‘Send down the Holy Spirit on your servants’

Saturday 1st July was a big day for the church in South East London! St Luke’s hosted the ordination of three new priests to the church of England, at an uplifting and inspiring service.

The church was full for the ordination of our own Joanna Lewis Burgess, with Tatiana Gutterige from St Alfege, Greenwich and Joel Soares from St Peter’s, Brockley. We were honoured to give a warm welcome to Bishop Christopher, who presided, assisted by Bishop Karowei, and to family members and congregants of the three ordinands.

Having spent a year in training since their ordination as Deacons, these three servants of Christ are ready to dedicate their lives and careers to God’s Ministry. After the introduction and listening to the Word, the ordinands declared their acceptance of the call of God and dedication to carrying out His works.

The whole congregation was asked to agree that they should be ordained, and to pray for them. The Bishop and sponsoring priests then laid their hands on each ordinand in turn, calling on the Holy Spirit to give them the grace and power to proclaim the Gospel. The new priests were given a rapturous welcome! We all shared communion together, and the service ended with Bishop Karowei giving a bible to each new priest.

We moved to the church hall to celebrate with a fabulous version of the traditional St Luke’s lunch. Our visitors certainly seemed to enjoy the cuisine and the warm welcome from St Luke’s. As usual, many St Luke’s people put in a huge amount of work and effort to make the day go so well, and the church is indeed blessed to have their dedication and commitment. A big thanks to you all!

With thanks to Beverly Sobers and Sandra Douglas-Simms for the photos!

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