One tradition connected with ordination that was new to me, when I started discerning my call, is the Ember Card. These are visual reminders for people to pray for a person about to be ordained — they are the equivalent of a ‘save the date’ invitation, though the invitation is not to a party but to be praying up to and during the date of ordination.
In essence, Ember Cards have a few basic features but can be personalised to reflect the person soon to be ordained.
Usually the cards are double sided, with the details of the person about to be ordained a deacon or a priest, the location where a named bishop will ordain them, and the place in which they will or are serving their curacy. To this some add requests for prayers and thanks to be given for particular people, such as their family, who have accompanied them on their journey to this point. Ember Cards for Ordinands due to be ordained Deacons may include requests for prayers of thanks for their sending and training churches. These latter two, prayers for accompanists and pre-ordination church memberships, are not ‘the essential’ elements — the focus tends to me more on the future than the past.
On the other side of the Ember Card there is usually a picture or design of relevance to the person, often with a Bible verse or two which is special to them or their sense of calling. Bible verses often also get included on the text-heavy side too.
An important thing to consider is the readability of your text. You might design something that looks good but is difficult for some people to read. Please use fonts and designs that are clear and easy to read – it is an important act of inclusivity.
I recommend using a search engine (such as Ecosia, Duck Duck Go, Google, Bing, etc) to look for how other people have designed their Ember Cards – they can be very helpful in working out how you would like yours.
There is no set time when Ember Cards should be sent out, but in practice they tend not to be sent out until about three months before a person is due to be ordained. The two main times when people are ordained is Petertide (end of June and beginning of July) and Michaelmas (end of September and beginning of October). Those to be ordained in Petertide tend to be ordained between finishing their training and starting their curacy, whilst those to be ordained in Michaelmas tend to have started their curacy before they are ordained.
Choosing when to send them out is not as simple as counting back from the date for the ordination, other factors may come into play. Depending on a person’s confidence and other factors, some may not feel able to send out Ember Cards until they know that their theological college are recommending the bishops ordain them — that was the case for me!
I do not like to assume something will happen or take things for granted (which is not to say that always achieve that). Like with most things, there are points which increase the certainty of ordination becoming a reality but until the Bishop ordains someone there are opportunities for it not to happen — these are the details that can worry can feed upon. In reality these dilemmas are mostly psychological, college tutors would have alerted any Ordinands at risk of not being recommended for ordination a long time before the end of their training.
Those sending out Ember Cards need to balance their struggles with uncertainty with the need to alert people to a date they might like to mark in their diaries and, of course, the request for prayers.
One final thing to consider about Ember Cards is whether you need have them printed at all. Whilst some appreciate the tactile nature of a physical Ember Card it is worth considering sending Ember Cards digitally — the latter is cheaper and has significantly less environmental impact. Digital cards can also be read out loud by computer software so that those who cannot read text can still be included in the act of praying. Physical cards can be displayed around the house or used as a bookmark, thereby reminding people afresh as they come across the card.
Even if you plan to have cards printed, you may wish to design the cards yourself on your computer. If this is the case you will end up with a file that can be used to send cards digitally and physically — PDFs (Portable Document Format) files are ideal for this as they can’t be edited and work with all types of computers.
If sending digital cards consider how you will send them. The size of the file for the card may well be large, especially if you have included images. This may cause problems with sending and receiving by email, but there are free alternative ways of sending them:
- WeTransfer.com — this looks and acts like a web-based email. You can attach multiple files up to a 2 GB limit for free, and without having to sign up for membership, which are then uploaded to a server for 7 days. Those you send the ‘email’ to receive a link which enables them to download the files straight to their computer. After the 7 days are up the files are deleted from the server so you may need to repeat this process several times.
- Dropbox.com — this is a file storage website that you need to sign-up to. As well as storing files you can send files using its ‘transfer’ option which acts in the same way as WeTransfer.com, this includes the temporary availability of the link. You can also share a link directly to the file but you will need to make sure that any link is only to the file and does not give people access to any other files and folders you might store in Dropbox.
- GoogleDrive and iCloud — these are Google’s and Apple’s equivalent to Dropbox. You can share files with other people, but again you must take care not to accidentally give access to other files and folders.
If printing cards you can ask a professional printing company to do them for you. The advantage of a professional printer will be the quality of the cards you have to send out, the disadvantage will be the cost — the cost is higher in part because there may be a set minimal number of cards you will need to order. You will find lots of options for professionally printed cards online, but it is worth looking to see if there are any local printers you can use — this can be a more personal experience and a way of supporting a local business. Alternatively, you could purchase some A6 or A5 cards and envelopes, and print them at home.
Like many, I was due to be ordained at the end of June in 2020 but 2020 is not a normal year. The Coronavirus pandemic has had a massive and devastating impact on the world, with far too many lives lost. One of the consequences of the pandemic is that we cannot gather together in unrelated and large groups, which means that ordinations planned for Petertide in 2020 cannot happen. Dioceses in the Church of England are each working out when and, equally importantly, how ordinations can happen – the current likelihood is that they will happen in Michaelmas 2020. Of course the ‘when’ is not certain, and that may change. As for the ‘how’, only time will tell.
I will leave this guide to Ember Cards with a description of mine and a request for your prayers.
I have chosen to make my Ember Cards available in digital and physical formats. I have designed them myself and am printing them onto A6 cards for those that would like a card posted to them. For those wanting a digital card I have made both an A5 and an A6 version available so that, should they choose to print them, they can choose the easiest size for to print and read. I’m also making them available digitally as a matter of principle – if we are to be truly inclusive we need to make things available to people in formats that they can access and, as mentioned above, a digital card can be read out loud by computers to those who cannot read the text themselves.
The card features a photo I took in 2019 of a refuge from the sea on the Pilgrim Path from the mainland to Lindisfarne / Holy Island in the North East of England. Not included on the card, in part due to space and the future focus, is mention of my Sending and Training Churches. Please give thanks and pray for the people of my Sending Church of Holy Trinity Combe Down and for my Training Church of St Barnabas Southdown, both in Bath — so many people within those churches have supported me on my journey to ordination, and I am tremendously grateful for them. Particular mention of thanks are due for Revd Paul Kenchington, my mentor at Holy Trinity (he has since retired) and my Training Supervisor at St Barnabas, Revd Dr Catherine Sourbut Groves.
If you would like a copy of my Ember Card you can download A6 and A5 versions below:
