Once upon a time there were two guys named Andrew. They both loved Jesus and both started an MTS traineeship on the same day, in the year 2000. Last week they were both ordained as presbyters in a service at St Andrew’s Cathedral.

“I just thought, wow, here we are 20 years later getting ordained on the same day!” says the Rev Andrew Lim, who became rector of his church at Revesby the day after the service. “It was a great ordination – simultaneously moving and challenging, encouraging and terrifying.” 

The Rev Dr Andrew Leslie (who is head of Moore College’s department of theology, philosophy and ethics) agrees, saying that in the few days since the ordination, “I can feel myself thinking – as I might perhaps feel temptation or feel distracted or something like that – there’s a thought that pops into my head: ‘Remember those promises you made’. 

“People who’ve been ordained for 10 or 20 years will also say, yes, the gravity of the promises continue to linger with them.”

A presbyter is the second level of ordination (the first is deacon). After a two-year process and ordination, presbyters can lead a parish.

The two Andrews were in a group of eight deacons ordained as presbyters on September 8 – the others being the Rev Gus Cameron, the Rev Toby Campbell, the Rev Tim Clemens, the Rev Mike Hastie, the Rev Josh Johnston and the Rev Ken Tang.

At the service, Bishop Peter Lin preached on Matthew 26: the story of the woman with the alabaster jar of perfume who poured it on Jesus, preparing him for his burial. 

Says Mr Lim: “It was a cracker of a sermon – gospel gold… The value of that perfume is a year’s wages, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the value of Jesus.”