The past week has been InterFaith Week (15th-21st November), when people of all faiths and beliefs are encouraged to strengthen inter faith relationships and develop a wider understanding of each others’ beliefs.

St Chrysostom’s Parish is fortunate to be full of diversity, with many faiths and backgrounds represented – there is a wonderful mix of people who contribute to making the area so richly varied.

At both of our Church schools, St John’s and St Chrysostom’s, children are strongly encouraged to celebrate diversity and the gifts of all faiths and to work together towards understanding each other and buidling a better world for us all.

During Inter Faith Week, some children, mainly of Islamic faith, from St John’s School came to visit Church and learn about Christian symbols and the way that Christians worship, thinking about some similarities and differences between how Christians and Muslims pray.

The children light candles, remembering people special to them

Regularly a group from Church meets with a group of Muslim friends for an informal meal where we can chat and learn from each other about our faith and prayer. We have visited each other’s places of worship. This is always a wonderful occassion – the next meal will be on Manchester’s Curry Mile on 3rd December.

Both of these examples are things to celebrate in Inter Faith week and beyond, stregthening understanding of each other and higlighting the positive impact of faith in buidling community.

Learning about Christian symbols in Church

In October we welcomed Sister Catherine and Sister Julie of the Community of the Holy Name (CHN) to live and work in our parish. CHN has opened a branch house in the parish at the invitation of Fr Ian and with the support of the Bishop of Manchester. Fr Ian first came across CHN when he was an undergraduate and a few years ago asked for their assistance in the parish in the busy time of September and October, from that developed the idea of the community opening a branch house in the parish.

The branch house is the former St John’s Rectory next to Longsight Market. It is many years since sisters worked in Manchester and this is an exciting new development for Manchester diocese as well as for St Chrysostom’s parish.

The Community of the Holy Name has its origins in the sisterhood founded by Fr George Herbert at St Peter’s, Vauxhall in 1865, and adopted its current name in about 1875. The mother house of the community, now in Derby, was for many years at Malvern Link.

Bishop Mark, Bishop of Middleton, blessed the house on November 2nd, and celebrated Mass in the Chapel. It was a joyful occassion.

The sisters will keep their times of prayer in their chapel and attend Sunday Mass, and weekday masses at St Chrysostoms. There will also be celebrations of Mass in their chapel. Sister Catherine and Sister Julie have worked hard to create a branch house which is neat, tidy and welcoming. The house has a lovely small chapel, and a peaceful sitting room which can be used by parishioners seeking peace and quiet.

St Chrysostom’s is developing its work of presence, prayer and pastoral care in the east end of the parish, and the sisters presence will greatly enhance this. The sisters will have a special ministry in praying for the people of our parish and area.

Julie and Catherine are very pleased to be in the parish and are already getting to know people of the area, and welcoming them to their house.

Conversations on our St Chrysostom’s Walsingham pilgrimage were wide ranging, going from the deeply spiritual to the exotic, from the everyday to the bizarre. One topic among some of the pilgrims was the subject of women saints who spent much of their lives living as men. The following information comes from Butler’s Lives of the Saints.

St Marina lived as a monk, Marinus, for many years. She was known as the ‘beardless brother.’ She suffered many misfortunes, and after she died ‘the brethren came to prepare the body for burial, its sex was discovered. The abbott was overcome with remorse for the injustice which he had unwittingly committed and with admiration for the heroism of the woman.’ (Feast Day July 17th)

The illustration shows St Marina (in red) entering the monastery

St Euphrosyne dressed as a man to escape her over bearing father and entered a monastery as a monk. She lived as a monk until her death. In the monastery ‘her beauty and charm were a cause of distraction to the other monks, she retired to a solitary cell.’ (Feast day February 11th)

St Eugenia also entered a monastery living as a man. She became abbot of the monastery when she was accused of adultery by a woman and Eugenia revealed before the judge that she was in fact a woman. Her accuser was burned to death. (Feast day December 25th).

There are others; St Reperata, St Pelegia (who is mentioned by St John Chrysostom), St Theodora etc.  These were women who lived as men. It would be interesting to know if any men saints lived as women. These ‘transvestite’ saints (many of whose lives are almost entirely legendary) date from before the sixth century.

Are there other examples?

A group from the Manchester Adult Education Service (MAES) are using St Chrysostom’s Church for an art project. The group leader, Fiona, has placed one of her photos of a stained glass window in church on the Flicker photo site Guess Where UK. Places from around the UK are added to the site and via a discussion board people try to guess what the photo is of and where it is.

Take a look at the photo and the suggestions  here …     Would you have guessed it correctly??!

And here is another close up of a window showing the pet swan of  St Hugh of Lincoln.

A year ago I started training for Ordained Local Ministry, and I thought that it would be good to let you know how it’s going.  I often get asked, “How its going?” by folks at St Chrysostom’s and my reply is often uncommitted – mainly due to my shyness and reluctance to appear blasé. I’ve enjoyed the past year and would like to share some of the highlights.

Our training on the Southern North West Training Partnership is split into modules, and these are assessed as they progress. Last year I was looking at “Worship, Preaching and Pastoral Care” – and you may remember Andrew recording my sermon on the Feast of Christ the King last November. I also studied “Mission in Britain Today”, and “Learning Theologically Together”. Mission in Britain Today involved looking at God’s Mission to the World, and how we as a Church try to respond to that Mission. We looked at Fresh Expressions of Church, and we all became excited at the differing ways that congregations are trying to show God’s love to his creation. Learning Theologically Together was a difficult module for me – it examined how and my fellow students learn, and how congregations and groups within them learn. I found this to be a rather dry, over theoretical study, but, I’m sure as I continue to move on I will find its insights useful.

Students in a typical seminar group

From January through to the end of April I was on Placement at St Ann’s in the city centre. This was a wonderful time -  experiencing city centre ministry, seeing first hand how another parish operates, enjoying a different style of worship.   However, there were also less enjoyable things such as singing choral evensong. I also had the experience of being part of an Alpha type study group, informal worship, and a faith centered discussion group. I really enjoyed this placement, and learned a lot from it; but, I was pleased to return to St Chrysostom’s after going on a Retreat in Leeds led by Fr Ken Leech – a learned and experienced priest who has visited us many times and who worshipped with us as a student.

Because I was doing some of Year 1 and some of Year 2 of the training this last year I had to squeeze other things into the schedule. This meant that every 6 weeks or so I was away from Church on Residential weekends.  The year came to a close in July with an 8 day Summer School in Chester.  This was a very busy week full of lectures, workshops and fieldtrips.

Summer School was the climax to the year. All Anglican Ordinands on the course came together. We finished off a Module which had been begun the year before by the others, and we looked at how people of other faiths view Christianity. Those who were in the real Year 2 of the course also gave us presentations of how the Church engages with Society in their own Parish settings, which was a very stimulating experience – and it is something that I must reflect on at St Chrysostom’s.

Two students at the University of Chester Summer School

The summer school was a very busy time, and days were packed out with lectures and seminars.  The staff were amused at the way that we behaved when we two Clerical tailors visited us, and suddenly there was a realization that Ordination for some of us is less than a year away.  Folk tried on clerical shirts for the first time, and there was much hustle and bustle around the stole embroiderer’s stall. One lecturer remarked that he would like to see as much animation when it comes to looking at schemes of work – but as one of the most animated stole enquirer was a colleague of his we weren’t sure as to who he was talking about!

We all – staff and students – let our hair down on the last night of the summer school with a pantomime produced by the final year students and in which I played a cameo role. It roughly followed the story of Cinderella, but with many “in jokes” and jocular jibes at staff members – and they were all still smiling at us the next morning at Chapel.

The year has had many good moments in it; I’ve made good friends and have enjoyed insights into other traditions and ways of looking at Theology. It has been good to get to grips with studying again after so long. It has been a wonderful experience to reflect on the riches and joys that we all have at St Chrysostom’s. We often speak on the course from our own tradition and perspective, and I realize how blessed we are here as a Parish.

I’m sure that this year will pass very quickly – and I shouldn’t be away from the Parish so often this year as I was last. I’ll keep you posted as to how things progress. The course ends in May next year.

Chris

St Chrysostom’s has been a welcoming and inclusive churches for many years. We have people from many nations, different ages and outlooks, different ethnicities and sexualities.

Each month, at 5.30pm on the first Saturday of the month, St Chrysostoms hosts a Eucharist for LGBT people, their friends and families. The Mass is in the parish’s worship schedule and is organised by the Bishop of Manchester’s Advisory group on sexuality. It is the only one of its kind in Manchester Diocese – indeed we are not aware of a similar Mass in another diocese in England. (Perhaps it could be seen as a kind of Fresh Expression).

The Mass has its own website. The service is a simple, straightforward Anglican Eucharist celebrated by a variety of priests of differing traditions within the church – and yes that includes evangelicals. The Eucharist is followed by light refreshments for those who wish to stay.

A few months after the mass had been initiated Father Ian received a request to take a funeral. The undertaker told him that the person attended St Chrysostom’s. However, the name was not a familiar one. After some enquiry it turned out that the man who had died had started attending the LGBT Eucharist. He had been brought up in the Church of England but had felt alienated from church as he became more open about being gay. He had seen the monthly service advertised, and not having been to church for many years he returned to church through this service. He was a quiet man who had attended several times, leaving without speaking to anyone. He let it be known to his family that should he die he wished his funeral to be at St Chrysostom’s.

One man in his late thirties also saw the service advertised. He too had not been to church for many years. He attended and told how years earlier he had felt a calling to the RC priesthood, but felt he could not pursue it because he was gay. he did not believe the church would allow a gay priest.  Having met a helpful priest at this service he is now meeting a vocations adviser in his own diocese with a view to exploring ordination in the Church of England.

These moving stories surely give enough evidence that such a service is welcome, and necessary.

On Saturday afternoon 27th June, members of St Chrysostom’s went to Manchester Cathedral for a very special occassion as our curate, Tracy Charnock was ordained priest, along with nine others, in a lovely service, full of prayer, song and rejoicing.

The Mass began with the hymn ‘Christ is the King, O friends rejoice!’ In the service, those to be ordained were reminded that their ministry is rooted in service and in God’s strength alone.  Bishop Mark, was the ordaining bishop and he and the other bishops and many priests present in the cathedral laid their hands on the candidates heads as we all prayed for the candidate and their ministry.

After the ordination prayer, Bishop Nigel announced with relish that the Church of God now has new priests and the packed cathedral applauded loudly and enthusiastically!

Afterwards, the newly ordained priests, their families, friends and supporters gathered outside the cathedral for photographs.

Then, on Sunday 28th June, the Feast of St Peter and St Paul, Tracy celebrated her first Mass here at St Chrysostom’s. It was a wonderful and joyful celebration with many, many people coming to encourage and support her. In his sermon Father Ian spoke of God’s loving call to each one of us, as ordinary Christian women and men, from St Peter and St Paul to Tracy and you and I.

After the service, Tracy was presented with cards from the children of Kharis (Sunday School) and a gift from the church and we shared wine and cake. Then we were invited back to Tracy’s house to continue the celebration with plenty more food and drink!

It was a really lovely weekend to celebrate and to support and pray for Tracy in her life and ministry here amongst us in this parish and in her future ministry.

A note of thanks from Tracy:

The first time as a newly ordained priest that I concelebrated Mass was on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, at St James, Darlington. The principal celebrant was the Vicar, Fr Dennis Smith. The preacher was the Bishop of Jarrow, Michael Ball CGA, later Bishop of Truro.

Bishop Michael preached with his characteristic good humour and spiritual depth. I can still remember the key themes – the sacred hearbeat of God sustaining and creating the Cosmos, and the heart as the symbol of love and affection, and so the Sacred Heart as a symbol of the tender love and divine affection God has for us.

I was convinced then, and I still am, that Sacred Heart is a feast the Church of England should have in its calendar. Each year I try to celebrate a Mass of the Sacred Heart. This year at St Chrysostom’s we were a small gathering for a gentle and peaceful Mass. In the stillness and calm of our Blessed Sacrament Chapel it was easy to sense and imagine the heartbeat of God.

Fr Ian

Bishop Mark with members of St Chrysostom's at Ladyewell

Didn’t we have a lovely time the day we went to the Shrine at  Ladyewell?  The sun shone all day, which was great. We enjoyed the journey and then Bishop Mark celebrated Mass for us in the shrine. We had a short walk from the coach to the shrine, and the Bishop joined us for this walk in the countryside – I must say that he cut quite a dash dressed in purple for a country walk! I’m sure that our ramblings were smiled at by the cartwheeling angels!

We shared lunch together and were generously served with tea and coffee by the ladies at the shrine. After sprinkling at the well – which proved to be a talking point for a few Japanese tourists – we said the first Evening Prayer of Pentecost. We sat outside in the gardens for this – so poor Noel had to play using Fr Michael as his link voice as he was playing for us inside the Church. But we seemed to make a joyful noise.

When the date for next year is announced I shall put it in my diary straight away.

We are putting a light hearted or curious scripture verse on a noticeboard in our kitchen area of church, to encourage conversation…

We’ve begun with:

It worked too

Bishop Nigel led worship last Sunday evening. He tried to persuade Celia, his wife, that this is the text she is to preach on when she preaches here soon!

So:     What’s your verse?

Please join the game, and let us know your verse by adding a comment here.