The Kohanim blessing
When Valerie Walker was ordained Priest on 3 June, the preacher (the Rev Canon Dr Alison Peden) spoke about the priestly task of blessing: pronouncing God’s favour, God’s good-will, and making “a link between God and the people, a channel for the blessings of God to flow to us.
“If you go to the Jewish cemetery in Prague, you can see the tombstones of the Cohen families, who were of the priestly line. They are identified by hands held up, with five spaces between the joined fingers. It was to make a kind of lattice for God’s light and presence to come through in the blessing.
“And, in a way, that is how you could describe the Incarnation: God letting light and blessing come through to the world in Christ. As Christ lived and taught and healed and prayed and died, he let God’s blessing through to us, as a channel; he became a blessing himself, transparent to God, opening up the new life and kingdom of God, raising the weak and lowly, calling us God’s children and his friends.
“So, in the liturgy, the priest enacts Christ’s blessing of the world: and lets a bit of the glory of the risen and ascended Christ into the world.” [Alison’s full sermon is linked to her blog and will appear in the next issue of Contact]
Experience that blessing as you join us in worship.