As you leaf occasionally through your beloved copy of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), you may have noticed mention of “Ember Days.” These observances turn up on the liturgical calendar four times a year, and each consists of three days: the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after St. Lucy’s Day (December 14), Ash Wednesday, the day of Pentecost, and Holy Cross day (September 14). As you may have deduced, we are currently in the vicinity of the Ash Wednesday Ember Days.
Ember Days originated in ancient Italy where they were opportunities for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving at important times of year for agriculture: sowing, harvest, and vintage. Later, they became times for ordination, and thus felicitous times for the prayers of the candidates for ordination and their communities.
Yet the ministers of the church are not only the clergy. In our Episcopal tradition, we believe in the “priesthood of all believers,” and in the Outline of the Faith in our BCP, the first group listed as ministers in the church are the lay people. It goes on to say: “The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.” (p. 855)
It is a very good thing, then, the Church has so many ministers! We need hardly be reminded that we live in complicated, destabilizing, and often cruel times − times when we all need to be representing Christ’s values of justice, compassion, forgiveness, and peace. We are all being called more than ever to use our God-given gifts to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.
And so for these Lenten Ember Days, let us pray for us all, for all Christians in their vocation (BCP, p. 256-7):
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen!
