The Reverend Judith Sweetman writes:

June 2008

It hardly seems possible that almost a year has passed since I first arrived at Coggeshall, to receive a warm welcome at St. Peter’s as your new curate. As you may remember, the first year of a curacy is spent as a deacon. My first year with you, in this “diaconate”  role, has been a joyful, but also humbling, experience. Now, though, my ministry is about to change again, taking on a new and deeper dimension, as l am ordained as a priest on June 22^nd. So what is the difference between a priest and a deacon? The origins of the word “deacon” are from the Greek, meaning to serve, and at the ordination of deacons, these important words are said:

Deacons are called to work with the bishop and the priests with whom they serve as heralds of Christ’s kingdom. They are to proclaim the gospel in word and deed, as agents of God’s purposes of love. They are to serve the community in which they are set, bringing to the Church the needs and hopes of all the people. They are to work with their fellow members in searching out the poor and weak, the sick and lonely and those who are oppressed and powerless, reaching into the forgotten corners of the world, that the love of God may be made visible.

This describes well my own experience. Assisting at the altar has drawn me closer to the beauty and mystery of the Eucharist, as together we encounter our Lord Jesus Christ, making himself known to us in bread and wine. At baptisms, funerals and weddings, hospital and home visits, in chance conversations in shops and streets, I have been privileged to share in some of the happiest, saddest and most difficult times of people’s lives. Through my involvement in school assemblies and Hannah’s youth clubs, I have been enriched, enlightened, and at times, challenged, by my contacts with children and young adults, as they find out about themselves and the wonderful, but sometimes scary, world they are growing up in. In all these situations, I have tried to be a channel for God’s love and peace, as he reaches out to his world.

Priests, like all Christians, are called to continue in this “servant ministry” to others, but God also calls them to take on special responsibilities for leading, guiding and caring. The meaning behind the word priest is “to shepherd”. As the ordination service for priests explains.

Priests are called to be servants and shepherds among the people to whom they are sent. …to proclaim the word of the Lord ..to watch for the signs of God’s new creation.. to be messengers, watchmen and stewards of the Lord.. to teach and admonish, feed and provide for his family, to search for his children in the wilderness of this world’s temptations and guide them through its confusions, that they may be saved through Christ for ever. Formed by the Word, they are to call their hearers to repentance and to declare in Christ’s name the absolution and forgiveness of their sins.

Solemn responsibilities indeed. And none more solemn, nor more joyful, than that of presiding over the bread and wine at the Eucharist. How, then, can anyone be good enough, holy enough, to take on the role of priest? The answer, of course, is no one. A priest remains a fallible human being. But, as we know from the Bible, God doesn’t wait until we are good enough before he calls us to serve him. And so, as I make my ordination vows, I rely, not on my own abilities, but on God’s grace, through his Holy Spirit,  to form me into the priest he has called me to be. May  I ask for your prayers at this most special and precious moment in both my life and in the life of St Peter’s, as together we all seek to serve God and to care for his people and his world. 

Judith Sweetman, June 2008

Judith pictured with the Bishop, archdeacon and Father Philip, on her ordination to the diaconate, Chelmsford Cathedral, in June 2007.