Today I would like us to pray for the Tsedaqah Community which is based in a house by Liverpool Cathedral (https://tsedaqahhouse.wordpress.com/
Tsedaqah is a Hebrew word which means ‘to do justice’. Tsedaqah is the reason why this missional community was formed. Young people from around the world become members as they seek to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with their God (based on Micah 6:8). For periods of up to a year, they serve in a variety of ministries across the Diocese of Liverpool. Currently, the residents in the house by Liverpool Cathedral are: Nelson Pike https://nelsoninliverpool.com/ Nelson is from the state of Massachusetts, in the US. He is an assistant to the Dean of Liverpool at the Cathedral, and also works with Micah and in the Cathedral’s music department. Jen Williams https://jenwilliams.home.blog/ Jen is from Crosby. She works in the Social Justice Department at the Diocese of Liverpool and has been working on a number of projects particularly leading on our anti-modern slavery and human trafficking work. Jen also supports Micah food bank, which operates from the Cathedral, and she also looks after Open Table and Centering Prayer congregations in her home parish. There are also a number of past residents and non-resident community members, including myself, who try to live out active Tsedaqah – the living out of justice and fairness. The last few weeks we have not been able to meet in person for our weekly community meal and prayers so we have been sharing time using zoom having our tea in our own homes ‘together’. This has been a surprisingly entertaining and a community building experience. Even in these times there is no need for us to break all our routines. We are finding new ways to be community, to discuss the new work that is starting to happen and share how we are living our lives in these strange times. For me this virtual weekly get together has been life-giving and joyous. We are learning how to get through these isolation days as a community and as friends. Please do pray particularly for Nelson and Jen – but also for Mal, Debra, David, Tabitha, Mike, Kate, Emily, Emma, Sam, Felicity and Madeline and myself (the Tsedaqah community in our diocese, Ghana and the USA). @TsedaqahDioLiv The Tsedaqah Prayer: Circle us, O loving Father, with your hope, that we may do justice. Circle us, O Christ our Saviour, with your hope, that we may love mercy. Circle us, O Holy Spirit, with your hope, that we may walk humbly with you. Amen.
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I noticed on Twitter recently that one of my clergy colleagues from my Hull days had undergone a bit of a makeover. During his seven years with working with me his hair had gone from a rich dark black to grey – make of that what you will! His bored twin daughters had decided that he is now looking ‘too much like an old man’ so decided that it was time for a hefty dose of hair dye. So he is back to having a handsome mop of black hair – at least for the moment. Quite what he will look like as the hair grows on I have no idea. It was certainly a brave and trusting move on Matt’s part, to let them loose on his hair. I don’t think he trusted them enough to try cutting it though. I’ve seen some ‘interesting’ attempts at self-service DIY haircuts on the internet in recent days.
In my last two blogs, I’ve encouraged you to celebrate both the creativity of the Creator in giving us a world full of natural treasures, and the creativity of human beings who, by being made in God’s image, are intrinsically creative themselves. Indeed, at times of great adversity, that creativity is blossoming and bringing both pleasure to ourselves and others. God, however, did not just leave his good creation to its own devices – he didn’t simply wind up the clockwork toy and set it off, not caring whether it careered off its path and off the edge of the table. No, when he saw that ‘there may be trouble ahead’ as humans decided to put themselves in the place of God, his creativity came up with a plan for a makeover of all humanity. This would be a plan for re-creation. And it wouldn’t be merely skin deep, or temporary, like hair dye. It all began with the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, as we celebrated on the 25th March, when he announced to her that she would bear God’s son, Jesus – a name which means ‘God saves’. Jesus duly arrived that first Christmas and, around the age of 30, began his ministry of preaching and teaching, healing, and declaring that the Kingdom of God was coming near. After his initial ministry in Galilee and the lands around it, he sets his face towards Jerusalem, and the action shifted towards the real reason for his coming to earth, namely to give his life for the re-creation of the world, and to become ‘the firstborn from the dead’ (Colossians 1:18). Through him, we are all given the opportunity to be caught up in his resurrection and to be re-created: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Remarkably, as humanity experiences God’s heavenly make-over, creation itself will be re-created: “For creation itself waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-20). Wow – that is deep stuff. And it reminds us that, as we are so concerned about our own short-term survival as humans, we must not forget the long-term well-being of the natural world around us. For it and we are interdependent – neither can flourish without the well-being of the other. We are about to enter into the solemn remembrance of the events of that first Holy Week, as we recall Jesus’ journey from the Entry into Jerusalem to his hanging on the cross of Golgotha. It is more than a recalling, though; it is an invitation to enter into those momentous events – a conscious placing of ourselves into that story, as if we were there. We will, indeed, be standing and walking on holy ground. As we do so, and as we see creation coming to life around us and human creativity blossoming too, may we give thanks to God that his creativity continued with a cosmic plan for our re-creation and for the renewal of his good creation. God brought new life out of what appeared to be the signed and sealed certainty of death. This is truly mind-blowing; but the joy of it all is that God invites us to play our part in his on-going work of re-creation – for we too are caught up in his divine makeover. Remarkably, a bit like my friend having the courage to let his daughters loose with the black hair dye, God takes the risk with us by letting us have a go. I, for one, am delighted that he does. Canon Neal While you're here: Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. It is now over a week since we have been ‘locked down.’ It still feels strange to communicate with people via a screen. Although I talk to people and say prayers with the team ‘virtually,’ I have also valued my early morning walks, more and more.
Like Canon Neal I am using St James’ Gardens as my ‘playground’ and I am so grateful to the Friends of St James’ Gardens for their hard work over the years in keeping the gardens as a public space for all. St James’ Gardens is wonderfully laid out. As you can see from the picture, there is one path through the garden, but there are two separate spurs that take you off the main path. As you walk the spur, however, you eventually return to the main path. Life feels a bit like this. We were walking down the main path of our lives and all of a sudden we have been led down a side-track, a spur, called Coronavirus. We have no idea how long we need to walk the side-track, the spur before we can re-join the main path, but what I know is that God is walking with us. God is guiding us into new ways of communicating with each other. God is calling us to find new ways of supporting and caring for one another. I have hope that we will eventually re-join the main path and that the God who knows and loves us will journey with us on the spur, the side-track, so that when we re-join the main path of our lives we may be ready to greet each other with joy and a greater understanding of what it means to be us. Dean Sue While you're here: Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. The Canadian psychologist Professor Paul T.P Wong said, “Adversity is an opportunity for creativity, because is forces us to dig deeper and discover something new about oneself.” Which is, I suppose, a more eloquent way of saying that ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention’. Well, just at the moment, many of us are surely putting those proverbs to the test! In all sorts of ways. New talents are emerging. For example, one of our Zone 2 café-style church members evidently has a gift for joinery. As part of the Zone 2 service screened for last Sunday (29th March) we see Pete making a wonderful vegetable planter from bits of old decking. If you don’t believe me, have a look on the prayerforliverpool.org website and you will see the link to the service. I’ve heard of people starting to send poems to each other, after years of not writing any. Others are spending time making music, others in the garden, and still others joining in with on-line dance and exercise classes. My wife and I have benefitted from the culinary creativity of our neighbours in bread and cake – thank you folks! Some enterprising person posted on the Zone 2 WhatsApp group last week a quiz of Merseyside place names, ‘spelt’ with emojis! I’ve put them at the end of this blog for you to have a go at. Some of them are very tenuous – you have to think a bit laterally and loosely! But it’s all good fun. Many of the Cathedral clergy are having to upgrade our on-line creative abilities, by learning how to make little videos to upload to our new website https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/ Last week, I wrote about appreciating the wonder of God’s creation around about us, and taking time – perhaps on our daily exercise - to savour the natural delights of this unfolding season of spring. The Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and one of the ways in which all of us bear the imprint of God is being, by nature, creative. Many of us adults bury our creativity – that may be the result of our schooling, sadly. My mother tells me that I used to write wonderfully creative stories as a youngster – apparently the saga of ‘The Roaring Lion’ (written when I was about 7) gave great enjoyment to quite a few members of my family. (Alas the manuscript has been lost to posterity!) Somewhere along the line, that aptitude seems to have been lost and, by the time I reached the age of 16, the crowning achievement of my literary ‘career’ was to achieve an ‘unclassified’ in English Literature O-level. I hear many people saying that they are not creative but it’s there in all of us, and may need a bit of encouraging out and nurturing. Now may be a good time to do that – both for the enjoyment of others, and also to help us maintain good mental health. Maybe a very positive thing we can do is to encourage each other in this endeavour. In our chatting over the phone, texting, and communicating on-line, is there someone this week that you can encourage to draw out their creative gifts and help them gain the confidence to share them with others, either now, or when things return to something like normality? Prof. Wong says that, by digging deeper, we will discover new things about ourselves. I strongly suspect that he is right. There is, I am persuaded, something even deeper going on in these creative processes, be they existing or newly discovered; something spiritual, in fact. I am reminded of the story in Exodus 35 of the people of God in the wilderness after their release from slavery in Egypt. The desert life was certainly a place of significant adversity and yet God was with them, and had given them, through Moses, the Ten Commandments. God commanded them to fashion the Tabernacle, a large and colourful tent, in which the Law of God could be housed. Everyone brought items from their own possessions to contribute to this great collective endeavour. Bezalel and Oholiab, along with other skilled people, were tasked with gathering all these offerings into a final design. We are told that God, “filled them with skill to do every kind of work done by an artisan or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and in fine linen, or by a weaver – by any sort of artisan or skilled designer.” Bezalel himself was “filled with the divine spirit” so that his natural skills were amplified and applied by God’s Holy Spirit, the same spirit who had moved over the face of the waters at creation, no less. So God’s talents, skills and gifts of creativity are surely part of our spiritual life, and indeed can form part of our very worship of God. Like any good parent, God delights to see us ‘having a go’ and encouraging us to develop our aptitude. Can I even sense him chuckling about my ‘U’ in English Lit. and prodding me not to use that as an excuse never to try writing poetry again? In these days, when we are stymied in our opportunities for offering worship in a service in church, maybe, just maybe, God will show us new ways to worship him. Will we allow God to journey with us to discover more of his creative image in each one of us? Happy inventing! And, as promised, here’s the emoji quiz of places in Merseyside. Can you guess where they are? ![]()
While you're here:
Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. Since the present restrictions began last week, and we find ourselves mostly confined to our homes, the daily exercise, as permitted and encouraged by the Government, has become a highlight of each day. For me this has meant going for a walk, either around the perimeter of the Cathedral, or more adventurously along to Upper Parliament Street, then Hope St and back again. The exercise is wonderful, both for physical and mental well-being, but the walk also provides an opportunity to think – perhaps even to pray – in the unusually quiet and deserted streets.
My favourite view on these daily walks is the familiar one as you turn the corner into St James’s Road from Upper Parliament Street. It is the view of the steps up to St James’s Mount with the Cathedral in the background. The view has hardly changed since the photographs taken in 1924, as King George V and Queen Mary left the Cathedral by coach after attending the great service of Consecration. The only addition is the Vestey Tower, itself completed during the darkest years of World War Two. For this present season, the Cathedral stands in complete silence, majestic and strong, but empty. The prayers of its clergy have not ceased, but they have moved, as required by national advice, into our homes beneath the Cathedral’s shadow. Its organ and its bells are silent, the great space no longer echoes with the glorious sounds of our magnificent choir, and the many familiar daily sounds - children enjoying workshops, the bustle of the shop and the tower, hospitality in the Welsford and on the Mezzanine, the busyness of vergers, cleaners and maintenance – all of these are still, for now but not for ever. I was fortunate enough to be present, as a young curate, at the service when Her Majesty the Queen came to celebrate the completion of the Cathedral in October 1978. The preacher at the service was the Archbishop of York, Stuart Blanch, who had previously been Bishop of Liverpool. Some words from his sermon speak to me particularly in the silence of this moment: The stones of this great Cathedral from the quarry in Woolton have been shouting since 1910, shouting about the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, but who is near to those who are of a humble and contrite spirit. This is one of the great buildings of the world, not simply performing a function, but reminding us of the greatness and majesty of God. In this temple we see the Lord high and lifted up. I have never been able to enter this Cathedral without a revived sense of the majesty of God and a revived sense of my own unimportance in the scheme of things. But strangely enough, this has managed to combine a testimony to the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity with a testimony to the God who is near to those who are of a humble and contrite spirit. The days for dogmatic utterance and thunderings from the pulpit are over – and I do not regret that – but that is no reason for keeping quiet. In art and in music, and speech and literature, in reasoned discussion and in poetry, in service to society and in sacrifice on behalf of it, we need to proclaim our faith in Christ as One who is near to suffering humanity and yet remains the high and lofty One. If we, as disciples of the Lord keep on keeping quiet, these stones will shout aloud to succeeding generations as long as this nation remains a nation, and this city remains a city.’ During this season of silence, we must largely leave it to the stones to do the shouting, and, we need have no doubt that they will do this for us, built by the people, for the people, to the glory of God, as long as this city remains a city. But we also dare to look forward with prayer and hope to another moment when the sounds which we love so much return. Even in these most strange of times, its still amazing how God is at work. Initially one might not think so, and we’d be right to think that way – for our lives, our country, our planet has changed almost overnight because of this coronavirus, COVID-19. In the university where I work, everything changed in just a couple of days – our buildings are now locked and all our teaching and assessment is suddenly plunged into the sometimes-ethereal world of cyberspace. I realise now how much I miss my students – in terms of face-to-face contact and discussion. My lectures, in the normal fashion, are more conversation than anything else – and it’s not the same in front of a computer screen. Supporting our students, themselves now in a bizarrely different world, physically away from everyone else, is paramount for us and helping them through some very difficult encounters.
But there are some glimmers of hope in this strange, transient world; similar perhaps to those of Martha and Mary in Sunday’s gospel from St John (11:1-45); the glimmers of hope that if Jesus had only been there at the right time, then their brother Lazarus would have been saved. But then, as now, Jesus, the love of God and the spirit which works through all does not disappoint – and the miracle of Lazarus restored to life, ensues. We might not find them miracles, but all through this last week I have heard wonderful stories – small miracles in themselves perhaps; of how people are finding hope through so many different ways in these challenging times. Through new community and new church in an online fashion now; through renewed interests, talents and skills; through revisiting the common values which bind us all together in the volunteers and communities amassing to help each other and especially the vulnerable. The green shoots of hope are there, through things we can see and feel – and know that God loves us still. But we must wholly be aware of the tragic loss of life too, and the change for many of livelihoods at present and in the days to come. Just a few hours ago, I heard of a dear friend seriously ill with the virus; our prayers lie with him and many others. The tragedy of lost loved ones, and the painful realities of not being able to grieve or celebrate passed lives together must be totally appreciated. But our faith, our prayers can help sustain us in some small way through even such – in knowing that we are indeed within a Good Friday period of our life history; that will result in an Easter day – when life is restored and renewed when we can indeed properly revisit our nearest and dearest. For now, we follow the wisdom of those leading scientifically and medically, support those on the new clinical frontline by observing the best way and surest path through all this, and know that our prayers will be answered in the best possible way….through Jesus Christ our Lord. With my love and prayers for you all; stay safe…. Canon Mike For many years, folk at Liverpool Cathedral have met over a simple breakfast on many Sunday mornings to open the Bible and be fed spiritually, as we prepare for worship. Whilst we cannot do that together in one place at the moment, we can individually continue that practice, either on Sundays, or some other day of the week. It doesn’t even have to be over breakfast! This Lent, we have been working through the set Psalms for each Sunday’s principal Communion service. You are welcome to make use of the notes for the Psalm set for Passion Sunday, Psalm 130. Canon Neal ![]()
It is Sunday; well that is what the diary tells me. It does not feel like a ‘real Sunday’. There is no physical church and, like all of you good citizens, I am not going to church. We are all staying at home. As life changed this week from worshipping in the Cathedral behind closed doors to no worship in the Cathedral I have begun to re-think what it means to worship ‘the God who knows and loves us’. Gradually, and I have to say gradually as I am no technical expert, I have begun to discover what is and what is not possible through technology. So this week we are trying once again to connect with the Cathedral community and the people of Liverpool and Merseyside through this web site (prayforliverpool.org). To access today’s worship and reflection by Canon Leslie Francis, Canon Theologian, click on this link to the Cathedral Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolCathedral/videos/503838456953743/. You can download the text of the service below. As a Cathedral Chapter and with other colleagues we will also be worshipping at home through Microsoft Teams. Canon Myles will be leading us in a Eucharist which will be offered on behalf of us all. This will take place at the usual time, so please do stop for a moment and think about sharing with us in prayer, as we remember Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples, when he instituted the Eucharist. The institution of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday led on to Good Friday the day when Jesus died. It continues to feel like we are still in Good Friday and that we have a long journey to go until we reach resurrection and Easter Day. We will continue to pray for you all and wish you God’s Blessing in this strange, odd and difficult time. Dean Sue ![]()
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supporting you during these uncertain times AuthorLiverpool Cathedral is a place of encounter. Built by the people, for the people, to the Glory of God Archives
September 2022
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Prayer for Liverpool
brought to you from Liverpool Cathedral St James Mount Liverpool L1 7AZ |
Liverpool Cathedral is a place of encounter.
Built by the people, for the people, to the Glory of God www.liverpoolcathedral.org.uk |