Here in the Diocese of York, we call our response to the Church of England’s Vision and Strategy and its invitation to be a Christ-centred and a Jesus Christ shaped Church, Living Christ’s story. We imagine and envisage our life of missionary discipleship to be as if, led by the Spirit, we are writing the next chapter in the Acts of the Apostles, the chapter for this bit of Yorkshire in this day and for the people and communities we serve. And when Jesus says at the end of St John’s Gospel, ‘As the Father sent me, I am sending you’ (John 20: 21); and when at the end of Matthew’s gospel, he says ‘Go into all the world and make disciples’ (Matthew 28: 19); and when St Paul says to the church in Corinth that they are a ‘letter from Christ… written by the Spirit of the living God’ (2 Cor. 3: 3), it is as if God is handing us the pen, entrusting to us his mission of love to the world and asking us, imploring us, to be his presence in the world. And of course, the foundation and the inspiration for this is the living word of God that bursts forth from the pages of scripture and lodges in our hearts and minds, changing them and shaping them so that we, indeed, become that love letter from God. But for this address, knowing that it is scripture, but also the way that scripture shapes and is shaping the lives of so many others who then become these love letters from God, there are two other books I want to mention as well.
When I first went to see my parish priest, Fr Ernie Stroud, one time member of this Synod, and spoke with him, aged about 20, about a possible vocation to the priesthood, he gave me two books to read. First Iremonger’s Life of William Temple; and second Kenneth Ingram’s biography of the slum priest, Basil Jellicoe.
I read these books when I was about 20 years old and they have made a mark on my life and groove in my ministry that has never gone away, that has laid down tracks upon which I believe I am still seeking to live and minister today.
William Temple gave me – and I believe still gives to the Church – a profound vision of how Christian Faith shapes and orders society; and since we are gathering the day after a General Election, it is especially relevant for us not only to pray for our new Prime Minister and government, but also to think afresh how Christian Faith and Christian values can shape and order the world.
The living word of God bursts forth from the pages of scripture and lodges in our hearts and minds, changing them and shaping them.
— Archbishop of York (@CottrellStephen) July 5, 2024
I begin my presidential address for the opening of Church of England @synod. pic.twitter.com/PJ8BNWn1nK