Happy New Year, blog-watchers; may God bless you richly this year, and in all things may His will be done.
Before coming to Suffolk, in my last post as curate in a church which was both Anglican and Methodist, I was an Authorised Methodist Minister, and so led services last New Year following the Methodist Covenant Service. Nowadays I am minister in a single tradition only, Anglican, but all the experience I have gained in many different parts of the one Body of Christ, the Church, over many years informs my theology and practice still. And so, in this morning's services in Eyke and Rendlesham St Felix, the Methodist Covenant Prayer seemed right to say. Right, but difficult to say, too, as it is very profound and reaches deep inside the soul. It is a prayer of total self-giving. A weapon borrowed from our Methodist brothers and sisters to make the devil tremble And it makes me tremble too.
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry for help come to you. Psalm 102.1
I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you,
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you,
or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth,
let it be satisfied in heaven.
Amen.
Amen, amen. To His name be the praise and the glory.
