TWO additions to the Common Worship calendar were welcomed when they received their first consideration on the Sunday afternoon.
This was the first time that the Synod had engaged in liturgical business for 12 years, the National Liturgical Adviser, the Revd Dr Matthew Salisbury, said in a presentation. Reminding members how the process worked under the Standing Orders, he said: “These procedures may appear painstaking, but they are a good thing,” to ensure that the Church’s worship was carefully tested and shaped by the Synod.
Introducing the debate, the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, who chairs the Liturgical Commission and the steering committee, said that the church calendar did not just “recall events”, but drew Christians into them. The two proposed additions were a Festival of God the Creator, and a Commemoration of the Twenty-One Martyrs of Libya. Both expressed truths at the heart of Christian worship and discipleship, Dr Ipgrave said.
The festival was not about worshipping “Mother Nature” or an expression of our ecological crisis. Rather, it was about responding to God as maker of all things “visible and invisible”, as the Nicene Creed declared. “Creation is not silent: it is a choir, and we are invited to join in the chorus,” Dr Ipgrave said.
In 1989, the then Ecumenical Patriarch had invited all Christians to observe 1 September as a day of prayer for the protection of creation. The day had since gained momentum. It was now being given formal liturgical shape, for example, in a new Roman Catholic mass for the care of creation. The feast must not be reduced either to “nature mysticism or moral exhortation”, Dr Ipgrave said, but “affirm our vocation as stewards of this world”.
The second addition would commemorate the Libyan martyrs on 15 February. In 2015, 21 Coptic Christian men and one Ghanaian had been captured by the Islamic State terrorist group and filmed being executed on a Libyan beach for their faith.
“They died praying, the name of the Lord on their lips,” Dr Ipgrave said. The RC Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church already commemorated these martyrs. This change would allow the Church of England to affirm that martyrdom was not confined to the ancients, but a present reality. It would be a reminder of the importance of religious freedom and underline the unity of the global Church.
Sam Atkins/Church TimesArchbishop Angaelos of London (Coptic Church) addresses the Synod by videolink
The Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd Jonathan Baker (Southern Suffragans), said that the murders should remind the Synod of the “ecumenism of martyrdom”, and the fact that martyrs were killed for their Christian faith, not for their particular Church. Welcoming both proposed additions, he cited a cross-denominational list of figures who asserted the importance of celebrating creation.
Archbishop Angaelos of London (Coptic Church), speaking via video, was deeply moved that the C of E was keen to recognise the martyrs of Libya, describing this as a “remarkable expression of unity”. Throughout its history, his Church, as many others, had been “blessed by the heritage of martyrdom”.
The video of the 21 men on the beach had been intended to instil fear and intimidate the Church, but had “had entirely the opposite effect”, he said. To their last breath, the men had uttered the name of their Lord Jesus Christ. Since that day, “the light has shone”. On their feast day last year, he had visited the village from which most of them came and had prayed with their families. There was no anger or sense of defeat there, he reported, but a jubilation in life. It was by standing together that the Church could show the world that there was hope, he concluded.
Dr Cathy Rhodes (Sheffield), a diocesan environmental officer, said that the Church was leading in the area of creation care. There were already a season of Creationtide and a steady growth of parishes gaining EcoChurch awards. The new feast would build on that by providing liturgical resources, she said.
Canon Tim Bull (St Albans) asked members to imagine that they had a rocket ship that could orbit the earth in a second. Even at that speed, to get to the next nearest star to earth after the sun, would take 33 years. “Our universe is vast and amazing and complex,” he said, “but how much greater the Creator?”
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen, gave his “unequivocal” backing to the commemoration of the martyrs. He also paid tribute to Archbishop Angaelos, whom he described as a “dear friend” of the C of E and a “tireless advocate” for religious freedom.
Focusing on individual stories helped to break through “blandly impersonal numbers”. “The story of the Twenty-One is compelling,” he said, and adopting the feast day would better shape the “comfortable” Western Church’s spirituality of persecution, he said. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the martyrs refused to renounce their faith. They had died with the name of Jesus on their lips. “I have no idea how I would respond in that situation, but I know I need to ask myself that question. This commemoration would allow all of us to do that,” the Bishop concluded.
Lucy Docherty (Portsmouth) had attended a recent World Council of Churches meeting in Johannesburg, at which, she said, there had been much excitement about the inauguration of the Festival of God the Creator as an ecumenical feast day that would be celebrated at the same time by all Churches. It would not replace the Church of England’s Harvest Festival, but it was something that everyone around the world could join.
The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, who is the lead bishop for the environment, welcomed the new feast, recognising its broad ecumenical support. There was a need for a spiritual transformation — an “ecological conversion”, in the words of Pope Francis — and this could help, he said. It would contribute to the “restitching of our torn Christian life”, bringing the C of E into deeper communion with the global Church.
Fr Thomas Seville CR (Religious Communities) welcomed both proposals, especially the Trinitarian nature of the Festival of God the Creator. He hoped that the liturgical resources would focus on Christ as the Creator: “In him all things rest and have their being.”
Rachel Jepson (Birmingham), vice-chair of the C of E’s Council for Christian Unity, said that it was fully supportive of the Festival of God the Creator. It regarded this as a great example of “receptive ecumenism”.
The Revd Abigail Walsh (Lichfield) said that her diocese’s “green team” had realised that, more important than information, resources, or funding was a “spiritual movement”: a pattern of prayer and rule of life to direct Christians to love God the Creator and all creation. “Let us repent, and let us be changed,” she said.
There was a danger when remembering martyrs, the Revd Dr Ben Sargent (Winchester) said, of focusing on the perpetrators in a way that inflamed tensions; but the Church had always avoided this.
Nadine Daniel (Liverpool), a member of the steering committee, recalled that 2015 was also the year of the publication of Laudato Si’. Creationtide resources were wonderful aids for Bible study, prayer, contemplation, evangelism, and environmental activism, she said. She had Coptic friends in Liverpool, who had long since commemorated the martyrs.
Nicola Denyer (Newcastle) suggested that the commemoration would prompt UK Christians to realise that some issues that they faced might be considered “petty”, and to recognise the sacrifices that others had made for their faith.
Sammi Tooze (York), a member of the Liturgical Commission, said that the calendar offered a framework for a “spiritual pilgrimage”, encountering God’s story — including the stories of saints — and being changed by these.
Many parts of the Anglican Communion continued to experience political instability, and Christians in many parts of the world were persecuted, Philip Baldwin (London) said. Libyan martyrs were migrant workers, a group often subject to hardships, he said.
The Bishop of Ely, the Rt Revd Dagmar Winter, the Bishop of Huntingdon, said that the commemoration would be “vital, chastening, and inspiring”. She also welcomed the feast of God the Creator, speaking of her ecumenical work with bishops across Europe, who, she said, were entirely in agreement with this move.
The Synod committed the business to a revision committee.
Read more reports from the General Synod digest here
