Archbishop Carey's Address
to the Virginia Theological Seminary
(Part 2 continued)

What was his secret? He said there was none - except the lesson he learned at theological college - that each day was God's moment of grace; an opportunity to be gladly used for God. On his desk at college he placed four simple words: 'As now- so then'. To the end of his life Bishop Taylor Smith claimed that at college he was shaped to be the kind of person that God was later able to use.

But Seminaries like yours, and the three I have served in England, come with risks attached. One risk is to separate our studies from our spirituality. It is a form of theological schizophrenia that I urge you to resist. During the course of my ministry I have met devout and sincere students whose theological college careers seem to have been a hurried flight from serious sustained study, because they have assumed that that will be a kiss of death to an effective pastoral ministry. Let me put a contrary view. It will be a kiss of death if you go into ministry unwilling to confront questions and relate them to the work you are going to do. Pay attention to the questions you are wrestling with; pay attention to the subjects you are studying. Seek to make connections with the issues of ministry. I can promise you that, serious study lovingly linked with the ministry to which God is calling you, will enrich and deepen your spirituality. But paying attention to yourself, as the apostolic writer challenges us, will mean paying attention to our relationships because none of us lives in isolation.

The ministry to which we are called is a holy calling. We are called to be a holy people who can be trusted to treat people with infinite respect, tenderness and honour. The Church of Jesus Christ should be the place where women are honoured as people who matter to God and not as sex objects; the Church should be the place where manliness is not associated with promiscuity but with integrity and truth. Among the sad things that I have to do as Archbishop, is to disqualify clergy of their ministries when through serious misconduct they have let people down badly. I can assure you that it is very infrequently I have to do this. But I grieve whenever that happens because I know that once, they too, started out with great hopes and fine ideals. Little by little they stopped paying attention and, so, failed themselves and their Lord. Thus, our relationships are precious, important and necessary for our own fulfillment as priests and ministers. For those of us who are married that relationship with our spouse is central to our effectiveness as clergy. For those who are single, your friendships are crucial too for the affirmation, criticism and trust that will keep you going through good and bad days. Treasure, value and nourish these relationships.

These days it is in the area of human sexuality that some of our most intractable problems have to be worked out. Anglicanism with its rich theology of comprehensiveness is an ideal context to wrestle with these questions. But comprehensiveness does not mean relativism; it does not mean that there is no objective truth to be found. Anglicanism is committed to a biblical, credal and historic faith and that is the context in which we debate issues which go to the heart of human identity. Let me make this personal so that you can see where I am coming from. I do not find any justification, from the bible or the entire Christian tradition, for sexual activity outside marriage. Thus, same sex relationships in my view cannot be on a par with marriage and the Church should resist any diminishing of the fundamental 'sacramentum' of marriage. Clergy especially must model relationships that commend the faith of Christ. I know that this statement will distress some. For all I know, some of you may be wrestling with this issue personally. Some of you in your church communities may be dealing with pastoral situations which challenge the received teachings of the Church. I am not unmindful of the pastoral difficulties that come from working out the discipline of the Church in the personal life. Responsible Christian leadership implies that we do not duck the questions, neither should we necessarily abandon principles and theological truth that have served the Church well in the past. Living together in these questions and paying attention to them theologically from within the context of prayer and worship will provide the proper context for their resolution.

But running through the pastoral epistles is a commitment to the spiritual life. The effectiveness of your ministry is in direct proportion to your faithfulness to God in prayer, in worship, in bible study and adoration of the God who calls us into his service. That means giving space each day to the one whose service is perfect freedom. I have no doubt that from time to time you will have great experiences of God's love, wonderful moments of transfiguration and blessing. But they will come from within, and largely due, to the humdrum and faithful commitment to God in the routine of life as well as those moments of exhilaration and glory. Paying attention to that private relationship to God will be the heart beat of an effective and faithful ministry. Laying down, then, that foundation of prayer and praise, adoration and worship, bible study and theological reflection will form the rock of your ministry that will sustain you through 'all the changing scenes of life'. But how do we stop all this becoming a great work of self- justification; a religious form of 'I did it my `way'? It need never be so, as long as we recall that we are doing it for God's glory who delights in our work for him.

Last year, we saw a wonderful film. It was called Mr Holland's Opus. It was the simple story of a young teacher, Mr Holland who was a fine musician and who knew that he had in him a musical masterpiece. However, he needed money to finance the project, so he took on a temporary teaching job. He threw himself into his work. He began to love the children and saw their possibilities. Time went by, he spent less and less time on his masterpiece and more time on the boys and girls. His wife gave birth to their one and only child who turned out to be totally deaf - a great tragedy for them all. The years passed and the masterpiece was occasionally looked at longingly but put aside as his beloved children came first. Suddenly his work was all over. He was 60 and forced by the school board to retire. He was angry and depressed; there was still so much to do. The last day came and then the wonderful moment of surprise. As he left the school at the end of the day he was taken into the assembly hall. His former students were there among the many guests to greet him. The school orchestra was there too. Somehow the orchestra had managed to acquire a copy of his 'masterpiece'. A baton was thrust into his hand and, for the first and last time, Mr Holland's opus was performed. I must confess that for me the most moving moment came when following the applause, one of his most successful students - a young lady who had won success as a singer - said, simply: 'Mr Holland, WE are your opus, your masterpiece'.

As I heard those words I recalled Ephesians 2:10 'For you are God's workmanship created for good works in Jesus Christ'. The Jerusalem Bible happily translates 'workmanship' (poema) 'God's work of art'. Yes, you and me. We are God's great work of art - his poema. He pours into our lives all his longing, all his expectation. He doesn't ask us for success - only faithfulness. And in asking of us that - it will be our joy, as the apostolic writer urges us, to pay attention to ourselves and our teaching.

End
+++