Ordinations in a time of pandemic

Diocesan Director of Ordinands and Vocation, John Fitzmaurice writes about this year’s ordinations: 

This year’s ordinations will be like no other!

Candidates to be ordained as deacons and priests are usually ordained towards the end of June, around the time when the church commemorated the ministry of St Peter. This year of course we were in the midst of lockdown an ordinations have to be postponed and rescheduled for the end of September.

This of course was a crushing blow to those who were hoping to be ordained and who had been working toward this point for so long. Those who were hoping to be ordinand priest simply carried on their ministries as deacon, while those hoping to be ordained deacon were licensed as lay workers by Bishop Martin (on Zoom!) pending there ordination as deacons.

The Ordination of Deacons will now take place at three separate services (three candidates at each) on Saturday 26 September at Worcester Cathedral, while the four priest candidates will be ordained in their parish churches the following day. Prior to the ordination services the candidates will gather at Holland House for a socially distanced Retreat, this year led by the Revd Catherine Williams who is a Christian Writer, Retreat Leader & Spiritual Guide and a former selection secretary at Ministry Division.

For the candidates themselves this has unsurprisingly been a really difficult time. Their forbearance has been remarkable, and is indicative of the fabulous people that they are. Some have just wanted to get on with it and be ordained and are not too put out by the severe restrictions on the number of guests and others who can attend; others are saddened that this great gift of God to them cannot be celebrated in grand style. Either way they have committed themselves to a patient waiting, while getting on with the day-today tasks of ministry that present themselves in this most extraordinary of times, and they can draw hope from the words of the writer of the letter to the Philippians:

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. [_{Philippians 1.6]}

Do please pray for all those in any kind of ministry, lay and ordained, at this time, and especially for those to be ordained.

To be ordained Deacon:

• Claire Billington to serve in Peopleton and White Ladies Aston w Churchill & Spetchley & Upton Snodsbury & Broughton Hackett
• Lindsey Coulthard to serve at St Stephen’s Barbourne, Worcester
• Foluso Enwerem to serve at Top Church, Dudley
• Jon Evans to serve at Christ Church, Lye
• Jess Fellows to serve at All Saints, Worcester
• Chris Henson to serve at St John’s, Kidderminster
• Rosie Moss to serve at St Nicholas, Warndon, Worcester
• Kim Topham to serve in Clent and Hagley
• Carol Weston to serve in Brierley Hill

To be ordained Priest:

• Sarah Bardell serving in the benefice of Dudley
• Victoria Barlow serving in St Matthias & St George, Astwood Bank and The Bridge (LEP), Headless Cross
• Jonny Gordon serving at Great Malvern
• Francis Moloney serving at Holy Trinity, Redditch

John Fitzmaurice, Director of Ordinands and Vocation