Trinity Church, Abingdon, welcomed people from across England and Wales on Saturday 10 January as Revd Wayne Hawkins was inducted as Oxfordshire Ecumenical Minister for the URC Wessex Synod. The service was led by the Moderator, Revd Dr Michael Hopkins, with contributions from ministers and church leaders from across the county.
The preacher was Revd Dr Susan Durber, URC minister and European President of the World Council of Churches. In her sermon she reflected on the ecumenical movement and Abingdon’s long tradition of churches working together. She recalled the progress in ecumenical cooperation, especially during the 1980s when new forms of partnership emerged and the United Reformed Church was formed through the coming together of different traditions. Today, she said, people are far more familiar with one another’s church practices, but that has not yet led to the kind of deep structural unity seen in those earlier years.
Drawing on the readings from Philippians (2: 5-11) and John(13:34-35), she spoke of Jesus’ command to love one another, stressing that love is not just a feeling but something practical and lived out day by day. True unity, she suggested, grows when Christians commit themselves to love in their relationships with one another within and across churches.
During the service Revd Wayne Hawkins affirmed his faith and his commitment to serve the local ecumenical partnership (LEP) churches of Oxfordshire in this ecumenical role in helping them in their missions to their communities. Representatives of local ecumenical partnerships, Wessex Synod and the wider church formally welcomed him and promised their support and prayers.
The service concluded with prayers for the churches and the world, by Canon Neil Roberts, Rector of St Nicolas Church, Guildford. He was sorry to loose Wayne Hawkins who had been a fellow minister in Guildford but said people in Oxfordshire would be blessed through his work in this new ecumenical role.
Revd Wayne Hawkins concluded with the blessing:
God
Creator, Son and Spirit
Hold us now in the place where we belong,
In your heart of love.
Bless us now as we open our eyes,
To see one another as your beloved people,
To see your image set in each one of us,
To know that we are loved.
Amen
(Thankyou to Tony Brett for the photographs.)