Tag: Faith

Battered & Bruised but not defeated

Archbishop of Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum addressing the Church of England General Synod
in York on July 15th.

The address given by Archbishop Hosam about the situation in the Holy Land was so moving that the Archbishop received two standing ovations and was held deeply in prayer. This is the Report from the Anglican Commmunion News Service (ACNS) and other sources.

In his address Bishop Naoum said that hospitals continue to be bombed in Gaza, with medical supplies in short supply and a ‘horrifying’ system of food distribution, comparable to the dystopian series The Hunger Games, with three sites open one hour a day for two million people.
Calling for a restoration of humanitarian supplies including food and medicine, under UN supervision, Archbishop Hosam said there should be no targeting of civilians, especially emergency workers and medical staff.
He called for the release of all hostages and captives and a permanent ceasefire for the end of the war and rebuilding of Gaza – ‘not ethnic cleansing that is presently being discussed by the Israeli and US Government.”

As always,the church is committed to peace building and reconciliation – a message that he has repeated ‘time and time again’ – but these are ‘alien terms’ that people across both sides of the divide refuse to talk about or even listen to, he said.
“I realise that as a church we live and embody the gospel and we are not politicians.
However, we need to speak out in the face of injustices and be prophetic for the sake of our people and our calling as Christians.”

“I’m grateful for the (Church of England) House of Bishops’ statements that have been taking our story as Christians in the Middle East and especially in Jerusalem, very seriously.”

Archbishop Hosam spoke of his desire for peace in the region, for the humanitarian aid system to be reformed and for an end to acts which oppose the Geneva Conventions. He stated that, “Medical supplies are in short supply. The food distribution system is horrifying.

“Advocacy is urgently needed for Israel’s adherence to the Geneva Conventions, as its current practices are unacceptable.” He called for “no bombing of hospitals, lifting of the siege, restoration of humanitarian supplies, including food and medicine, under UN supervision, no targeting of civilians, especially emergency workers and medical staff and the release of all hostages and captives.” 
In the face of this, Bishop Hosam said that “We are battered and bruised but not crushed.”. As a Church we must be committed to peace and reconciliation and be deeply committed to our Lord’s teaching of Peace and Love. We are called to a ministry of presence and resilience and of support, sustenance and healing. The Church is call to be a source of hope in an hopeless situation, but where a church is wounded and constrained, we need the wider body of Christ to help us to be the church in brutal and damaging times.”

The Most Revd Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York in the Church of England, led a prayer for Archbishop Hosam at the conclusion of his address.

“Father, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We thank God for the faithfulness, friendship and ministry of our dear brother Hosam. We cry out to you for peace and justice in our world and especially in Israel, Palestine, in Gaza and in that whole region. We ask for the leading of your spirit, for the peace of your world. We ask this in Jesus’ name.”

In the words of Archbishop Hosam, with people around the world, we pray:

O God of all justice and peace
we cry out to you in the midst of the pain and trauma
of violence and fear which prevails in the Holy Land.  
Be with those who need you in these days of suffering;
we pray for people of all faiths – Jews, Muslims and Christians and for all people of the land.  
While we pray to you, O Lord, for an end to violence and the establishment of peace,
we also call for you to bring justice and equity to the peoples.
Guide us into your kingdom
where all people are treated with dignity and honour as your children
for, to all of us, you are our Heavenly Father.  
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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The Most Reverend Hosam Naoum is the 15th Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, a role he has held since 2021. He was born in Haifa and grew up in Shefa’amr in Galilee.

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem is home to about 7,000 Anglicans worshipping within twenty-eight different congregations. It is also responsible for more than thirty institutions, including hospitals, schools, clinics and rehabilitation centres. The Diocese is scattered across five separate countries or territories: Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.

[Compiled by Mr G]

My Lord and My God

St.Thomas shares his thoughts on the eve of his feast day. (July 3rd)
See: John’s Gospel Ch20. v. 24-29

I was not there when the Lord in Risen Glory broke the locked door
of the upper Room.
Brilliantly alive and carrying joy.
Resurrection Joy!

Full of a renewed sense of their call by God
my friends loved telling me what I had missed.
Had they made it up as a way of dealing with their grief?
Mourning takes interesting forms sometimes.
They were quite smug though so was it a but of one-upmanship?

Yet I wanted to believe them!
It was too good to be true, so I was filled with uncertainty.
That is when I doubted what they told me
and that moment was to define me
not just then but for all time.
I gave my name to all doubters.
Even those who did not share faith.

I don’t know what made me do it.
I really wanted to believe what my friends told me.
“Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands…
I will not believe!”
My longing was so deep.
But with those words, I had missed the chance.
My heart was heavy, my soul seemingly cast adrift.

Eight days later we gathered again,
to pray; to break bread;
to find in each other’s company, a kind of solace.

Then, like a whirlwind of sheer light, HE came again.
He looked at me, not with sadness, or anger or in a dismissive way.
“Thomas”, he said, “my dear delightful Thomas. Always loyal,
always a bit too eager, always sure. Come here.”
He beckoned me to his side.

Gently, lovingly, he invited me to inspect his wounds.
“Don’t doubt Thomas. Believe!”

My inner spirit burst with joy, my soul reached out to heaven.
From the seed-bed of my praying I placed words around a thought
I had long been praying silently in my heart.
A praying which became so strong because I had wrestled with doubt.

It was a prayer that flowed from the deepest faith possible.
“MY LORD AND MY GOD!”

There! I had prayed it! Aloud!

People may still use my doubting to justify their unbelief but
I had reached beyond that into the very depth of my soul
and I said that word which is all Jesus needs
to lift us up into the beauteous light of eternal life.
Here, Now and Always!
Yes, Lord!

Jesus, our Risen Master, our Lord, Our God held me in his
radiant smile and looked around at all of us gathered there.
“I am indeed your Lord. I am indeed your God,
but never forget to tell people what I tell you now,
I love you.
I am your most loving friend!

{Mr G}

Humanity Cries Out!

Pope Leo XIV: ‘Humanity cries out and pleads for peace’

Pope Leo XIV appealed for an end to the tragedy of war, especially in the Middle East, and recalls that war only amplifies problems and creates deep wounds without providing lasting solutions.
“Alarming news continues to arrive from the Middle East, especially from Iran,” said Pope Leo on Sunday at the Angelus address.
The Holy Father’s words came just hours after US bombers struck nuclear sites in Iran, as Israel and Iran carry out strikes on each other’s territory.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine,” continued the Pope, “the daily suffering of the population—especially in Gaza and other territories—risks being forgotten, even as the need for adequate humanitarian aid becomes ever more urgent.”
“Today more than ever, humanity cries out and pleads for peace,” he said.
The Pope said the cry for peace “demands responsibility and reason and must not be drowned out by the roar of weapons or by rhetorical words that incite conflict.”
Pope Leo urged every member of the international community to take up their moral responsibility to “stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”
When human dignity is at stake, he said, no conflict is distant.
“War does not solve problems,” noted the Pope. “On the contrary, it amplifies them and causes deep wounds in the history of peoples—wounds that take generations to heal. No military victory can ever compensate for a mother’s pain, a child’s fear, or a stolen future.”
In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV expressed his hope for the din of arms to fall silent.
“Let diplomacy silence the weapons!” he said. “Let nations shape their future with works of peace, not through violence and bloody conflicts!”

[Devin Watkins. Vatican News]

{Mr G 23rd June 2025}

Sheer Love

Yesterday, the Christian Church celebrated the  feast of Corpus Christi. This is the time  we gather to give thanks that at the Last Supper, our Lord Jesus gave us this memorial of his Passion. Through this sacrament he brought us its saving power until the end of time.In this Sacrament he feeds God’s people and strengthens us in holiness, so that the family of humankind may come to walk in the light of one faith, in one communion of love.

That’s quite a big statement and certainly more fulsome that that of Queen Elizabeth I who, of the Eucharist, said:
His was the Word that spake it,
He took the bread and brake it,
And what that Word doth make it,
I do believe and take it.

Both statements express a profound understanding of the Eucharist and, in some way, point us to the appeal of this Sacrament to the Church and to the life and journey of Christians. This journey is a pilgrimage of Love in response to the Sheer Love of God.

This Pilgrimage began in the story of the Church at the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday. This is a day of mixed solemnity, of festivity and leave-taking; of fellowship and parting; of instruction and acts of service.Overshadowing it is the Trial, Passion, Crucifixion and death of Jesus.
Only after Easter did it begin to make sense and the Eucharist take a rightful and central place in the Church.

Which is why, on the first free Thursday after the Easter Season, the Church keeps this Day of Thanksgiving for our Lord’s gift of this Blessed Sacrament, and its place at the spiritual heart of the Christian Community.

Dom Gregory Dix, in his monumental study of the Eucharist and Liturgy, The Shape of the Liturgy. reminds us of this
Ever since the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, throughout the ages and throughout the world, the Eucharist has been done, in every conceivable circumstance….
He goes on the give a picture of this in a list which begins :
There has been no better thing than this to do for kings and Queens at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church… for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination  … in thankfulness for recovery from illness… on the beach at Dunkirk…by an old nun on the fiftieth anniversary of her vows; furtively by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously for the canonization of Mother Teresa…….
to which I may add:
For an old priest at his funeral after years of Godly Service; for Marion who painstakingly taught the faith to a would-be Christian; and Mollie, a lover of Christ who received Holy Communion moments before death; For a dear friend, returning from a Cathedral in the early morning after Confirmation by her bishop; for a student trying to make sense of his father’s death and finding comfort and nearness to him in the bread and the wine: for a retired Archbishop who delighted in celebrating the Eucharist in a College Chapel, looking forward to a breakfast of sausage and beans; and for Mary whose faith sang out joyfully in hymns in in housekeeping for her Vicar; for an autistic child ,eagerly holding out his hands to receive the holy wafer, eyes filled with laughter and wonder; for a South African Dean who in the days of Apartheid was imprisoned for giving Communion to black and white people, who in a cell where he was given even no water, celebrated  a spiritual Eucharist with nothing but his memory of words he sensed a world at prayer for him; for Girl Guides gathered around a cauldron of Guiness Stew at camp after receiving simple Holy Communion; For Ishbel who, having looked after her deeply ill sister all through the night, knelt in the chapel each morning to receive Communion before rushing off to teach the little ones in the Cathedral Song School through lessons tinged with laughter and fun; along the woodland trail  of the Camino, people knelt and prayed; in peoples;’ homes in Holy Week; and for those circling the altar at a family Service; and those renewing vows of faithful ministry at the Chrism Mass on Maundy Thursday; Splendidly for thousands and thousands of those who waved off a Pope on his way to Heaven; and for a elderly lady in simplicity by an armchair at a Home Communion; at a hospital bed, at the profession of  a Nun and a Lover of God….

And for you and you, and you….

and all who gather, week by week and month by month, on a hundred successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across the Parishes of Christendom, the Church has celebrated the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup. (Dix)

And why do we do this?

Luigi Santucci, an Italian novelist who wrote a remarkable book about Jesus, Wrestling with Christ,  tells  it like this.

At this point I see Jesus’s eyes wandering around over the remains of the bread on the table-cloth and then shining with ineffable inspiration: this, this would be his hiding place. That’s where he would take refuge. That night they would not capture him in his entirety….So he stretched out his hand over the already broken bread, broke it into smaller bits raising it into the air. This is my body, it’s been given for you

 He would hide himself in that bread.
But He would not remain hidden.
Whenever we gather around the table of the Eucharist Jesus goes on revealing himself to us. This amazing miracle which began in a point of time goes on endlessly and week after week, day after day, we gather with Jesus, as it were on the hillside and he feeds us.
In the Upper Room our Lord seeks and finds a way not simply by which we shall remember him as we remember our first lover or first car – but how we can re-member, call to mind and heart and spirit,  just how much he loves us – and how, because of that love, he wants to be with us – feeding us with the food of eternal life.  He enfolds us in his arms of mercy, in his embrace of sheer love, freely and joyfully given.

Do this, our Lord tells us.
And we do – gladly!

On behalf of our Lord Jesus, those who are privileged to be a part of God’s continuous reaching out in Love, His priests, offer not just the Lord’s Supper but all that follows as a result.
What follows for priests is a constant ministry of trying to make God REAL for others. This was a key mantra of Sidney Evans when he was Dean of King’s College, London.

I have not always succeeded but I do know that We all make God REAL for others when we make ourselves REAL to God at the moment God reaches out and is REAL to us in out of sheer love, not least in this Most Holy and Blessed Sacrament.

In some lovely words of Fred Kaan, in his hymn put peace into each other’s hands, I see this Realness of God’s Love in action especially in two verses which centre us on the Eucharist.

As at communion, shape your hands
into a waiting cradle;
the gift of Christ receive, revere,
united round the table.

Put Christ into each other’s hands
he is love’s deepest measure;
in love make peace, give peace a chance
and share it like a treasure.

Receive, Revere , Respond, Make Real.
The World needs that from us.

Amen

[Mr G. a sermon at St. Mary-at-Latton. Corpus Christi 2025]

[][][] Dom Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy, a study of development was first published in 1945.
A new edition was published in 2015.

{}{}{} Wrestling with Christ, by Luigi Santussi was published by Harper Collins in 1972 both as a hard-back but also in paperback. Previously owned copies are often available. Try Abe Books

[][][] Fred Kaan, minister, pastor,hymn-writer and poet. The quote comes from his moving hymn: Put Peace into each other’s hands.
it is often sung. He wrote many hymns which are devotional poems.
A Collection of his hymns (Hymn texts of Fred Kaan) was publishd by Stainer and Bell
(Hope publishing company in USA) in 1985. It is available as a previously owned copy
and is well worth hunting for it because it contains Fred’s fascinating story which includes an account
of his early life in the Nederlands, a time which spanned the German Occupation.

{}{}{} The Quote from Queen Elizabeth the First is well known and is proof that she was her father’s daughter!
At least in the respect that she inherited King Henry VIII’s grasp of Christian Theology.