Gathering around the campfire
Reflections
“As a Diocesan family, widely distributed, we will be centred on Saturday as we gather around our new Archbishop in the Cathedral as he is seated in the cathedra, and as he leads us in the breaking of the bread before encouraging us to go and further the mission of Christ,” says The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt
Sitting around the campfire
Lo! — the campfire!
Know — the campfire is known
•
The fire!
(the campfire)
By the light of the fire
The
Faces
Are seen
••
••
(some of the faces look so kind )
••
••
By the light of the faces — See!
The gentle visions in each Eye
•
Sitting around the campfire
Lo! — the campfire!
Know — the campfire is known
•
The campfire is known
By those who sit around the flames
Jeffrey Robin, “Mountain Evening Song”
Gathering around a camp fire builds community. No words required. Community can be built through the gift of human presence alone. Aided by a centring object. A campfire.
At morning tea the centring object can be the coffee cup or a shared table. The term “water cooler conversation” suggests that the centring object can be many things.
As Church we use many centring objects to help us gather and build community. A Bible or an altar, a church building or an op shop.
As a Diocese, on Saturday we will be celebrating the gift of one of our key centring objects, The Archbishop, as Bishop Jeremy is installed.
On Saturday at the installation liturgy a number of centring “objects” will be working together:
A person — The Archbishop
A symbol — The Cathedra, the Archbishop’s seat in the Cathedral. It is the cathedra, the seat, that makes the cathedral a cathedral.
A place — The Cathedral.
A people — The gathered community.
As a Diocesan family, widely distributed, we will be centred on Saturday as we gather around our new Archbishop in the Cathedral as he is seated in the cathedra, and as he leads us in the breaking of the bread before encouraging us to go and further the mission of Christ.
Archbishop Jeremy will then become a travelling source of centring and will act as a symbol of unity; centring us through his own person, while also linking us back to the particular centring place that is the cathedra and the Cathedral; the place we gather for ordinations — priests, deacons and bishops are ordained as gifts to the whole Church — and synods and other significant events in the life of the Diocese.
The cathedra and the building it contains stand as lasting centring symbols that help to centre the life of the Church when the Archbishop is not physically present. Sunday-by-Sunday and day-by-day, we welcome people from across the Diocese who come to visit their Cathedral, the place where the Archbishop’s seat is kept.
First published in the St John’s Cathedral Precinct e-news on 11 December 2023.
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