A message from the Dean - 15 February 2021
Dear Friends,
Lent begins this coming Wednesday – Ash Wednesday – and I wanted to reflect a little about the meaning and origins of this season. Some of its customs and practices have found a place in our memory and consciousness – giving things up, donating to charity, taking up, deliberately, attitudes of kindness and hospitality. Life-style magazines talk about the value of an annual “detox”, the happiness that comes from backing good causes and the power of positive attitudes for wellbeing. Nothing at all wrong with that – people of goodwill are often on the same page – even if we don’t buy into the narcissism of self-improvement. But from a Christian perspective Lent isn’t primarily about becoming better (though if people find us easier to live with, less self-centred and our Doctors say we’re fitter and healthier that’s all to the good).
In Old English “Lent” means Spring, the days lengthen – hence “Lent” – and signs of life begin to emerge after the coldness of winter. As we look forward to longer and warmer days, so, as a season of the Spirit, Lent prepares us to look forward to Easter, to the conquest of death by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Easter has always been the privileged time to receive Baptism (to be “Christened” – made Christ-like). Why? Because as we celebrate Jesus’s rising from the dead, this gift of new life is given to us by belonging to him. Being baptised was, and is a second birth, a way of being made one with our head, Jesus Christ and the great company of believers who are his body in the church on earth and in heaven.
Before administering this gift of Baptism, the early Church of the first three centuries developed a careful period of preparation for all new converts. This was called the “Catechumenate” – meaning a period when instruction was given about the content and practice of the Christian faith. It often began with a formal ceremony of admission when believers passed from a state of being “enquirers” into being those formally enrolled in the Christian community as learners, they were known as “catechumens” because they were undergoing “catechesis”. It was a process designed to culminate in baptism on Easter Eve.
So, you find in records of early Christian practice (eg The Apostolic Tradition attributed to Hippolytus of Rome) conditions being set for the catechumens, the learners, to fulfil. For example, artisans and craftsmen who made idols or objects used in pagan worship had to give up their business. The same was true of pimps, prostitutes and magicians. The catechumens undertook acts of ministry among the poor, the sick and those in prison. As Easter approached, and their time of baptism, they engaged in fasting, almsgiving and prayer (with members of the congregation joining them in these disciplines in a gesture of support and encouragement). The season of Lent originated from this rite of initiation which replicated Jesus’s own time of trial and temptation during his forty days of fasting in the wilderness after his baptism by John. The catechumenate, like a military boot camp, was a transitional place where an old identity was left behind and a new one prepared for and desired. As the new believers underwent this journey the community undertook the same discipline and so the bonds of love and solidarity were strengthened between all the Church’s members, the most experienced with the most recent. That emphasis on the communal is one we desperately need to re-kindle especially after this last, difficult and isolating year.
At the start of the Eucharist on Ash Wednesday there is an invitation to renew our following of Christ: “by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word”.
There’s a necessary rigour to Lent. It’s meant to be a time for change to take place. That’s why the Cathedral programme has ample opportunity for joining in with prayer and worship each day, why we put on a study course, why we attend to the needs of the marginalised; all this so that we can turn to Christ again, knowing our need and offering our love, our attention and our service. We all need a good deal of converting and reconverting in order to be half-decent Christians.
One of the startling things you will discover about churches in the Middle East and all the Eastern Orthodox churches is that they practice fasting very seriously. What this means in practice is a vegan diet, no alcohol, and a minimum of oils and fats. These aren’t world-hating ascetics. They fast in order to learn the extraordinary richness of God’s creation: we can appreciate it more if we tame our appetites for a while. Put this alongside prayer and almsgiving and one cannot but help to turn away from self a little more and so have space for God and the claims of God and neighbour on our lives. Prayer and action go together. If we have mistakenly driven a wedge between them the next six weeks allow us to bring faith and practice into harmony again.
St John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople from 398-407 gave a good account of the merits of fasting in one of his sermons directed to catechumens (learners of “the way”): “Fasting consists not merely in abstinence from food, but in withdrawing from sinful practices. Since he who limits his fasting only to an abstinence from meats is one who especially disparages it. Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him. If you see an enemy be reconciled to him. If you see a friend gaining honour, do not envy. Let not the mouth only fast but also the eye, the ear, the feet, the hands … Let the hands fast by being pure from rapine and avarice. Let the feet fast by ceasing from running to forbidden pleasures. Let the eyes fast by learning never to fix themselves rudely on human beauty. Let the ear fast also by not listening to evil speaking and calumnies. Let the mouth fast from disgraceful speeches and railing”.
This Lent we are also able to consider, at the level of the Cathedral’s future policy, some practical steps to meet and help people with difficult circumstances and few opportunities. We have just gained recognition from the Department of Work and Pensions to be a “hub” in their Kickstart programme for young people not in employment or education. We will be acting as a point of reference for parishes who can offer work experience and real jobs backed with mentoring and training. It’s a very opportune thing to do. We are working with the Children’s Society to see if we can launch a youth counselling service here. We know poor mental health among young people has become a major problem affecting all strands of society. It’s something we can address as we know we have never resourced our work with children, young people and families at all adequately. We are now preparing bids to charities and grant-making trusts to help us provide “outside the classroom” religious, social and cultural learning for the young and to support families with children and young people. This work can be the gift of an older generation to one that’s rising.
We also know that in 2022 it will be 1350 years since St Chad died after showing the love and mercy of Christ to the people of this region. We are declaring 2022 the Year of St Chad (with some curtain-raiser in the second half of 2021). Peter Walker’s statue of St Chad will be unveiled on 26 June 2021. We will want to host and launch pilgrimages from and to Lichfield and reach out to all churches and institutions dedicated to St Chad throughout the world. Watch this space for further news.
Lent is sometimes called a season of joyful sadness – yes because of regret for the mess-ups, time-wasting, pettiness and sin that disfigures our lives and that of the church but more importantly joyful because God’s love not only shows us the truth about ourselves but also draws us deep into the way his will might be done in us, and what we might amount to if we make our home in him.
Jesus said: “Make your home in me as I make mine in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you unless you make your home in me”. (St John 15:4)
With my love, prayers and blessings
Adrian Dorber
Dean of Lichfield
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