Some of you will have the press coverage of Susan’s service of blessing and affirmation. Susan is a trans woman who worships with us at MCC Newcastle. Now she has completed her transition, she wanted a service to celebrate this and she renewed her baptismal vows as Susan. It was a powerful moment. You can read Susan’s story online here. 
 
Names are often very important to us. For people who go through the transition process, it is an opportunity to claim a new aspect of who they are – to publicly announce who they intend to be from this point forward. Often we have
special or nicknames for people who are important to us. At the moment I am on a watercolour painting course and there is another Cecilia in the room. It is so rare for both of us to meet another woman with the same name and we are both getting quite a bit of childish glee from saying our own name out loud and have it refer to the other person.

In the Hebrew tradition, it was thought if you knew someone’s name, you had power over them. When Moses encounters God through the burning bush, he asks who is
talking with him. God replies “I am that I am”. Down through time, people have tried to describe God, to give God a name that reflects the Divine one that they encounter.

One of the exercises that we do very early on in the “Creating a Life that Matters” course is to examine the names that we have been taught for God – to dismiss the
ones that we do not recognise and to claim ones that describe that God that we know and love. This is often a useful activity, as it helps course participants to really be thoughtful about how they see God and what old images or labels of God they need to get rid of.

Scripture has many different names for God – as the people who wrote them tried to capture the essence of the Divine. Perhaps this week, it is something we could try – thinking up new names for the One who loves us.

What’s in a name?

Often something very powerful.

 God bless,

Cecilia
 

On my desk sits a useful little book called “Vows and Partings” It was produced by the Methodist Church in response to the ups and downs of life. The prayers contained in this book recognise that relationships can be wonderful and also can end badly. There are prayers to recognise the changes that retirement brings and prayers to help both parents and children through different stages of life. Some of them read like modern day psalms, expressing human confusion and bewilderment.

For so many people who look at the church from the outside, it can seem irrelevant and outdated. It can appear that the pomp and preaching bears no relation to the everyday lives that most people are leading. This is why it is so important that MCC Newcastle gets out and about, in the
places where our people are. This year, as always we will have a strong presence at Northern Pride. We will also march in Sunderland Pride in September. We need to show our people that God is there for them and the church is rightfully theirs.

So what sort of rites and rituals might be more relevant to our community? How can we bring the sacred into the human – just as the prayers in the Methodist book do?

Naming ceremonies for babies are less formal than baptism and don’t require parents and godparents to say things that they don’t really believe. If a child decides to make a commitment to Christ later on, they can always be baptised then.

For people who are transitioning, having a blessing which celebrates their new name and embraces their gender is great way to support and affirm individuals.

How would it be to have a prayer or ritual for couples who are breaking up, especially those who have been together
a long time? Our community is so small, that learning to end relationships well helps us and our friends to live alongside each other without some of the hurt and bad feeling carrying on for years.

Where will you find the sacred in the human this week?

God bless,

 Cecilia