St David, Barbados Feast of Christ the King 26.11.23

After a ceremony in the British Houses of Parliament in London the splendidly robed Lord Hailsham entered a corridor crowded with tourists and spotted his friend the Member of Parliament Neil Marten. ‘Neil’ he shouted and every tourist in the corridor dropped to their knees!

The story captures how intimacy and awe can come together with amusing consequences. 

A couple of years ago I solemnly consecrated a vessel containing altar bread that turned out to be empty. Under the old COVID rules in the UK priests were not allowed to breathe over vessels containing the host so they stayed covered until Communion. I wrongly assumed the covered ciborium placed on the altar by the warden was filled. What a surprise when I genuflected before it, took off the lid ready to distribute Holy Communion and found it empty. I had to say Jesus’ words ‘This is my body’ again over the bread box so we could share Communion.

Merriment is a hallmark of Christ’s kingdom. Archbishop Ramsey described a characteristic of hell as being the absence of laughter. Where there’s laughter there’s lack of self-importance. One imagines hell as being an array of tragically disconnected self important beings unable to reach out to God or one another.

We kneel to no British Lord Chancellor this morning - and Barbados kneels no longer to a British Monarch - but we kneel today to the Blessed Sacrament, to Our Lord on this great Feast of Jesus Christ the Universal King. 

The Lord Chancellor incidentally is the one who still walks backwards before the King having presented him with the text of his Speech at the opening of our Parliament. We saw that ancient ceremony only a fortnight ago. As you may know the King’s Speech is read but not written by him. You could almost see his teeth gritted as he read that his Government ‘will support the future licensing of new oil and gas fields’. Like your Prime Minister Mia Mottley, King Charles has an international reputation as an environmental spokesperson.

Outward ceremonies can lose their meaning and eventually fall out of use. My stories about kneeling recall a controversial diocesan news in my Diocese in which an assistant Bishop berated the lack of kneeling in Church nowadays questioning whether Chichester Diocese was going Methodist in that the only time many kneel is for Communion! He forgot that as we get older kneeling has to be more from the heart.

This morning we kneel in our hearts before Christ the King. As a beautiful eucharistic preface used today within the Church of England affirms: ‘As king [Christ] claims dominion over all your creatures, that he may bring before your infinite majesty a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace’. Truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love and peace, all these are fully found in God. Through his Son and his Spirit our almighty Father is establishing those qualities upon earth so that ‘the kingdom of this world may become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ’ Revelation 11:15. Our Gospel reading reminds us how care for the hungry and thirsty, the sick and those in prison extends Christ’s rule towards the day when, in the words of the Collect, ‘the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under [Christ’s] most gracious rule’.

In the last fortnight the Church of England General Synod made a move, to my mind unfortunate, towards blessing same sex unions paving the way to changing age-old belief in marriage as heterosexual. G.K.Chesterton remarked that only belonging to the Church sets one free from the slavery of being a child of one’s time. As Christians we kneel before God in Christ and not before majority opinion in a post-Christian culture. It isn’t easy for Christians in the west though we are still far from the reality in the east where Crosses are being taken from church roofs. 

The Feast of Christ the King is no feast of an idea. It is the feast of a reality we kneel before, the reality of Christ’s kingship - that Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is Lord – three words sum up our Creed.  

Jesus is Lord.  The carpenter born in Nazareth who shows the world the love, truth and power of God – he is Lord. It is his name that brings heaven to earth and earth to heaven. 

Secondly Jesus is Lord.  A human life of 33 years lived at the start of our era continues the same yesterday, today and for ever through the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7v16b).  

Thirdly Jesus is Lord which means he is right above all that is or has been or will be.  Jesus is God’s final word to humankind. He is also to be the very last word over all each one of us as we shall contemplate next week on Advent Sunday.   

In Jesus a human being lives over all things in God.  Nothing gives us more hope for the human race than this. Here is the place heaven and earth come together. As Pascal said Jesus Christ is the centre of all, and the goal to which all tends. 

So we kneel before him this morning. 

This Sunday Mass is the hour of Jesus, a time given to him by us together that reminds us all our time belongs to him. 

Our daily prayer is submission to him as Lord of our life, as is the private confession to him of ours sins. 

Our reading of the Bible teaches us to put faith in the constancy of God’s word and not in the multitude of human words that make up public opinion. 

Our service given to other people is a submission to Christ present in all people and things. 

Worship, prayer, bible study, service - these are our kneeling before Christ the King as individual members of his body to be underlined and refreshed this morning. 

Christ is King, Jesus is Lord - and he is our king, our Lord, with the Father and the Holy Spirit to whom be all might, majesty, dominion and power henceforth and for evermore. Amen.

 

St Wilfrid, Haywards Heath Christ the King 22.11.20

After a ceremony in Parliament the splendidly robed Lord Chancellor entered a corridor crowded with tourists and spotted his friend Neil Marten MP. ‘Neil’ he shouted and every tourist in the corridor dropped to their knees!

The story captures how intimacy and awe can come together with amusing consequences. 

Three weeks ago at St Wilfrid’s I solemnly consecrated a vessel containing altar bread that turned out to be empty. Under COVID rules priests are not allowed to breathe over vessels containing the host so they stay covered until Communion. I wrongly assumed the covered ciborium placed on the altar by the warden was filled. What a surprise when I genuflected before it, took off the lid and found it empty. I had to say Jesus’ words ‘This is my body’ again over the bread box so we could share Communion.

Merriment is a hallmark of Christ’s kingdom. Archbishop Ramsey described a characteristic of hell as being the absence of laughter. Where there’s laughter there’s lack of self-importance. One imagines hell as being an array of tragically disconnected self important beings unable to reach out to God or one another.

We kneel not to the Lord Chancellor this morning but to Our Lord on this great Feast of Jesus Christ the Universal King. The Lord Chancellor incidentally is the one who still walks backwards before the Queen having presented her with the text of her Speech at the opening of Parliament. Outward ceremonies can lose their meaning and eventually fall out of use. My story about kneeling recalls a controversial diocesan news in which Bishop Lindsay berated the lack of kneeling in Church nowadays. Lindsay sent good wishes to Fr Ray through me last month recalling how he presided over Ray’s induction all those years back.  Never one for ducking straight speaking the Bishop questioned whether Chichester Diocese was going Methodist in that the only time many kneel is for Communion!

As we get older - Lindsay was nicknamed Boy Bishop as he was consecrated so young - we understand how kneeling can be problematic even when you have a knee replacement! This morning online we have no kneeling unless you want to kneel on the living room carpet for the consecration prayer of the eucharist. No kneeling outwardly but certainly inwardly. 

Our intimacy with God is an awesome intimacy. God is God! 

Who are we to enter God’s presence as we are doing in this eucharist?

As the passage from Ephesians in today’s epistle expresses it: with the eyes of your heart enlightened, may you know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand.

This morning we kneel before Christ the King. As the beautiful eucharistic preface states: ‘As king [Christ] claims dominion over all your creatures, that he may bring before your infinite majesty a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace’. Truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love and peace, all these are fully found in God. Through his Son and his Spirit our almighty Father is establishing those qualities upon earth so that the kingdom of this world may become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ Revelation 11:15.

Our Gospel reading reminds us of how care for the hungry and thirsty, the sick and those in prison extends Christ’s rule towards the day when, in the words of the Collect, ‘the whole created order will worship at the feet’ of God’s infinite majesty.

In the Times on Tuesday Melanie Phillips applauded recent judicial decisions protecting the rights of believers to hold the age old belief in marriage as heterosexual. Some of you have been in conversation on Facebook with me about this controversial article. 

G.K.Chesterton remarked that only belonging to the Church sets one free from the degrading slavery of being a child of one’s time. 

As Christians we kneel before God in Christ and not before majority opinion in a post-Christian culture. It isn’t easy and gets little easier in our culture though this is far from China where Crosses are being taken from church roofs.

The Feast of Christ the King is no feast of an idea. It is the feast of a reality we kneel before, the reality of Christ’s kingship - that Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is Lord – three words sum up our Creed.  

Jesus is Lord.  The carpenter born in Nazareth who shows the world the love, truth and power of God – he is Lord. It is his name that brings heaven to earth and earth to heaven. 

Secondly Jesus is Lord.  A human life of 33 years lived at the start of our era continues the same yesterday, today and for ever through the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7v16b).  

Thirdly Jesus is Lord which means he is right above all that is or has been or will be.  Jesus is God’s final word to humankind. He is also to be the very last word over all each one of us as we shall contemplate next week on Advent Sunday.   

                                                                                                                  

In Jesus a human being lives over all things in God.  Nothing gives us more hope for the human race than this. Here is the place heaven and earth come together. As Pascal said Jesus Christ is the centre of all, and the goal to which all tends. 

So we kneel before him this morning. 

This Sunday Eucharist is the hour of Jesus, a time given to him by us together that reminds us all our time belongs to him. 

Our daily prayer is submission to him as Lord of our life, as is the private confession to him of ours sins. 

Our reading of the Bible is teacher to put faith in the constancy of God’s word and not in the multitude of human words that make up public opinion. 

The service we give others is a submission to Christ present in all people and things. 

Worship, prayer, bible study, service - these are our kneeling before Christ the King as individual members of his body to be underlined and refreshed this morning. 

Christ is King, Jesus is Lord - and he is our king, our Lord, with the Father and the Holy Spirit to whom be all might, majesty, dominion and power henceforth and for evermore. Amen.

St David, Barbados Christ the King 24 November 2019

It’s good to be back in the Caribbean from the UK once again. 30 years ago I helped train the second batch of Amerindian priests in Guyana at the former Alan Knight Training Centre on a three year USPG secondment. That was when I first met Fr Noel. Our friendship built up, along with Hazel and the girls, around the time of the 1998 Lambeth Conference when we exchanged Vicarages, St Patrick, Barbados for St Saviour, Alexandra Palace in London. That’s when our family discovered Miami Beach where we’re currently staying with our other Bajan friends, Bishop Wilfred and Ina Wood.

Over the years I’ve returned to visit Codrington College and Guyana on Sabbatical. I live now in Haywards Heath, halfway between London and Brighton, surrounded by Sussex countryside. That’s not been my experience most of my time with parishes or diocesan work based in Doncaster, Coventry and London. To visit Barbados has always been a privilege, besides the warmth of environment - and people - to take time away from air polluted Britain. Living on an island like this, so close to paradise, isn’t without its ecological challenges, but it seems a long way from the environmentally challenged world I live in most of the time.

I visit London often, just a 45 minute train ride away. In recent months traffic there’s been halted by hundreds of young people under the banner ‘Extinction Rebellion’ making a strong point about the need for action on climate change. In consequence the current UK election campaign has strong focus on better care for the environment. It’s also got another key element, Brexit - a move, which if successful - I’m a cynic - will at least lead the UK more into engagement with the Caribbean - if you want us, of course! Anyway it's the environment I want to speak to this morning from a Christian perspective.

My doctorate was on the forces between the chains in polythene and Teflon. I wrote it years ago when I was involved in Chemical research. It’s won me the nickname ‘non-stick-vicar’. I wish that were true!  From that scientific work on what holds polymers together I’ve now moved forward to another concern - what holds the universe together, what’s at the heart of our environment as mortal beings. We’re here this morning to celebrate the One who does just that – Jesus Christ. He holds all things in being we heard in the reading from Colossians and he’s bringing all things together in himself. 

My mission as a priest is to help people know Jesus and the truth that’s in Him, truth that’s married to the wider body of human truth that’s emerging day by day as the world evolves.

The gentle reign of Christ the King is over hearts and minds. In my life time no one has been a better teacher on ecology than the French priest scientist and mystic Teilhard de Chardin.   

For Teilhard the Jesus whose reign today’s second reading announces is the one who holds all things together and who leads us forward to a fulfilment that will coincide with his majestic return.

The whole cosmos is like an inverted cone with the movements within it converging upon Jesus as the apex or omega point. Our individual futures, the future development of St. David’s and of the whole church and the future of Barbados and the whole created order rests in Jesus and is to end in Jesus.

‘You have so filled the universe in every direction, Jesus’ wrote Fr. Teilhard, ‘that from now on it is blessedly impossible for us to escape you…Neither life, whose progress reinforces the hold you have on me; nor death which throws me into your hands, nor the good or bad spiritual powers which are your living instruments; nor the energies of matter, into which you are plunged;…nor the unfathomable abysses of space, which are the measure of your greatness;…none of these things will be able to separate me from your substantial love, because they are only the veil, the “species”, under which you hold me so that I can hold you’ (Le Milieu Divin 1957).

His last reference draws an analogy that as Jesus is hidden under the species of bread in the Holy Eucharist so that he can come to us and change us into himself, so Jesus is hid in the creation itself as the binding force, as joy and sorrow visible to the eye of faith.

Teilhard teaches me that when I as a priest in his name - and your name - say ‘This is my body…’ over bread and ‘This is my blood’ over wine, something spills out from the altar mystically across the church and its surrounds. ‘This priestly act extends even beyond the transubstantiated host to the cosmos itself’ Teilhard writes.

Wondrous stuff – but Christianity is exactly such! Jesus holds you together. He holds Barbados together – or he would hold Barbados together, not overriding free will but by compelling love. All we need is to see Jesus mystically in the sacrament and in all the people and things in our lives as one who beckons us forward into ever greater audacity for him. The audacity of young people in the Extinction Rebellion and counter climate change movement across the world calling for action is inextricably linked to what we are about here in St David’s every Sunday, and day by day beyond that, in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

Blessed art thou, Lord God of all creation…this is your body…this is your blood…this bread and wine, our lives and potentially the lives of all those linked to ours in the marvel of the created order. 

Jesus whose reign today’s Feast announces is the one who holds all things together and who leads us forward to a fulfilment that will coincide with his majestic return. 

Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom! the penitent thief cried. It was a last minute cry but it was effective. What many are about at this time is a similar last minute cry but, inasmuch as it is linked to the bringing of all things together in Christ, it will be an effective cry.

God loves all that is just because it is - his love for you and I who bear his image is no less than his love for this troubled earth we stand on, where, in him, ‘we live and move and have our being’.

Above the altar in London’s Westminster Abbey where we crown Kings and Queens there’s this text from Revelation: ‘the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’. It’s a text reminding those preparing to lead of the greater leadership we celebrate today. 

At every Eucharist we plead his Sacrifice with an anticipation of the renewal of all things by the Spirit of Christ, whose work at this altar both mirrors and effects the healing of the universe. As we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice this morning, we do so in union with Christ our King and his aspiration to change us, to change Barbados, to change the environment as God desires, to whom, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be ascribed, as is most justly due, all might majesty dominion and power henceforth and for evermore. Amen.

St Bartholomew, Brighton Christ the King Mass & Blessed Sacrament Procession 25 November 2018

What is the biggest challenge Christianity faces?

I believe it's the need to heal the schism between the supernatural truth of Christ’s reign and the reign of the evolving body of human truth in people’s minds.

A few years back we celebrated the double centenary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the sesquicentenary of his book The Origin of Species published in 1859. There was a book published entitled Creation or Evolution – do we have to choose? which posed the gravity of this split.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Does our kneeling to Christ as King require a surrender of intellectual integrity in the face of evolutionary theory? If the truth of Christ is an anchor that holds us, has it any affinity with the forward movement of the universe? Is Christianity a brake on the world or a spur to world transformation?

Well we need fidelity to Christ which sets us in some ways against the world but we also need audacity for Christ – indeed Our Lord summons it from us!

We need more intellectual audacity to overcome the taunts of the Darwinians. It is Catholic Faith that both reason and faith lift us to God. If you want to be a Catholic Christian you can no more be a mindless fundamentalist than a Richard Dawkins rationalist!

As a former scientist I have a good investment in this collaboration of reason and faith. That’s why I’ve been meeting with a group on Wednesdays this month in the parish room to engage together in the reasoned defence of Catholic faith, so called apologetics. That’s not apologising for faith by the way, but making an ‘apologia’, a reasoned defence of faith.

My doctorate was on the forces between the chains in polythene and Teflon. I wrote it years ago. It’s won me the nickname ‘non-stick-vicar’. I wish that were true!

From that scientific work on what holds polymers together I’ve now moved forward to another concern - what holds the universe together.

We’re here this morning to celebrate the One who does just that – Jesus Christ. He holds all things in being scripture says and he’s bringing all things together in himself.

My mission now as a priest is to help people know Jesus and the truth that’s in Him, truth that’s married to the wider body of human truth that’s emerging day by day as the world evolves. As Our Lord says to Pilate in the Gospel: All who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.

The gentle reign of Christ the King is over hearts and minds. Being subject to that reign, living with Jesus as Lord, entails audacity as well as fidelity. Its having confidence that the world around us is his, that his reign is there in its unfolding truth and so are his mission opportunities.

Mission is God’s business. Jesus Christ our King is there in front of us awaiting our faith in him.

All we need is the Holy Spirit to transform our fear into courage.

The Lord is ahead of us if we attend to him.

Earlier this year I did a series of posts on social media about the French priest scientist and mystic Teilhard de Chardin.   

For Teilhard the Jesus whose reign today’s readings announce is the one who holds all things together and who leads us forward to a fulfilment that will coincide with his majestic return.

The whole cosmos is like a cone with the movements within it converging upon Jesus as the apex or omega point. Our individual futures, the future development of St. Bartholomew’s and of the whole church and the future of Brighton and the whole created order rests in Jesus and is to end in Jesus.

You have so filled the universe in every direction, Jesus wrote Fr. Teilhard, that from now on it is blessedly impossible for us to escape you…Neither life, whose progress reinforces the hold you have on me; nor death which throws me into your hands, nor the good or bad spiritual powers which are your living instruments; nor the energies of matter, into which you are plunged;…nor the unfathomable abysses of space, which are the measure of your greatness;…none of these things will be able to separate me from your substantial love, because they are only the veil, the “species”, under which you hold me so that I can hold you. (Le Milieu Divin 1957).

His last reference draws an analogy that as Jesus is hidden under the species of bread in the Holy Eucharist so that he can come to us and change us into himself, so Jesus is hid in the creation itself as the binding force, as joy and sorrow visible to the eye of faith.

Teilhard teaches me that when I as a priest in his name - and your name - say This is my body… over bread and This is my blood over wine, something spills out from the altar mystically across the church and its surrounds. This priestly act extends even beyond the transubstantiated host to the cosmos itself Teilhard writes.

Wondrous stuff – but Christianity and the dynamic that urges it forward are wondrous stuff!

The best encouragement I can provide for our mission here at St. Bartholomew’s is to point to Jesus before you and within you in the Blessed Sacrament, building our faith towards seizing his possibilities.

Jesus Christ holds you and I together. He holds Brighton together – or he would hold Brighton together, not overriding free will but by compelling love. St Paul says of Our Lord in Colossians ‘He…is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

As we heard in today’s first reading: I am the Alpha and the Omega...God who is, who was and is to come, the Almighty.

Mission is God’s business. Our Lord is there in front of us awaiting our faith in him.

All we need is to see Jesus mystically in all the people and things in our lives as one beckoning us forward into ever greater audacity for him.

In his book Mass on the World Teilhard addresses directly this apparent schism between Christianity and the world. Reflecting there on the Eucharist and how we seek here both purity and charity he says: The true meaning of purity is not a debilitating separation from all created reality but an impulse carrying one through all forms of created beauty…the true nature of charity is not a sterile fear of doing wrong but a vigorous determination that all of us together should break open the doors of life.

Jesus is saying the same to us today as his great purpose weaves forward incorporating our lives and those on our hearts and the whole community of Brighton to break open the doors of life as we consecrate ourselves to God in this Eucharist.

Can you see with Teilhard that when the priest lifts the paten, the holy plate with bread to offer what is offered is the whole cosmos including our little part as it is the fruit of the earth and the work of human hands? When he offers the chalice of wine to God it is a chalice containing the pressing out not just of grapes but of lives and communities under pressure to become for us the chalice of salvation?

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation…this is your body…this is your blood…this bread and wine, our lives and potentially the lives of all those linked to ours in the marvel of the created order. Open our spiritual eyes to your leading and your resourcing through this Mass!

Grant us fidelity and audacity in service of Our Lord Jesus Christ who is before all things, and in whom all things hold together…. the Alpha and the Omega...God who is, who was and is to come… to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all might, majesty dominion and power henceforth and forevermore. Amen.

Christ the King 24th November 2013

If Christ is King how can he more fully be my king?

A good question as the church year ends and we go into purple next week for a new start in Advent season.

How many more church years will I follow as I prepare for eternity, you could ask, how much time is there left me here on earth to prepare for the dominion of love in heaven?

I don't know about you, but I find it far easier to sing to Christ as King in church on Sunday than to submit to him in my circumstances on Monday - or Tuesday even, Monday being my day off!

I want Christ not just to be one sphere of my life, but the ruler of my whole life, which means my every circumstance.

If I am living close to Christ the difficult conundrum is well solved, the challenging relationship has the love it needs invested in it, there is patience to live with unresolved situations and cheerfulness to overcome contingencies.

How do you keep close to Christ, since without it life gets flat or pear shaped!

Four things to consider as our service books turn back once more to Advent - prayer, bible reading, eucharist and Christian fellowship.

PRAYER  'Seven days without prayer makes one week'. How's your personal prayer? We did some training last month that a lot couldn't come to. During the prayer fortnight I talked one Sunday about how the Jesus Prayer helps me - 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner'. At the start of the church's year, before Christmas crowds my diary, could I refresh the resolve to spend 5 min in prayer with Jesus every day? Just look at him, and let him look at me? Maybe a walk up to Church, always open daytime, where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, so we're reminded always of the intimacy of Holy Communion by the Reservation light? Or thinking corporate prayer, why not join occasionally in Saturday's 8am prayer for St Giles which lasts half an hour

BIBLE READING 'Without God's Word as a lens, the world warps' If you want to come close to Jesus, for him to be Lord of your life, you can hardly do so without attending to his words. 'Lord to whom shall we go’ Peter said to Jesus, ‘you have the words of eternal life'.Yes, you will need a guide, for those words aren't always so clear. This is why to mark the new church year I've got everyone one of these: 'A gift for you'. Show It’s an Advent freeby, four weeks bible reading notes, a week each of Day by Day with God, Guidelines, New Daylight and The Upper Room, all four varieties produced by Bible Reading Fellowship. You could see which you prefer and order a full set in January. Incidentally I've started as a BRF writer from 2014 for their New Daylight notes. You may lack a bible in accessible language. That can easily be remedied if you so decide - we use the NRSV, New Revised Standard Version, in services here.

EUCHARIST  If Christ is King how can he be more fully king of my life? Through more frequent Holy Communion. When the Holy Spirit came on John Wesley he started attending the Eucharist every day and they drove him out of the Church of England! We wouldn't today! Maybe Jesus is wanting you to meet him in his Sacrament on a Tuesday or Friday as well as on a Sunday, especially in Advent. There are few things Jesus gives us as powerful as his body and blood in bread and wine. Do I hunger for that gift? Does it empower me? Does the sacrificial demand of it, offering my soul and body in union with Christ, excite me or disturb me? Seek him more at the altar and you will certainly find him. There is no place you can be more certain of coming close to him, and bringing those on your heart close to him.

CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP From time to time St Giles organises fellowship meetings around a speaker or bible study or healing ministry.  Thursdays in term time we have Life and Faith from about quarter to 2 til 3pm and it’s generally bible based. There's tonight's informal Five o''clock service which has more interaction with one another at and before and after worship than in Church. There's next Sunday's 4pm healing service here in St Giles. Do you hunger for God? Or hunger to hunger for God? Come and receive prayer then to do so! Lack of hunger for God’s a spiritual sickness many of us suffer from. Then your priest's always available for fellowship if you want to book to meet with him and there are also special confession times before Christmas.

PRAYER, BIBLE READING, EUCHARIST, CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP - these are four ways of building love and loyalty to Christ our King worthy of consideration as we enter a new church year. I would add the church library. Reading a book about the faith, or a faith story, can be a very great help, and in another medium there’s the electronic discipleship page of the church website. It’s just been refreshed and there are links there to useful resources, as well as the Rector's page with the Firmly I Believe listen again audio. From next week there’ll be the Premier Radio Advent series based in Horsted Keynes which some of you are contributing to.

Come close to God and God will come close - give and it will be given to you.

See yourself this next month as a fresh water pool both receiving and giving out with and from Jesus our King, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Christ the King 25th November 2012

The purpose of the Church is not to accommodate the demands of secular society; its duty is to a higher power. Nor were those who opposed the measure the zealots or dinosaurs of caricature. The debate was anguished, compassionate and reasoned. Those who voted no knew that they were going against the grain of modernity, and the exhortation of their leaders. But they had scrutinised conscience and Scripture, and could not bring themselves to vote otherwise.

I’m not speaking for myself but reading you the leader many of you’ll have read in Thursday’s Daily Telegraph on General Synod’s rejection of the women bishops’ legislation.

The sentiment fits this feast of Christ the King. I repeat: The purpose of the Church is not to accommodate the demands of secular society; its duty is to a higher power.

The debate on women bishops came right down to our Parochial Church Council. All three views – for, against and undecided – are represented there. As one against relief the measure fell on Tuesday is tempered by sympathy for those I now know will be hurt by that, and regard for those who lament synod’s failure to protect deeply held beliefs, such as my own, through a rather ill thought out and mean-spirited provision.

Over the last year the Parochial Church Council has had a very full agenda. Our wardens James and Jan, secretary Rhoda, treasurer David Colville, Mark Berryman, Marion, Chris, David Lamb, Heidi and Lisa have worked hard with me month by month for us all. Without the PCC there’d have been no prayer ministry training, July vision day, Martindale refurbishment, electrical inspection, stewardship renewal or addressing of our budget deficit let alone the consideration of issues like women bishops required of us by the diocese.

The PCC works hard for us – and they might earn a round of applause!

Since July the PCC’s been looking at our thinking on the vision day and we’ve produced a new mission action plan. You can read it on the notice board and its one line header in the news sheet:  St Giles Church has a mission to grow in faith, love and numbers.

As the old church year ends today with a flourish to Christ our King we’re asking him to stir up grace for a coming year of growth which is why I’ll be speaking on the three aspects of the MAP over the next month, starting today with action to grow in faith.

Our putting mission on the MAP has the same three dimensions we rehearsed two years back – the ABC of attending to God, building Christian community and commending God’s love for the world.

Now the order is different. Before it was looking to God, the church, the world. Now it’s growing in faith towards God, growing in the expression of love to the world and growing the numbers of our Christian fellowship here at St Giles.

So! What action has the PCC got planned, or raised up, to help us grow in faith over the next church year that starts on Advent Sunday?

If you look on the porch flow chart we’ve got various opportunities for you to act. These include

Signing up, as a dozen folk so far have signed up to, the electronic discipleship resource on the church website to obtain bible study, meditation, self-examination and Christian literature resources. These you can follow on the hoof on your iPhone or Blackberry or whatever. We’d like you to sign up and receive a two monthly e news letter from St Giles which has electronic resources useful to the building of faith among church members. I have some parents working with me to identify and commend websites useful to building faith in our children. Do give that site a click, if that’s your gift, and tell me sites you’d like commending in the January edition of electronic discipleship.

Action listed on the MAP that help build our faith at St Giles include: Sunday and weekday Eucharists, Sunday Club and All-Age Eucharist with prayer listening ministry, Westall monthly Eucharists and evening prayer twice monthly, monthly Sunday evening services, Wednesday evening prayer, Thursday life and faith group, Friday School assembly, Saturday prayer group, ministry of healing first Wednesday of each month and confessions before great feasts

Near at hand is next Sunday afternoon’s healing service with Fr Keith McRae. Why not begin the new church year on Advent Sunday by asking for a new beginning spiritually? If your faith feels sickly, let alone your body or your mind, come and welcome prayer for wholeness of body, mind and spirit. This service of evening prayer, sermon and laying on of hands by priests and lay prayer ministers is action to serve  spiritual and other needs. There’ll also be a number of events that will serve to build faith as we take Advent out into 24 venues in the parish this year and I’d like to underline the three meditation sessions at Jamie Large’s, the Rectory and the Miles’ when people of any faith or none will be able to share a 25 minute meditation on one of three themes: breath, light and word.

On the growing faith MAP for January there’s Unbelievable? As you’ve seen in P&P with flying pigs, this is a module on the Apostles’ Creed running the first four Thursday evenings in January. It’ll also serve as first part of confirmation training, as well as being part of the Bishop’s Certificate course that’ll draw a few from outside the village. The PCC is commending this action geared to help people build Christian faith more as the Creed expresses it.

In all of these ways we can take action to grow in our faith which is a key part of our purpose here at St Giles.

My former bishop Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, once issued a clarion call to his growing diocese: are you consumers or citizens?

Are you in church to consume word and sacrament for spiritual solace or are you here to grow as responsible citizens of Christ’s kingdom?

I’d re-iterate that challenge on the Feast of Christ the King. I realise it’s both/and not either/or but preaching uses phrases to waken us up by their directness.

Are you here to build God’s kingdom, to work for world transformation through the spread of faith beyond these walls, or are you settled in something of a consumerist mentality whereby going to St Giles fits alongside going to Sainsbury’s or to the Theatre?

The PCC of St Giles are lead citizens working for the kingdom here. They head up and bless others in work for the school, the hall renovation, the churchyard, the Sunday Club and Toddler Plus, the optimising of our finances, fabric and churchyard with the Friends, the music, the welcoming ministry, the serving and so on. They’re lead citizens and there are people here we need to take a place on this continually refreshed body when PCC elections occur in April.

Your kingdom come, your will be done is the motto for Christ the King, and for St Giles, as we seek to grow in faith, love and numbers in service of the kingdom without walls not accommodated to the demands of secular society but with duty towards a higher power.

May that power, the power of Christ the King, with the Father and the  Spirit be made present among us at this eucharist. Amen