Simon Sarmiento retweetledi
A Prayer for Sarah
@ArchbishopSarah
God of the road,
God of the threshold,
God of the journey still to come.
As Sarah your servant and friend arrives
at the gates of Canterbury,
at the door of the Cathedral,
at the place where footsteps slow to prayer.
We name this moment:
arrival but not completion.
The outer road has now been walked
May the deeper pilgrimage now continue along
the unseen and costly road,
the road that leads to truth and repentance,
through the lives of those
the Church has too often failed.
As Sarah your servant crosses this threshold,
from journey into office,
from pilgrimage into power,
let this be a moment of calling.
Not a resting place,
but a reckoning for
safeguarding failures,
survivors unheard,
truths delayed,
power maintained.
So meet Sarah and all of us here, O God
not with ease, but with urgency.
Let the prayers of this place
echo with the voices that were not heard.
Let the stones of this Cathedral
bear witness not only to history,
but to the harm that must now be named.
Give Sarah courage at this threshold:
to speak what has been softened,
to confront what has been avoided,
to refuse the safety of silence.
As Sarah takes up this calling,
let her leadership be marked
not by preservation but transformation.
Place her not above the people,
but among those who carry
the cost of our failures:
among survivors of abuse,
still waiting to be heard,
still waiting for justice,
among those living in poverty,
those without home or security,
among refugees and migrants,
seeking safety in a world that resists them,
among those who face racism,
spoken and unspoken,
among LGBTQIA+ people
whose belonging has been questioned,
among disabled people,
those living with mental ill health,
those too often overlooked or unseen,
among the elderly forgotten,
and the young still searching
for a Church they can trust.
And as a woman called to this place,
let her presence be more than a symbol.
Let it be disruption.
Let it be a breaking open of what has excluded,
a challenge to what has been defended,
a sign that your Reign
does not mirror our hierarchies,
but overturns them
And call us, O God,
not to stand and watch this moment,
but to enter it.
To cross this threshold with her.
To leave behind denial,
to lay down defensiveness,
to relinquish the need to protect what must change.
The pilgrimage to Canterbury ends here
but the pilgrimage to justice begins.
The pilgrimage to truth begins.
The pilgrimage to becoming a Church
that does not turn away begins.
So send us from this place and moment O God,
not reassured, but resolved.
Not comfortable, but committed.
Not unchanged, but ready to walk the harder road.
For you are not found at the end of the journey,
but in the courage to begin again.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
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