Icon (Close Menu)

The Holy Spirit Shows Up

The Rt. Rev. Brian Prior, Bishop of Minnesota, writes about invoking the Holy Spirit at confirmations:

Family, clergy, peers are all circled around the person in front of me. After I solicit everyone’s prayers for said person I pause for a moment. It is an intentional, silent space that I always take prior to laying my hands on the person’s head — “making room for the Spirit” I always suggest in the rehearsal. I also always make it clear that each person coming forward is a child of God worthy of their own moment and that I am not a “Confirmation machine.” The Holy Spirit always, and I do mean always, “shows up.”

… One of the greatest blessings of serving as Bishop that I experience is inviting those gathered to make room for the Holy Spirit. Yes, on the aforementioned occasions, but also in other times of great joy and tremendous tragedy, regular meetings and spontaneous situations. It is an incredible privilege, one that I never take for granted, and one about which I was duly warned a number of years ago, “If you invite the Holy Spirit into your midst — be prepared for the unexpected!”

Read the rest.

Matt Townsend
Matt Townsend
Matthew Townsend is the former news editor of The Living Church and former editor of the Anglican Journal. He lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Top headlines. Every Friday.

MOST READ

CLASSIFIEDS

Most Recent

GAFCON Blasts Welby for Endorsement of Gay Sex

The GAFCON Primates’ Council rebuked Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby for stating in a recent podcast interview that he believes that sex within any “committed relationship, straight or gay,” is moral, which they call an “explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine.”

ACNA Installs New Archbishop

In a service marked by pageantry, prayers and celebratory bagpipes, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) received its new Archbishop and Primate this week.

Rowe Urges Strategy-Driven Executive Council

“You can only have a helpful evaluative structure if you have a strategy to evaluate,” Rowe added. “Otherwise you end up with what each individual board member thinks is important, a recipe for chaos.”  He also noted that “the staff reports to the CEO, not the board. This has been clear in our canons, but not in practice.”

11/24 Issue Online

The November 24 Advent issue of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers. In our cover story, Lauren Anderson-Cripps profiles developments...