being executed on a Libyan beach for his or her faith.
“They died praying, the name of the Lord on their lips,” Dr Ipgrave said. The RC Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church already commemorated these martyrs. This change would allow the Church of England to affirm that martyrdom was not confined to the ancients, but a gift reality. It can be a reminder of the importance of spiritual freedom and underline the unity of the worldwide Church.
Sam Atkins/Church TimesArchbishop Angaelos of London (Coptic Church) addresses the Synod by videolink
The Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd Jonathan Baker (Southern Suffragans), said that the murders should remind the Synod of the “ecumenism of martyrdom”, and the indisputable fact that martyrs were killed for his or her Christian faith, not for his or her particular Church. Welcoming each proposed additions, he cited a cross-denominational list of figures who asserted the importance of celebrating creation.
Archbishop Angaelos of London (Coptic Church), speaking via video, was deeply moved that the C of E was keen to recognise the martyrs of Libya, describing this as a “remarkable expression of unity”. Throughout its history, his Church, as many others, had been “blessed by the heritage of martyrdom”.
The video of the 21 men on the beach had been intended to instil fear and intimidate the Church, but had “had entirely the other effect”, he said. To their last breath, the boys had uttered the name of their Lord Jesus Christ. Since that day, “the sunshine has shone”. On their feast day last yr, he had visited the village from which most of them got here and had prayed with their families. There was no anger or sense of defeat there, he reported, but a jubilation in life. It was by standing together that the Church could show the world that there was hope, he concluded.
Dr Cathy Rhodes (Sheffield), a diocesan environmental officer, said that the Church was leading in the realm of creation care. There were already a season of Creationtide and a gentle growth of parishes gaining EcoChurch awards. The recent feast would construct on that by providing liturgical resources, she said.
Canon Tim Bull (St Albans) asked members to assume that they’d a rocket ship that might orbit the earth in a second. Even at that speed, to get to the following nearest star to earth after the sun, would take 33 years. “Our universe is vast and amazing and sophisticated,” he said, “but how much greater the Creator?”
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen, gave his “unequivocal” backing to the commemoration of the martyrs. He also paid tribute to Archbishop Angaelos, whom he described as a “dear friend” of the C of E and a “tireless advocate” for religious freedom.
Focusing on individual stories helped to interrupt through “blandly impersonal numbers”. “The story of the Twenty-One is compelling,” he said, and adopting the feast day would higher shape the “comfortable” Western Church’s spirituality of persecution, he said. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the martyrs refused to resign their faith. They had died with the name of Jesus on their lips. “I do not know how I might respond in that situation, but I do know I would like to ask myself that query. This commemoration would allow all of us to do this,” the Bishop concluded.
Lucy Docherty (Portsmouth) had attended a recent World Council of Churches meeting in Johannesburg, at which, she said, there had been much excitement concerning the inauguration of the Festival of God the Creator as an ecumenical feast day that might be celebrated at the identical time by all Churches. It wouldn’t replace the Church of England’s Harvest Festival, but it surely was something that everybody all over the world could join.
The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, who’s the lead bishop for the environment, welcomed the brand new feast, recognising its broad ecumenical support. There was a necessity for a spiritual transformation — an “ecological conversion”, within the words of Pope Francis — and this might help, he said. It would contribute to the “restitching of our torn Christian life”, bringing the C of E into deeper communion with the worldwide Church.
Fr Thomas Seville CR (Religious Communities) welcomed each proposals, especially the Trinitarian nature of the Festival of God the Creator. He hoped that the liturgical resources would give attention to Christ because the Creator: “In him all things rest and have their being.”
Rachel Jepson (Birmingham), vice-chair of the C of E’s Council for Christian Unity, said that it was fully supportive of the Festival of God the Creator. It regarded this as an awesome example of “receptive ecumenism”.
The Revd Abigail Walsh (Lichfield) said that her diocese’s “green team” had realised that, more vital than information, resources, or funding was a “spiritual movement”: a pattern of prayer and rule of life to direct Christians to like God the Creator and all creation. “Let us repent, and allow us to be modified,” she said.
There was a danger when remembering martyrs, the Revd Dr Ben Sargent (Winchester) said, of specializing in the perpetrators in a way that inflamed tensions; however the Church had all the time avoided this.
Nadine Daniel (Liverpool), a member of the steering committee, recalled that 2015 was also the yr of the publication of Laudato Si’. Creationtide resources were wonderful aids for Bible study, prayer, contemplation, evangelism, and environmental activism, she said. She had Coptic friends in Liverpool, who had long since commemorated the martyrs.
Nicola Denyer (Newcastle) suggested that the commemoration would prompt UK Christians to grasp that some issues that they faced is likely to be considered “petty”, and to recognise the sacrifices that others had made for his or her faith.
Sammi Tooze (York), a member of the Liturgical Commission, said that the calendar offered a framework for a “spiritual pilgrimage”, encountering God’s story — including the stories of saints — and being modified by these.
Many parts of the Anglican Communion continued to experience political instability, and Christians in lots of parts of the world were persecuted, Philip Baldwin (London) said. Libyan martyrs were migrant staff, a gaggle often subject to hardships, he said.
The Bishop of Ely, the Rt Revd Dagmar Winter, the Bishop of Huntingdon, said that the commemoration can be “vital, chastening, and provoking”. She also welcomed the feast of God the Creator, speaking of her ecumenical work with bishops across Europe, who, she said, were entirely in agreement with this move.
The Synod committed the business to a revision committee.
Read more reports from the General Synod digest here
