Ordinations at the Cathedral on Saturday 29th June 2024
We were delighted to celebrate the ordinations of Darran Hickery, Sonia Parkin and Mairwen Large on Saturday.
The sermon given by the Venerable Peter Brooks, Archdeacon of Swansea and Brecon, skillfully put the ceremony into context and so an edited version of it appears below. Photos from the event can be found on the website.
‘Part of this celebration is about the family and friends who have supported the ordinands on their journey so far. They have seen them through the highs and lows of the testing process that has brought them to Brecon Cathedral and so they are to be celebrated and thanked. They are the ones who have seen them struggle with deadlines for essays, with difficult situations in their placements, but they have also seen the elation and joy and downright thankfulness to a God that has brought them so far.
All three are different and thank God for that, because God does not call only one type of super Holy Person who is clever and Godly and never makes a mistake or does anything wrong. God calls Human beings like you and me to serve his church. Human beings are flawed and yet are called, by a God who knows them intimately and lovingly, to serve him in a special way in His Church as he has done for over 2000 years and will continue to do so.
In the story of the Prodigal Son we have the image of the father who sees his son and, whilst the son is still far off, he lifts his garment, runs to him without any dignity to throw his arms around his son’s neck and joyfully welcome him home. This is the image of God that I want you to hold in your mind; of a loving Father who sees and knows us even when we don’t know him and yet longs to draw us closer into his arms so we may come to know Him, love Him and serve Him.
I too was once ‘far off’ and yet God was at work in my life nearly 40 years ago and I did not know it. When our daughter was born prematurely in Neath Hospital Andrea, my wife, prayed that if God let this little one live we would do anything, we would even go to church……
We were not a church-going or praying family but guess what? – seven years later that prayerful promise was honoured when that same little one took us all to church on a Sunday morning to show us what she and her friends had been learning about in an after school club run by the local church. The rest, as they say, is history…
During the Ordination service we heard a reading from Isaiah (6: 1-8) and I want you to claim that reading for yourself and make it your own.
For in it is confession, healing and calling:
And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
Isaiah realises that he is like any other human being and he acknowledges his shortcomings because somehow he has glimpsed the heavenly and knows he falls short of what God asks all of us to be. He knows himself but God knows him even better. However the simple fact is that he acknowledges it and in doing so he is forgiven. The symbolism here is quite amazing, the live coal and the touching of the lips indicates that Isaiah has been purified and healed in the heat of God’s forgiving love of his servant despite of himself. Isaiah is restored into a new relationship with God. But then comes the crunch, the curve ball, the unexpected, which all of our three ordinands have experienced in their lives.
God asks:
Whom shall I send?
Isaiah replies:
Here I am, send me..
Now Sonia, Mairwen and Darran have all made that similar response, God has placed a calling on their hearts, he has called them and they have responded.
The three Ordinands that sat amongst us on Saturday could probably all tell a similar tale, of calling, of testing, of doubting, of prayer, of fear and of joy. And yet, despite all the things that have happened to them on the Pilgrimage of Faith that each has made, they made some awesome promises to be servants of this God who has called them by name .
But what lies ahead?
They left Brecon Cathedral as Deacons and a Priest in God’s Church, to be greeted by family and friends, colleagues and those they are yet to know better. There were photos and gifts and there was a sense of joy….. but the real work began the following day.
Sonia returned to Oystermouth and commenced her ministry as a Deacon in the Mumbles Ministry Area where she is known and valued, where as the Rev. Sister Sonia she will continue to serve that seaside community. Darran will be the ‘new kid on the block’ in Penderri Ministry Area, where he is yet to discover them and they him. Mairwen will commence her priestly ministry in the familiar surroundings of the St Cattwg Ministry Area where she is known and valued as a good colleague and friend. However none of them left the cathedral the same person as the one who processed into it.
Yes they are still Sonia, Darran and Mairwen but they were transformed by the Holy Spirit to take up the challenges of ministry that lie ahead. For as Peter writes:
if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps
There will be times when they will have to endure but as Peter says ‘to this you have been called’.
I wish after 25 years of ministry I could say it will be otherwise but I would be lying if I said differently - they will endure times of challenge, times of doubt, times of great sadness - but God, through his Holy Spirit, will give them the strength to overcome these things.
Paul tells us: ‘God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with your testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it’ (1 Corinthians 10:13). And then they will know times of great joy and blessing - when the sermon they thought was total rubbish reaches the heart of someone in need; when their prayers seem hollow and trite and yet they speak to a situation that someone is enduring; when they do not have the words to say to someone grieving the loss of a loved one and yet later whatever was said touches them in a way that they just can’t fathom; when they sprinkle water on the first child they baptise; when they bless the first married couple who kneel before them; when they hold the hand of someone whose life is slipping away; when they sense for the first time that someone they are praying with and talking to has come to know the Lord Jesus.
So there you almost have it: not words of wisdom, not words of advice even, but words that I pray will echo in their ministries throughout the years to come.
However there are two final pieces advice I can offer and these are simply:
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Take the work of the Kingdom seriously (for that is what we are about - proclaiming the risen Jesus) but don’t take yourself too seriously or you will stifle the joy of the Spirit within you and you need that so that others can see in you the faith that you cherish and rejoice in.
Be yourself….For it is the self that God has called, the self that God knows, the self that God accepts and the self that God forgives.
Slowly and surely the Holy Spirit is working in Sonia, Darran and Mairwen, transforming them and gently moulding them for the work that lies ahead, to be the image of Christ to those who seek Him, but they should never forget before God who they truly are. They are themselves. That is the person whom God has called. If it’s is good enough for God then be confident that when, throughout this life of ministry, he calls them time and time again to be ‘sent’ somewhere or to someone they should never be afraid to respond
Here I am, send me….