My Dear Sisters and Brothers,

In a recent conversation with a retired priest, he commented that he and some other retired clergy had been lamenting the lack of prayerfulness apparent in our ministry as clergy. He said that they felt that we as clergy are too busy with non-essentials and just don't have the time to be effective spiritual leaders. He also suggested that part of the problem was that some of us are just not ourselves faithful in prayer. And where there is no faithfulness in prayer, he said, it shows.

I don't want simply to respond to what he said, either in defence of those clergy who faithfully pray their offices, or to sit in judgement on those who are not fulfilling their ordination vows. I would like, rather, to use what he said as a springboard for considering over the next two months what it means for us to be spiritual leaders.

At both the retreat for Clergy Spice and at the most recent Quiet Day for clergy, I spoke of St Paul's concept of our being "in Christ." It is at the very heart of Pauline spirituality and is about our participation in the very life of Christ himself. Christianity, for Paul, is not about keeping the rules and trying to win God's favour by doing everything right. Paul tried that and found himself working in opposition to God. For Paul, it is not about us at all; it's about God and God's grace. It is about Christ indwelling in us and living his life in us and through us to the glory of God. And he talks about us living "in Christ" more than 140 times in his undisputed writings.

To live "in Christ" is to live in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit who comes to seize us and take possession of us in order to give us to the Son. The indwelling Son leads us to the indwelling Father. And so our whole life is caught up in the riches of the mystery of the indwelling Holy Trinity. Jesus' kenosis (self-emptying) in the incarnation offers us an astonishing insight into life in the Holy Trinity - where the life of each is continuously being filled by the gift of the others. Nothing is claimed, nothing demanded or grasped in a mutual indwelling in an intimacy of relationship in which each moves and exists in and through the other. And we are invited to participate in this intimate, non-grasping relationship of mutual indwelling.

Just as the air in which we live and which gives us life fills us, surrounds us, enfolds us and gives us life, so "in Christ" we are filled, surrounded and enfolded by the Holy Trinity Spirit who gives us life. It is a relationship of inter-penetration - "abide in me and I in you" (John 15:4) - in which we live our lives in Christ and he lives his life in us; surrounded and enfolded in him, we cannot exist without him. And so St Paul can say, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). Those words sum up his whole understanding of what it means to live "in Christ." Paul is denying his own role of being in control of his life; it is Christ who is in control, and our spiritual journey is one of dying to self in order that the power of the indwelling Christ might be revealed and released in us.

To live "in Christ" is not some strange mystical, theological truth that can be experienced only by a few, nor is it simply (like the air we breathe) a fact of life to be ignored. It is, rather, an intentional attempt to live in relationship with the indwelling Trinity Christ and of allowing the indwelling Christ to shape everything we think, say, or do. As we respond to the love of the indwelling God, so the grace of God works in us to transform us into the image of Christ, changing us "from one degree of glory to the next" (2 Cor 3:18). This is what the Orthodox tradition refers to as the process of divinization.

But the process is neither mechanical nor automatic; it requires of us a willingness and commitment to stand firm "in Christ." It requires of us that we make sufficient space in our lives for that prayer and reflection that enables us to become aware of, and sensitive to God at work in our lives, and allow us to enter into the very movement of the Holy Trinity within us. As we make that space, so we will find that our prayers become less and less a litany of requests or instructions, and more and more a silent waiting, a holy listening, and a surrendering to the love of God.

This is the heart of our ministry, to be people who pray continually, people living "in Christ." And yet, in the business of our lives, that holy space for God is almost invariably the first thing to suffer. And the tragedy is that if we, as spiritual leaders, are living "in Christ", and not helping others to do the same, then we are failing in our calling. We are not psychologists, or social workers, or political activists, important though all those roles might be. We are, first and foremost, priests and deacons of God. To us has been entrusted the good news about Jesus, to us has been given the Living Word, the Word of Life, to us has been entrusted the calling to make God visible. "Preach the gospel at all times," said St Francis. "Use words if necessary."

I pray that we may so live "in Christ," that our lives will be a living testimony to the indwelling Holy Trinity. May our lives preach the gospel at all times and create in all people a deep desire to grow "in Christ". Use words if necessary.

May God bless you all,

+ Brian

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