As I watched the BBC livestream of the installation of Archbishop Sarah Mullaly at St. Augustine’s Chair in Canterbury Cathedral, my mind went back seventy years to when our neighbour in the apartment next door was a curate of the parish church. We quickly made friends and many evenings he would drop by to talk of his hopes and dreams, and inevitably, from time to time, to gossip about his colleagues.
One was a woman, known then as a ‘woman church worker’ who, he said with a smile, would have liked to be a priest. I could not understand his laughing at her aspiration, but I was young and uninformed and said nothing. But how things have changed! A woman now stands at the centre of the Anglican Communion.
How appropriate, also, that the installation took place as we celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation, for when we ask who was the first Christian priest, the first person, that is, to present the incarnate Lord to God’s people, was she not a woman?
Archbishop Sarah was not the only woman to be seen at the event. The Africans leading the Gospel procession, dancing in their colourful gowns and singing in Swahili, were the most striking women participants, but others played more formal roles, including the Primate of the Anglican Church of Mexico who read the Gospel in Spanish.
Here again, things have changed. Apart from hearing Spanish and three African languages, we heard the Kyrie sung in Urdu (said now to be the second most-spoken language in England). Going back seventy years, I remember reading how it was desirable and even necessary that Latin be the liturgical language. Even our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters now ignore that claim.
That was not all. I watched leaders of other Churches and of other faith communities process into the Cathedral and heard the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster read the Hebrew Scriptures, and I noted that there were girls among the boys in the Cathedral choir. I left the livestream with a feeling of hope and an assurance that the Spirit was indeed at work among us.
On further reflection, of course, I knew that things are far from perfect. What I welcome as change I know that others find difficult to accept. As trivial as it may be, I find projection screens objectionable, so those others are not alone!
More seriously, even Mary in her joy was warned that a sword would pierce her own soul too. But for the moment at least, let us embrace the joy, and welcome all those who are prepared to journey with us. As Archbishop Sarah herself has already repeatedly said, if we wish to go fast, we go alone, but if we are to go farther, we should go together.