Sermon preached by Mr John Stubbs 27 September 2003
Reflections following the Forum for Churches Together in England
Part way through the war Winston Churchill said
"This is not the end, it is not the beginning of the end. But it is
perhaps the end of the beginning"
These words might also be appropriate for Saturday 1 November when the
signing of the Covenant between the Anglican and Methodist Churches will
take place Central Hall Westminster and conclude in Westminster Abbey and
will involve the President of the Conference and the Archbishop of
Canterbury. So because the relationships between Christians both between and
also within denominations is very much in the news at the moment, I hope you
will allow me to think with you on those matters rather than reflecting on
the lectionary lesson St. Mark's gospel for today. It will also allow me to
share with you something of what I heard at the recent Forum of Churches
Together in England, the largest ecumenical gathering of Christians in this
country.
Let me begin by getting to read a passage from John Simpson's book "A Mad
World, My Masters" which I have read recently. He has a chapter entitled
"Villains" and has been musing on the nature of evil - found often in the
most unexpected places. This is what he has to say:- Simpson
page 75
'In other words these things are not as clear cut as one might imagine.
One of the most evil people I have come across - I cannot say met, since I
have only observed the traces of her wickedness - was clealry a loving
mother, a committed Christian, and a conscientious teacher. She ran a school
in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, and when the outburst of almost inexplicable
race violence welled up there in 1994 between Hutus and Tutsis, she led a
large gang of killers to the houses of Tutsi families whose addresses she
knew because their children attended the school. In her house, alongside the
school, we found a blackboard with directions to the killers: where they
were to go, the weapons they were to take, how precisely they were to use
them, stabbing, maiming, murdering. And in one of the rooms I found
photographs of her with her own children on her knee, and others of her
affectionately posing with some of the children she taught, and attending
their communions. '
Now it would be nice to believe that this is some sort of aberration,
that Christians would not behave like that. Unfortunately as our history
shows us that is not the case. And if you think; about the conflict which
has been pulling the Church of England apart over the last few weeks,
the case of Canon John, the gay candidate for a bishopric, and think of
something of the language and the attitudes which therefore lie beneath that
language, you will recognise that there are emotions at play not dissimilar
to those which clearly motivated that Hutu woman. The suggestion of
one prominent layman that he would expect the Archbishop to be discussing
his future in the church with Canon John - represents an kind of death
threat if not of the body at least of the life and commitment of Canon
John. Now I am not wanting to discuss the rights and wrongs of the case, or
what position should the church adopt towards gay and lesbian priests or lay
folk. You will have your own views about that as have I. But what does
concern me has been the violence expressed on both sides of that argument,
angry vicious words by both those who support the Canon almost as much as
those who are against him. There has been little enough of the spirit of
love for all men and women which our Lord wants of those who are His
followers. And lest we think that this is only an Anglican problem, I would
suggest to you that there are enough people on both sides of the fence in
Methodism that we might replicate the argument, and maybe the quarrel. And a
writer in the Roman Catholic journal The Tablet (I got my complimentary free
copy at the Forum - its too expensive to have regularly) wrote at the end of
an article about the whole dispute "This is not a happy Church. And Catholic
observers should not feel smug. It is a debate that is coming to the
Catholic Church." It is also possible to detect similar sorts of feeling
among people in one denomination about another. The quality of some of the
letters in the Methodist Recorder about the covenant showed very little
charity towards the Anglican Church.
I want to contrast these pictures of division, of animosity, of arrogance
and lack of love with a picture which was painted for us at the Forum by
Archbishop Rowan Williams in his keynote address. He talked to us about the
church of St. Paul's, Manhattan, a typical new England building, neat,
elegant, inside all white paint and gilt. But now a building whose pews are
scarred and stained whose walls are no longer plain but hung with cloths on
which there are many hundreds of letters, a building full of dust. For, as
you have perhaps guessed, St. Paul's Manhattan is right next to Ground Zero,
literally across the road from it. And it is suggested that it was only the
line of trees between it and those twin towers which saved it when those
towers came crashing down. And the scarring came from the boots and the
equipment of the policemen, firemen and other workers who took what rest
they could and slept for a while on those pews, or as they took food and
drink there. And the dust blew in and was brought in. Indeed it seems likely
that the congregation will not dust those pews for the forseable future when
they come to use them for their worship. And at one time - for a long period
there were piles and piles of boots, all sizes. The boots of those workers
on Ground Zero melted in the intense heat of the site and had constantly to
be replaced. And in a marvellous phrase the Archbishop talked of the Grace
of God in spare boots. For as you will have guessed the people of St. Paul's
clergy and lay folk in that traditional episcopal church exercised a
tremendous ministry in the aftermath of September 11th. And not just them.
They were joined by people from other churches and
denominations...Denomination; creed, churchmanship, whether one was liberal,
evangelical or fundamentalist did not matter. For the Archbishop said the
testimony of those who were involved was that they had claimed the baptismal
covenant for their own. The baptismal covenant meant the Christian response
and commitment which all Christian churches express in some way and which
essentially is the same for all of us. Denominationalism dissolved in the
face of the need which faced them. And what he suggested the church and its
people offered was what he called radical hospitality. That was hospitality
which sought no return. The church was open to all who needed what it
could offer by way of help and care and rest. And radical hospitality is
costly. It means mess. It meant a very great deal of mess in St. Paul's. And
we don't like mess. I wonder how many open church youth clubs have closed
because the young people made a mess, or didn't quite conform to whatever
nice standards the congregation expected of them. And the hospitality which
St. Paul's extended in God's name was an open door which allowed the world
to come in just as it was. For as the Archbishop said hospitality, that
hospitality summed up in the love of Jesus given for, us is extravagant, and
it is never in the abstract. There was nothing theoretical about the way the
churches worked together at St. Paul's. And that ecumenical action,
extravagant, costly, wearing will I am sure have changed the attitudes of
all those involved to the other churches alongside whose pastors and people
they would have worked. And remember, it was not the ecumenical rituals
which we carry out - the Week of Prayer, Christian Aid Week, and so on,
important though those may be. It was deeply committed sharing in the face
of the need of the world.
What is it, the Archbishop wanted to know would make us so receptive to
God's hospitality that we would want to be hospitable to the world? Why is
it that we seem to need crisis to really bridge our barriers and divisions.
How can we match the urgency of Christ himself? And as I reflected on it, it
seemed to me that if we look around us there is always crisis in our world.
There are always people who need what we have to give them. And the church
in action is very often ecumenical. Let me give you one small example. The
Board of the YMCA in Bedford is a group of Christians drawn from a wide
variety of churches and churchmanship. We have Baptists, members of the
Rutland Road Free Church, a Plymouth Brother, Anglicans, Methodists and a
Roman Catholic. Theologically we would never agree. We could have a real set
too I am sure over gay priests or; ministers. But faced with the needs of 27
young people at anyone time in the hostel, many of whom are damaged or
inadequate, and the need to support the staff who bring their own
varied denominational backgrounds, those things which divide us are not an
issue. We are committed to those young people a commitment which grows out
of our commitment to Jesus even though that commitment is expressed in a
variety of church forms. It is true in many other ways - chaplaincies are
more often than not ecumenical endeavours. The barrier which we so often
erect against our fellow Christians arises it seems to me out of
either arrogance or insecurity. And the message which the ecumenical world
is trying to put to the churches is that all of us, both individuals and
churches, have only a partial view of God and Jesus. None of us knows and
understands the nature of God and his love completely and utterly and
therefore all of us need each other to be both givers and receivers as we
try to find and follow the one who says that He is the Way, the Truth and
the Life.
Rev. Jean Mayland a staff member of Churches Together in Britain and
Ireland writes
"It is not uniformity we seek, but a unity which holds together our
diversity, a unity which is made more beautiful by our diverse colours,
as the one rainbow holds together the colours of the spectrum in a beautiful
whole.'
Or as Samuel Kovia, newly appointed Secretary General of the World
Council of Churches said at his inauguration, quoting an African proverb
"It you want to walk fast, walk alone, but if you want to walk far,
walk together with others".
So what does this mean for you and me this morning? You may rightly point
out to me the strong partnership we have established between Anglicans and
Methodists here. There are other churches in this part of the town outside
that partnership, what of them? And ecumenical action is not just the
function of priests and ministers. Above all the Archbishop said the
challenge is to take on for ourselves the urgency of Jesus in his love and
concern for the people of this world. And remember we need each other if we
would try to show to men and women what God is like. What that means to you
individually only you can say. I have been blessed with the opportunity to
discover something of it through my YMCA links but that is only part of my
life and there is much more for me to find and do.
We heard in our first lesson about the challenge of God to Abraham. He was
to be the founder of a mighty nation, that was the promise. And then what
does God do? Asks him to sacrifice his son, effectively ending the hope and
revoking the promise. For what God showed Abraham was that even the most
precious things should not stand in the way His Holy Will. That goes for
our individual lives. And it goes for all we hold dear in our Church. An
especial challenge for me whose role is to uphold Methodism in ecumenical
circles. But a challenge for each of you also as we begin to explore the
routes to unity. So I pray today that we may all be one as Jesus prayed,
and that we may all individually and collectively find ways in which to
bring unity about for the sake of all who live in God's world. Amen
Judy Jarvis, Vice President of the Methodist Conference brought with her
to Synod a card whose picture she had used for a focus for worship at the
Conference. On the other side were the words which it seemed would have been
word which the people of St, Paul's would have recognised. If we would have
a church like that, then we must play our part in creating it. Let us pray
The following poem was read by John later in the service
- If this is not a place where tears are understood
Where can I go to cry?
If this is not a place where my spirit can take wing
Where do I go to fly?
If this is not a place where my questions can be asked
Where do I go to seek?
If this is not a place where my feelings can be heard
Where do I go to speak?
If this is not a place where you will accept me as I am I.
Where can I go to be?
If this is not a place where I can try to learn and grow
Where do I just be me?
(attributed to William Crockett)