Nine years ago, I was called to move from Sheffield to become the Bishop of Oxford. A number of people were kind enough to ask how they could pray for me across that first year.
I gave different answers at first, depending on how I was feeling that day. It was a time of mixed emotions. I felt very inadequate as I reflected on the task and the calling. There were so many things to pray for. But my answer eventually settled down to a single request. Please pray that God will give me a bigger heart. A bigger heart to love this new diocese and its people.
The prayer is drawn from one of the lines in the ordination service. It has been a privilege to share in the ordinations of our new deacons and priests over the last two weekends. In every ordination I have led there are some words I always struggle to say because they carry so much significance. The Bishop says to the candidates:
You cannot bear the weight of this calling in your own strength but only by the grace and power of God. Pray therefore that your heart may daily be enlarged and your understanding of the Scriptures enlightened. Pray earnestly for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
A big heart
All those of us who are ordained – and all those of us who are Christians - are to ask God every day for bigger, wider, softer hearts to love God’s world and to love God’s people.
The image of the big heart is taken from a text in 2 Corinthians. St Paul is wrestling to win the trust of a difficult and divided community. He lays bare his own heart, his weaknesses, his affections, his calling. He holds nothing back. And he ends his profound reflections on ministry with this appeal:
We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. There are no restrictions on our affections but only on yours. In return, I speak as to children, open wide your hearts also (2 Corinthians 6.11-13).
We are at a time in the life of the Church where we need to see more people being called into ordained ministry. Wonderful as our new deacons and priests are, there are not yet enough of them to take the place of the clergy who are coming up to the age of retirement.
A broken, hurting world
We need to see more vocations primarily because God’s world needs more love. Deacons (and therefore priests) are agents of God’s purposes of love in every place, enabling the whole Church to love the whole world. God needs more people with big hearts, to love this broken, hurting world in practical acts of care and kindness.
So please join me in praying for more vocations to ordained ministry in this ordination season right across our diocese and across every tradition in the Church. And pray for all God’s people, and all deacons, priests and bishops that every day God will grow our capacity to love.
A prayer for God's people
God of love
raise up we pray new deacons and priests in this season
across this Diocese of Oxford.
Knit our hearts together in your love
and fashion us into a more Christ-like Church
filled with compassion for your world,
through Jesus Christ our Lord and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen