Hannah Felsbourg
16 November 2024
Melbourne’s new Anglican priests were urged to embrace their role as messengers of God’s love in a fractured world at their ordination this morning.
Fifteen men and women were ordained on November 16, 2024, at St Paul’s Cathedral surrounded by friends, family, clergy and parishioners.
The joyful gathering, filled with hymns, scriptural reading, and meditation on the meaning of priesthood preceded the newly ordained priests being sent out as ministers.
In her sermon, St John’s Toorak associate priest the Reverend Wendy Crouch said the ordinands were called to embody God’s love which was stronger than death.
She said the qualities of priesthood were about service, compassion, and being a presence of hope, even in the most despairing situations.
“We were created by love, for love, and God’s love percolates through the world—even when we don’t recognise it,” Dr Crouch said
Read more: ‘Gift to belong to something bigger’: Journey to priesthood
Dr Crouch called upon the ordinands to be anointed with the fire of love, embodying God’s enduring compassion in a world marked by suffering.
She said their role was to represent God’s love as Jesus did, and to see each human face with mercy and humility.
Dr Crouch urged the ordinands to reflect on priesthood as a journey, filled with both the privilege and burden of serving a world that was fractured and suffering.
She said the new priest’s preaching, celebration of the Eucharist, and even their quiet moments with God should be acts of love.
“Remember always that at your core resides the love of God burning within you,” she said.
Read more: Melbourne diocese sees rise in aspiring clergy
The 15 priests ordained by Archbishop Philip Freier were:
- Kezhalezo Angami
- Xiaoxi Lou
- Julia Anne Boyd
- Rebecca Jane Miller
- Helena Cameron
- Luke McLeod Prentice
- Ginger Chen
- Josephine Anne Quinlan
- Conrad Francis Chiu
- Leili Shirmast
- Amy Ruth Footson
- Jonathan Viet Quoc Tran
- Cara Rhiannon Greenham Hancock
- Peter Richard Young
- Samantha Nicole Lo
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