Ordination at St Woolos

For the third day in a row, I drove East down the M4 towards Newport, the previous two times to go to our radio supplier in Chepstow, and this morning to Newport, for the ordination service at Saint Woolos Cathedral. Among those presented were four students  from St Mikes - 'Becca and Phil to be made Deacon, Rufus and Will to be ordained priest. The first three were all in my tutor group. 

Rufus asked if I would be among those to approach close enough to lay hands on him with the Bishop with direct contact. There are always dozens of priests who want to share this moment and only a few are able to get close enough, so the candidate is surrounded by a forest of waving extended arms, when the Bishops says "Send the Holy Spirit upon this your servant ..." I felt greatly honoured to be asked, and when the time came I was moved to recall my own unrepeatable moment of intimate attention at the heart of what Bishop Richard referred to as "a holy scrum".

When Archbishop Glyn Simon laid hands on me to ordain me as a priest forty four years ago, his hands had the slight tremble of a man starting to be vulnerable with the beginnings of Parkinson's disease. But his were not the only hands on my head or shoulders or back. This experience of the Spirit at this moment is one of great solidarity. Whether you're a candidate or one of the participants, there's a sense of sharing in this few seconds which is unlike any other moment when, as a minister, you're called to lay hands on someone.

It was  lovely sitting in the brightly sunlit chancel after receiving Communion. There were over five hundred people present, and the distribution inevitably took some time, but the choir sang, and the time of waiting and giving thanks was most pleasurable. Then, after greeting the newly ordained in the churchyard outside afterwards, I returned to Cardiff, did some weekend shopping and went home to relax and savour the experience over again.