The Magazine Each month we hope to include some of the main articles from the present magazine. Click on the article you wish to read Message from Fr. Graham Saint of the month A Message from Father Graham July 2008 Dear Friends, 1st July this year is the eighteenth anniversary of my ordination to the diaconate in Lichfield Cathedral. The ordination to the diaconate is the great turning point for anyone called to the Sacred Ministry. One day you are an ordinand, the next day a clergyman or woman - a clerk in holy orders - to be precise, with all the expectations - your own and other people's, that go with that office. The long period of testing and preparation is over. There is another year to go before the culmination of being a priest and celebrating Mass for the first time. It is, however, becoming a deacon which makes the great change in life, for it is then that the particular ministry of those called to be ordained really begins.

The word 'deacon' comes from the Greek and means 'servant' and we actually talk of 'serving one's Title' in a parish. I served mine in the parish of Berkswich in Stafford (pronounced Barks Which) from July 1990 — Sept 1994. To the world outside, the newly ordained deacon is clergy, s/he wears a 'dog collar' and so is expected to be omni competent !! The truth of the matter is that s/he is just beginning a life-time in the ordained ministry of growing and learning in faith and experience.

Now as I look back to that time I shudder when, in hindsight I realise how inexperienced and unprepared I really was, in spite of all the training, exams in and about Theology. Looking back I also see how very different the church is today from that of just 1990. The whole concept of ministry I think has changed. The emphasis now is now on the belief that it is 'The shared ministry of the whole people of God' which is the basis for all ministry and pastoral strategy'. Every church has a part to play in the ministry of the church and the ordained ministry is only a part of the whole. The ordained member is now very much an enabler, teaching and training the people of God, the whole congregation, to minister to others and to one another. Hopefully the ordained minister is no longer expected to be an expert in all fields. Hopefully s/he is aware that there are many people who can do some things in the parish better and will allow them to exercise their God given gifts to His glory.

It is important to understand the meaning of ordination to the diaconate and to the priesthood. Ordination is not just being appointed to a job or an office. Ordination is the giving of a divine gift, through the laying on of hands by a bishop. Jesus said to the Apostles 'Receive the Holy Spirit' and it is our Lord's words which are used at an ordination when the bishop lays his hands on the head of the person being ordained deacon or priest. The bishop prays 'Send down the Holy Spirit upon your servant for the office and work of a deacon/ priest in your church'. Thus power is received from God and authority is given by the church at the beginning of a life of special and sacred ministry, God's ministry, to God's people.

It is something that I hold very dear to me and something that I have never stopped thanking God for. The prayers of all who know me are also important. Whether in past parishes or present, and in return I thanks for God for each of you entrusted to my care.

An important question is, 'Where do ordinands and clergy come from?' The answer is 'From church congregations'. It is God who calls; is he calling you yourself or calling you to encourage someone else who hasn't yet fully got the message, or who is still exploring and working through their calling, in what ever way that may be. Pray for them encourage them and if it is you — ask God to direct you. And make your pray - top priority.

with every blessing
Fr. Graham

Saint of the month

This is a series that I hope will enlighten, and inform. We celebrate many Saints Days in the year not always knowing much about them. I hope you enjoy these Saints.

St. Withburga - Virgin. AD743.
Feast Day 8^th July
She was the youngest of the holy daughters of Anna, King of the East Angles. Like her sisters, she devoted herself to the divine service, and led an austere life in solitude for several years at Holkham, near the sea-coast market-town in Norfolk, where a church dedicated in her honour was afterwards built. After the death of her father she changed her dwelling to Dereham, now a market-town in Norfolk but then an obscure retired place. Withburga assembled there some devout maidens, and laid the foundation of a church and nunnery, but did not live to finish the buildings. Her death happened on 17th March, 743. Her body was interred in the churchyard at East Dereham and fifty years after found incorrupt and translated into the church. In 974, Brithnoth, Abbot of Ely, removed it to Ely, and deposited it near bodies of her two sisters. In 1106 the remains of four saints were translated into the new church and laid near the high altar. The bodies of St. Sexburga and St. Ermenilda were reduced to dust, except the bones. That of Etheldreda was entire, and that of St. Withburga was not only sound but also fresh, and the limbs flexible. This is related by Thomas, monk of Ely, in his history of Ely, which he wrote the following year; he also tells us that in the place where St. Withburga was first buried, in the churchyard of Dereham, a spring of clear water gushed forth: it is to this day called St. Withburga's well.

Fr. Graham.