The United Benefice of Orsett, Bulphan and Horndon-on-the-Hill
Benefice events are coloured purple.
Petertide
Revd Ed Hanson
The season around the Feast of St Peter (June 29th) is a time called Petertide. It is when most ordinations take place in this country, and this year will see both Michèle Marshall and Iain Bendrey made priests in the Church of England. For the past twelve months, each of them has been in the role of deacon, which is essentially the role of a servant to the church and is denoted by the way they wear their stoles over the left shoulder rather than draping around the neck. However, when Michèle and Iain change their stole-wearing styles, they will not be giving up the servant-deacon role but adding on priesthood, just as Max and I remain deacons on the eighth anniversary of our ordinations, and as Glyn does as he approaches his forty-seventh anniversary of ordination. Michèle will be reflecting upon this elsewhere, but here it's also perhaps a good idea to think about St Peter's role in all of this.
Peter is my favourite saint, not despite his flaws, but rather because of them. The Gospel accounts differ as to his original calling, whether it was directly from Christ or through his brother Andrew. Nonetheless, Simon Peter is the name that always appears first among the disciples. He – along with James and John – was in the inner circle of Christ's confidantes. He was the one upon whom Christ founded the Church. That took place when Peter (then known as Simon) first publicly recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the Chosen One, "the son of the living God." Jesus responded by saying "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16.71-18). It was a nice play on words, as the Greek word "petros" means rock, and by giving Simon the new name of Peter, he was showing his confidence in making this fisherman a leader among his peers.
This does not mean that everything was clear sailing after that, because Peter would get annoyed with Jesus and Jesus would get annoyed with Peter. Still, Peter was always at his right hand, and always willing to take the plunge – as he literally did in one of the Resurrection stories. Even after the betrayal of Jesus by Judas and Peter's denial of any connection – not once, not twice, but three times – even then he was able to regain his footing and reassert his allegiance to Christ.
Peter's genius was that he could take defeat and – with the message of Jesus behind him – turn it into a great victory for everyone. And that is exactly what he did in the many stories of the Acts of the Apostles. Even when James, the brother of John, was killed by King Herod and Peter himself arrested, Peter put himself in the hands of God and was rescued by an angel. Of course, no one (not even Peter) expects to be rescued by an angel during the course of a day, and it wasn't until he was completely away from danger that he was able to breathe a sigh of relief and say "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod".
Perhaps this is why I have always liked Peter. He was a simple man with a strong faith. There were times when he was frightened, but he knew that he could turn to Jesus and be reassured. He made mistakes, some of them very serious indeed, but he was able to learn from his mistakes, pick himself up again, and carry on the Good News of Jesus Christ. He helped to spread that Good News to people who had not known it, he was the rock upon which our church today was founded.
As we pray for those to be ordained at Petertide, we remember that God makes priests and deacons out of human beings with all our weaknesses and strengths, our flaws and our abilities. Hopefully, with God's strength around us, we can use all those attributes to help us in the spreading the Good News as Peter did so many centuries ago.
Your brother in Christ,
Ed
Horndon Contacts
Rector
Revd Edward W. Hanson
Tel. 01375 891254rector@hobnob.org.uk
Hon. Asst. Priest
Canon Glyn Jones
Associate Priest
Revd Max (Steven) Blake
Tel. 01375 360522max@hobnob.org.uk
Assistant Curate
Revd Michèle Marshall
Tel. 01375 361599curate@hobnob.org.uk