"All we are saying is give liturgy a chance"


In worship, "you are the actors, the celebrant is the prompter, the audience is God". With these words of Søren Kierkegaard, the Revd Elaine Labourel introduced her plenary session entitled "Bearing the Word in the Liturgy" at the Diocesan Readers' Conference on Sunday 17 June. Elaine is the Assistant Priest at St Mark's Versailles and St Paul's Chevry, and is presently completing an MA in Liturgy at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield. She explored how the liturgy of the Church forms the people of God, nourishes them with sound doctrine, and enables them to enter deeply into the work of giving glory to the Holy Trinity. Paraphrasing the old Lennon-McCartney song, Elaine told the Readers, "all we are saying is give liturgy a chance". 


At the eucharist on Sunday 17 June, in the midst of the Conference, I commissioned Elaine as "Senior Tutor and Advisor for Reader Ministry", recognising her work as part of the Ministry Team of the diocese. Elaine is pictured below with some of her most recent "graduates" whom she has tutored in their studies, and who have recently been admitted to the office of Reader and licensed.

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