Biskop predikar för vigning av kvinnor!

Hittade ett alldeles underbart glädjebudskap i biskop Thomas Gumbletons adventspredikan (för tredje adventssöndagen).

Vilken julklapp!

Tänk om man fick höra sånt här i kyrkan varje dag!

Får se om han får ett varningsbrev från Troskongregationen...

***

"One of the things about prophets, and Paul had told us that you not only have to not despise prophetic utterance, but put everything to the test. How do we know that a prophet is speaking for God, speaking the word of God? One of the criteria offered by scripture commentators is that the prophet will take us back to the beginning, to the ways that Jesus first gathered his disciples and spoke to them and taught them. The prophet takes us back to the beginning, to the time of Jesus and his original, authentic message, and certainly this rejection of violence takes us back to the beginning when Jesus rejected violence for any reason whatsoever.

Now there’s a second thing that Father Roy is calling us to, that I think is also a very important part of our message, in order to enliven our church, in order to make us a full community that really can be a witness to the light.

We are aware that our church is lacking in ministers, those who can speak prophetically in our public liturgy, those who can be pastoral leaders in our communities. But they are available and Father Roy has made the plea and a public statement through his action by being present at the ordination of a woman, and has urged our church and proclaimed to our church, “Go back to the beginning” when house churches -- places like we are assembled here today in a home with a small community gathered -- were led, we learned from the letters of Paul, the Acts of the Apostles, by women.

We must open ourselves to this reality, take us back to the beginning, so that we flourish in the church with new ministers, ministers who can be that prophetic voice as these women were in the beginning.

Those are two ways that Roy’s prophetic voice takes us back to the beginning, to the time of Jesus. I hope we can listen to this prophetic voice. Our whole church must listen. And there are many other prophetic voices that we have to listen to, but most of all, each of us has to try to be alert. This is one example, but there are others, and if we as a whole community of disciples of Jesus, a church -- the small community here and other communities throughout our nation, throughout the world -- truly listen to the prophetic voices in our midst, we will return to that time of Jesus when everything seemed possible. “This day, this scripture passage is fulfilled even as you listen.” "

***

Läs hela predikan här. Och läs mer om Fr. Roy här.