When are we Not Teachers?

Early on in my priesthood some asked, "Do you know when to be a priest and when to be yourself?" It seemed a weird question to me because my first answer was, "But I am always a priest!"

It has taken some years to come to grips with the magnitude of my reply, and I am still growing into it.  I am never not a priest.  Wherever I am that is who I am seen to be - God's representative in the pub, at the footy, on the beach, at work or at the shopping centre. Every thing I do is judged as the action  of a priest and not as Glenn Loughrey. It is a tough gig and anyone who says different is, I would suggest, not trying.

Now I have compounded the task by becoming a chaplain in a school - a 'teacher'. Teaching is not a job, it is a vocation, much like that of a priest. Teachers not only teach content in class, they model life for their students. They are responsible for the whole person and are therefore mentors of those whom they stand in front of. Everything they do, wherever they do it, plays a role in the effectiveness of their vocation.

For both teachers and priests this means they are to be:

• Mindful. Being mindful of who we are is our first task. Remaining in the present moment helps us to make this less frightening and more exciting, for you and for others. You are a teacher or a priest and others are looking to you for leadership. Your choices have set you apart for a life that is very different to those around you. It has it's cost but the benefits when lived to the full are mysterious and amazing.

• Disciplined. Yes, we are always free to do what we want to do, but just because we can, should we? We are called to a disciplined life with boundaries and responsibilities. If we embrace such a life we have the freedom to teach, mentor and pastor.

• Self-sacrificial.  Becoming a priest means I sacrifice my will for the will of God. I attempt to live in  a self-sacrificing manner exemplified by Jesus. No short cuts. Teachers have the same call. They are developing young people for the future and are challenged to sacrifice what they want to do for what they need to do.

• Other focussed. In both roles, life is not about you. You are not entitled to your own personal life.  It is a life lived in community and dialogue. You are now connected with those around you, for better or worse, and how you live will be noted by others, for you are there to show them the way.

• Aware of the '6 o'clock news' factor. How will what I am about to do, say or attend play out on the 6 o'clock news?  What will others say when they see or hear this? 

Vocations demand more of us than a job or a career for the raw material we are working with is far more precious than gold, money or prestige. What is in front of us is waiting to be moulded into the leaders and mentors of the future. Teenagers rarely listen to what we say, but they do learn from who we are.

No matter where we are, what we are doing or what we are saying we are always teachers and priests. Oh, by the way, if you're a parent, then  you have a three-fold vocation!

What a privilege!

What It Means To Be A Priest Part 2

Yesterday we had a phone call from some friends to join them for lunch at the Chinderah Tavern. Being school holidays meant that I had the freedom and could escape school for a couple of hours, so I went. My wife went from home and I joined them there.

I roared in on the Harley in my checked clergy shirt, red cross and red Squires boots. As I stepped onto the verandah my friend announced me with 'Hello Father Glenn!" Everybody on the verandah turned to have a look. I smiled and ordered a beer and sat down to order lunch.

A little later I went to wash my hands and as I walked through the bar I heard one old barfly say to another, "That's the bloke with red boots", with a nod in my direction. His mate replied, "Yeh, read about him in the paper."

While we were eating lunch, the lady at the next table came over and asked which church I belonged to. I said, "Anglican". She said, "Catholic", and went on to talk about how hard it is to be a Catholic in an area (she was a visitor) where just that day a long running child abuse case surfaced again. She wondered out loud how to handle the criticism. I made some suggestions which seemed to help her, she put her hand on my shoulder and thanked me.

Later my wife noted that during that conversation there was little or no sound on the verandah, everybody was watching and listening to our exchange. It was a 'woman at the well' experience and one that keeps occurring for me.

Being a priest in the model of Christ, our high priest, is to be available in the ordinary stuff of life to the ordinary stuff in others lives. It is putting flesh and breath in to the Sacraments and being open to the real presence of Christ in every aspect of being fully human, fully alive.

A priest is a symbol in a secular world. While people may no longer practice institutional religion as they once did, they are still looking for someone, something which allows them to encounter the spiritual in their everyday. A priest does that whether in church, with those of their flock or with those in the parish area to which they are appointed.

it is important to remember that a priest is not appointed to a church but to a parish area. And while parish areas may now be deemed to be arbitrary, it is the symbolism of that appointment that matters most. A priest is appointed to all people in a geographical area and his priestly role, bringing alive the love of God sacramentally is an all day, everyday encounter with people, wherever they are to be found.

REDSHOES MOVES ON

Well, it seems unreal but this Sunday (3rd january) is Gaye, I and Monty the dogs last SUnday at St Jude's. What a great time it has been. There have been some wonderful moments and I have enjoyed the company of all I have worked and worshipped with. Our Rector Greg has been a great mentor and support, especially through the difficult process towards ordination, as has Amanda and Jim. It has all been appreciated.

It seems just as unreal to be moving out on a journey as a priest in my own ministry. I, and many others, thought it would never happen, but it has. The journey to this place over the last 10 years has been amazing, surprising, challenging and stretching.

To all at St Jude's thank you so very much for the last 4 years and I look forward to staying in touch in the future.

Maybe, one day, I will return just as Jesus did from his sojourn in Egypt. Who knows the mind of God?

Hebrews 4:15-16 – The Voice From Offstage

Anthropologist James C. Scott says that there’s a difference between the way poor people talk “onstage” and “offstage.” Studying forms of everyday resistance among peasants in a small Malaysian village, he noticed how the poor and weak were good at acting like they recognized the authority of the ruling elite in public. “Onstage” they almost always gave the impression of complying with a social order in which they suffered injustice. “Offstage,” however, when no one in authority was around, peasants mocked the system through gossip, slander, stealing, dragging their feet, and sabotaging their masters’ plans.

Being offstage, out of the limelight allows us the freedom to speak the unspeakable, to tell the story as it really is to us and to distance ourselves from the authoritarian position of those who hold the power in our lives. Being offstage allows us to say what we really think about church structures, government leaders and policies and restrictive laws which dictate our behaviour in public even when they are in fact censuring who are and what we say to the detriment of sensible debate and discussion.

That is why we need to keep alive the tradition of comedy and humour in our society. Recent reactions to various comedians on radio, TV and the big screen smacks of those “onstage” wanting to dumb down debate and stifle anything that challenges stereotypes, political correct sacred cows and more. Comedy and humour is society speaking offstage, saying the things that need to be said, and highlighting issues that we have attempted to paper over, or simply recognizing a reality those onstage avoid. The problem with modern day humour is that so much is now deemed off limits that it is stuck in the gutter because there they can safely offend everybody not just individual groups sensibilities or political correct doctrines. If we aren’t careful we will lose all the opportunities to speak in a way that takes the debate offstage. This has probably already occurred through the development of experts and self-interest groups who control the debate on key issues such as global change, human rights, parenting and gender issues for example. There is little or no room for the voice offstage.

A group of people working to deal with poverty in a community were sitting around the table discussing the way forward when one of the group suggested that perhaps it would be a good idea to ask the people in the community themselves (something I have found to be the only thing to do); there was a lengthy silence as the group of experts looked uncomfortably at each other before the facilitator said, No that would only slow us down. AN opportunity was missed in our world of experts to hear what some of the answers were from the people who know and live and experience the questions.

In a society where the High priest held all the power, had great position and was the representative of all those onstage, the writer to the Hebrews suggests that not only was Jesus the high priest, but that he was also like us yet without sin. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.

A Jewish priest was a direct male descendant of the Aaron, brother of Moses. During the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, they performed specific duties in relation to the daily and festival sacrificial offerings. The high priest, selected from the group, sometimes held considerable political influence and also supervised during the key service of Yom Kippur. In the Second Temple period various high priests were appointed by both Jewish and non-Jewish political governors, becoming an issue of considerable controversy. Also in this period, the high priest sometimes served as the president of the ruling legislative council, the Sanhedrin.

The high priest was onstage – he was in the public eye and, along with all those who surrounded him, represented a part of society those offstage had to negotiate in their relationship with God. Often the high priests were corrupt and such power ensured that any relationship with them was an unfair one..

So when the writer to the Hebrews uses these words in relation to Jesus, he does as Jesus often did and speaks offstage, he turns them upside down and gives them a whole new meaning.

Jesus through his relationship with his Father, the God of Israel, was the one who came to intercede on our behalf, a truly priestly role. Not only did he intercede in his earthly life through his teaching and his actions, his example, but his unbroken obedience to his Fathers will took him all the way to the cross himself.

As a human being he came to experience what it was like to be among those who are offstage, out of the position of privilege, unable to be apart of the righteous because of their social position, their gender, their infirmities, hurt and shame. He took on our humanity in such a way that he became that humanity for himself.

Unlike those in power who speak through advisers and leaders about the needs and circumstances of the poor, the disabled, the troubled and the difficult, Jesus became human to experience that for himself, to place himself in the way of sin and to stare it down so that we too could do the same.

It is interesting that throughout Jesus earthly life his greatest recorded wisdom comes not from official debates with the keepers of knowledge, the experts, (with some exceptions) but with those who were offstage. He had the audacity to ask people what they wanted and gave it to them, he empowered people with words that spoke to their place in this world such as in the sermon on the mount, he stood with people who were about to be stoned for their actions by the self-righteous; it was what Jesus spoke to those off-stage which got under the nose of those in power, and what ultimately brought about his death.

Not only did he engage with humanity, he had the opportunity to sin and didn’t. He was one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. What a wonderful verse. He battled the temptation to sin as recorded in the desert after his baptism and then throughout his life for Luke comments that devil departed from him until an opportune time. Jesus knew what it was like to be tempted but he is an example to us that through relationship with him and his father sin is no longer our challenge.

There is much discussion theologically over the meaning of this verse. Some see it to mean that Jesus was impeccable, that is, unable to sin because of his divine nature. And for many years I found this understanding a stumbling block to faith. If Jesus was incapable of sin, he wasn’t like us at all, he only looked and acted like us, and I felt I was set up. How could someone who was incapable of sinning understand how I felt as a sinner and when I sinned? Was this some kind of cosmic joke?

Yet the power comes when I understand that Jesus was ‘peccable’, able to sin but because of his nature and his relationship with God chose obedience as the better way. Jesus became human and lived and died as the example of humanity living life to the fullest so that we too could become fully human.

Yes we do have a great high priest who intercedes for us and we have a great high priest who has lived the experiences of being ordinary and doing so with out sin.

And here is the possibility that Jesus life, death and resurrection brings to us, the possibility of knowing that we are not alone, unable to deal with those things which plague us, because Jesus is here, offstage with us and says in a clear loud voice within with authority, ‘I know what you are feeling and I know all is not lost, come to me and all will be well.’

14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

RedShoes to Be Ordained A Priest

Hi to every body out there.

I just want to share the exciting news – RedShoes (aka Glenn Loughrey) is going to be ordained as a priest; yes that’s right, after all the drama of the last 5 years it’s finally going to happen.

The Bishop of Grafton has agreed to ordain me as a priest in the Grafton Cathedral on Saturday 5th December at 10am. All are invited to be there to share this auspicious occasion with Gaye and I.

Over the last 6 weeks I have had to struggle with leaving the wonderful people of St Jude’s @ Randwick who have allowed me the space to be myself, with uprooting Gaye one more time (19 moves in 30 years!) and taking her away from the Sydney Philharmonia Festival Chorus and her beloved Opera House and much more.

Yet I could not continue to put God off seeing I was called to be a priest when I was 12, I think his patience was running out and he made an offer I couldn’t refuse. We both feel at peace with the decision to be priested and to move out of the Big Smoke.

I thank everybody for their support and prayers over the years and look forward to having it continue as I take on this new challenge.