There’s a famous passage in Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ when Frodo Baggins, faced with the enormity of the task before him, says this to Gandalf, the wizard: “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” to which Gandalf replies, “So do I… and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Hold that thought. We will return to it at the end of this address.
But meanwhile let me tell you a few things we have been doing with the time that is given to us, since last we met.
When last we met in November, I told you about where we had got to with our bid for some substantial funding to develop our mission in three specific areas, and I suggested that we had been rather sent back to the drawing board with the request that we set those specific aspirations in a broader context of articulating vision and strategy for the diocese as a whole. Since then a considerable amount of work has been going on to develop the work, and I’m grateful to all the team, including Colin our Diocesan Secretary, and Bishop Rhiannon, who, along with others, have been working very hard to develop that work. We will hear something about it in this meeting and will take a longer look at it next time, I hope, but it is making encouraging progress.
Broadly the work falls into three discreet parts, all of which develops the earlier work we did on ‘Walking the Wessex Way’ and which is foundational to the whole. First there is the articulation of our overarching vision and strategy, answering the critical question of what we actually want to be as a diocese. That is not as simple a question as it might seem at first sight. There are many ways we could answer it, but we need to find one way. It’s still a work in progress, but I think I can fairly confidently say that it will be outward-looking, ensuring that everyone across the diocese has access to a flourishing, joyful and sustainable community of faith marked by those four virtues of learning, serving, growing and loving.
The second part will be concerned with those three strands for which we hope to attract funding, that is to say the twin ‘Believing in Bournemouth’ and ‘Believing in Southampton’ programmes; the expansion of our successful ‘Growing Rural Parishes’ programme and a third programme tentatively entitled ‘Towns and Fringes’ seeking to help churches in those categories move towards greater healthy, vitality and sustainability.
And the third piece of work seeks to identify our areas of weakness as a diocese: places where there is not quite the level of health and sustainability that there might be. You’ll see this referred to in the update from Bishops’ Council you’ve received, entitled, ‘Pathway to Sustainability.’ It’s important to say – as that paper stresses – that that is not a separate piece of work from the first two, but integral to what we are trying to do. It’s all part of earthing our strategy to ensure it has the greatest traction in the places of greatest need.
I freely admit all this taking longer than we originally anticipated, but I do think the quality of what we are doing is significantly higher as a result. And frankly I’d much we did something better that took longer, than seeking a quick fix that might not produce enduring results.
So what else have we been doing in time that is given to us? Last time I spoke about two acronyms – LLF and GAFCON: the one the process in our Church of looking at issues of human sexuality, and the other the conservative movement in the Anglican Communion reacting to innovations that some churches have made in response to those issues in human sexuality. At General Synod, in February, as James Pitkin’s report will tell you, we essentially drew stumps on the LLF process, though discussions about those issues will not of course go away, and nor should they. And at the GAFCON meeting in Abuja earlier this month those bishops and (rather few) Primates who were there drew back from appointing a rival leader of the Anglican Communion in opposition to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
I don’t want for a minute to downplay the pain these issues cause, but one conclusion I would draw from all of this is that on the whole most people do not want to walk away from those they disagree with, but want to stay connected and walk together, even though they disagree. And I’m sure that is right. And if you want a wonderful example of walking together, our Clergy Conference in January was an occasion of great joy, when we did not only walk together joyfully, but (some of us at least) danced together joyfully too.
What else have we been doing in this time that is given to us? Again as the update from Bishop’s Council highlights, we’ve been saying goodbye to people: we said goodbye to Jean Burgess as she was consecrated Bishop of Grimsby; we said goodbye to Theresa Parker who served me so well as my Chaplain; and we will shortly say goodbye to Richard Brand as he moves on to develop his own coaching ministry. Richard has been a remarkable servant of this diocese in good times and in rather less good times too, and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Richard we wish you and Sarah God’s richest blessing in this next season – and let’s show Richard how much we appreciate him…
But as people leave so they arrive. Bishop Kelly arrived just before we last met, but it’s very good to have her here and a full episcopal team in place. Simon Newham is now offering excellent support to the Archdeaconry of Bournemouth just as is Howard Jameson in the North, to help us through this period of transition and I’m immensely grateful to them both. We welcomed our new Dean, Dean Chris, just this last Sunday: Chris, it’s very good to have you and Olivia here with us and we look forward very much to our partnership in the gospel in the years to come. And I should also, at this point, pay tribute to Canon Roly Riem who has done such a good job leading the Cathedral prior to Chris’s arrival. I’m delighted to have Kate Seagrave holding the fort – excellently too – as my Chaplain pro tem, and tomorrow we will interview for a new Archdeacon of Bournemouth with interviews for the next Archdeacon of Winchester a month later, so do please hold those processes in your prayers.
There are coming and goings nationally too. I should record here with great sadness the death of my friend and neighbour, Bishop Andrew Watson, Bishop of Guildford, whose faith and hope in the face of his own death was truly remarkable, and a great example to us all. And, of course, we now have a new Archbishop of Canterbury and it will be my great personal honour to pronounce a blessing on Archbishop Sarah at her service of installation next week.
But let me come back to Frodo and Gandalf’s conversation: “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Those words remind me of a piece written by Bishop George Bell, former Bishop of Chichester, entitled ‘The Church’s Function in War-Time’ published at the start of WWII and around the time Tolkien was writing ‘The Lord of the Rings’. George Bell was a controversial figure during the war – a stern critic for instance of the carpet bombing of German cities, but I think his words have lasting significance, and indeed contemporary relevance, for we do indeed live in a time of war – and I don’t just mean the recent events in the Gulf: that simply compounds the widespread aggression of our time.
George Bell’s argument was that in a time of war the Church should not simply become the handmaid of the state, supporting its actions unthinkingly. To quote him, ‘The State has a function and the Church has a function. They are distinct. The State is the guarantor of order, justice and civil liberty. It acts by the power of restraint, legal and physical. The Church, on the other hand, is charged with [the] gospel of God’s redeeming love…. The Church stands for the Cross, the gospel of redemption. It cannot therefore speak of any earthly war as a ‘crusade’, for the one thing for which it is impossible to fight with earthly weapons is the Cross.’
And George Bell finishes his piece with this, ‘In a word it is the function of the Church in war-time still to be the Church.’ It is not the function the Church to be the handmaid of the State nor is its function shrilly to scold it. ‘It is the function of the Church in war-time still to be the Church’ – and that is what God’s world needs us to be, and it what it is God himself calls us to be. So what are we to do with the time that is given to us? We are to be the Church!
I rejoice at every sign I and my colleagues see of life, and health and love as we travel around this diocese: so many flourishing churches; so many people coming forward for baptism and confirmation, often seemingly out of nowhere because they felt they had to go to church, but receiving a warm welcome when they do so; increasing attendances – over 25,000 people attended services at our Cathedral over the Christmas season. And our CMF giving is up too.
There is so much to be encouraged by: so many signs of life and health and love – signs of spring indeed. But let’s not forget the very real challenges of the time in which we live. And in the face of such as challenges let us not forget our high calling: it is the function of the Church in war-time still to be the Church. So, Synod, together, let us be the Church our God calls to be, for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the world to which, in love, he sends us. Amen.
