Archdeacon of Buckingham’s Charge - 2008

Luke 6: 27 - 45

Introduction

Thank you for your attendance here this evening. The job of a Churchwarden is a demanding and important one, and your commitment and willingness to undertake this task is much appreciated both by the local and by the wider church.

I am delighted to be here as your Archdeacon and thank you for your welcome into the archdeaconry. Some days, travelling up and down the county, it feels like I have been here forever, but after only seven months in the job I am aware of how much I still do not know, so thank you for your patience and understanding too. It is good though to come to these visitations knowing quite a few of you and I look forward to getting to know many more of you as we work together for the sake of God’s kingdom.

Charge

In the centre of Cape Town stands the Buitenkant Methodist Church. This Methodist Church was built in District six, a once vibrant community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and migrants. However, in 1966, under the Group Area Act, District six was declared a white Group Area and by 1982 the life of the community was over with 60,000 people forcibly removed from their homes, which were flattened by bulldozers.

The members and leaders of the Methodist Church stood against all that was happening. A sign outside reads: ‘All who pass by. Remember with shame the many thousands of people who lived for generations in District six and other parts of this city, and were forced by law to leave their homes because the colour of their skins. Father forgive us….’

Now in these post apartheid times, the church houses the District Six museum, to work with the memories of those affected by forced removal. It is a celebration of local triumph, which resonates with all those who have experienced marginalisation. The church now holds the story – graphically, creatively and movingly of individuals and groups and stands as a sign to those who visit of solidarity, compassion and humanity.

The challenge is to work with the memory to rekindle the fires of community, mobilise the spirit of giving and sharing, of laughter, of life lived in home and public space, of creativity, of volunteerism, a spirit South African’s call Kanala. The whole museum is full of stories, the story of the building and the people who worshipped there, the story of people who used to live in District six. A map on the floor of the museum shows each house in each street, and every person who lived there was invited to add their scribbled reflection onto it. So there is an immediate vivid reminder of real people and their memories.

Stories shape our lives, they form who we are. I remember as a child listening to my parents and grandparents recalling stories from their past and those stories being repeated so they formed part of my memory too – my grandmother pushing a pram containing my uncle and mother into a ditch during an air-raid, my grandfather climbing through a broken window of an empty bungalow which was to become my grandparents marital home – and my own stories, aged about 6 sneaking a chocolate mousse into my mothers shopping basket near the till of our local shop, and aged 13 volunteering to sharpen pencils at the Sunday school, being the start of my Christian service.

I am sure, now as I speak, we can all begin to recall our own stories good or bad, deep and meaningful or frivolous. Stories link us to the past, and at a time when we, as a fragmented culture, seem determined to discover and hold on to our past are all the more important. The recent interest in genealogy through programmes like ‘Who do you think you are?’ and in historic architecture through ‘ Restoration’ have given a new interest to bringing the past into our present and preserving it for the future.

Stories shape our faith too. Those of us who attended Sunday school will be well versed in the interesting bits of the Bible – the stories of Moses, King David and Samson as well as the stories of Jesus, and the introduction of Common Worship has brought an annual rhythm to our churches year with the celebration of feasts which tell the story of our faith.

An understanding of the Old Testament shows us too the importance of story for the people of Israel. God urged them to remember where he had brought them from, and his provision on the way. Their feasts were to be reminders of it; as were significant places along the way and the names of their children. They were to live holy lives as a response to God’s benevolence and as a sign of God’s eternal covenant. Sadly, more often and not Israel forgot such things, and did not heed the prophets who reminded them. They went their own way, forgot the things of the past and were left without a hope and a future.

The District Six museum in Cape Town, and the Apartheid museum in Johannesberg, in different ways tell the story of individual lives and a nation in the hope that we shall not forget and be better people in the remembering.

So what has all this got to do with an Archdeacon’s charge ?

Well, I want us, throughout Buckinghamshire to have the courage to tell our story. Firstly, I want to encourage us to allow our buildings to tell their story. For many here that means an ancient Building, made with ancient stones by dedicated ancient craftsman. For others it will mean a newer, perhaps multi-purpose building, with provision for community use.

I have marvelled, as I have begun to travel around Buckinghamshire at the wonderful Churches we have. They are so rich with treasurers, that I, who have so far in my life paid little attention to anything historical, have not only gone out and bought Pevsner’s Buckinghamshire but also Roy Strong’s ‘History of the Country Church’ and Mark Child’s ‘Discovering Churches and Churchyards’, which contains amongst other things Little Marlow’s Lytchgate, Cheddington’s Poor Box, Bledlow’s Porch, Little Missenden’s east window and fonts at Hambledon and Stewkley.

Our churches not only tell stories about craftsmen working long ago, but also of a faithfulness within communities up and down the county. And now we are seeing modern day craftsmen and women providing us with church furnishings to meet the needs of the 21st century Christian community. Re-orderings or , hooray, the provision of toilets are going on in every deanery as congregations are sitting down and considering new architectural vision for the future, and it is a joy to see.

The story of our buildings is that the church is here, is alive and we want it to be a sign of God’s presence today and tomorrow.

And let us allow our churches to inspire others to contemplate the things of God, to make the best of them and invite strangers in to receive the hospitality they offer and to allow them to welcome the pilgrim, who may enter to worship or to pray. Let us consider how they speak, so that ancient stones become living stones. I would encourage you to be creative, to work with artists and musicians, to produce exciting children’s explorer sheets and fling wide the doors proudly and unashamedly.

Bishop John has recently produced his reflections on his listening process as he has gone around the diocese. In this he builds on the diocesan document ‘Sharing Life’ and suggests some principles on which our shared vision is built, including aptly ‘ not neglecting the past but building on it.’ He then goes on to offer five priorities: sustaining the sacred centre, making disciples, making a difference in society, creating vibrant Christian communities and shaping confident, collaborative leadership.

All of these can come about if we boldly and confidently tell our stories. With buildings which reflect who we are and what we do we can, in new ways sustain our sacred centre and create vibrant Christian communities. Prayer and worship will be enhanced by our surroundings, and even if we cannot afford large and elaborate building projects, by creating prayer space or having candles to light, or just, dare I say, moving some of the clutter out, we can sense the intimacy or wonder or holiness of God in new ways and draw others in too.

Secondly, there are our personal stories which I want to encourage us to share. The ancient and living stones speak of lives which have been changed by a living and loving God, and we need to regain the confidence to tell those to one another. I always remember the freedom when I first shared a personal need with another person and they, there and then, prayed for me. It was so reassuring, for one they listened and two, they didn’t think my problems were too big or too small to bring before God in a simple prayer a couple of sentences long. I also remember well, the relief when leading my first Alpha group, when those who were part of it, realised that others shared the same questions about faith that they had – why is prayer so hard? Why is there so much suffering in the world? why is forgiveness so difficult? I also remember being in an ecumenical gathering where we all shared our life stories and how God had worked in very different ways in each of us, I remember what it did for our faith and how our awareness of the living God grew as a result.

I wonder what God means to you? Have you ever told the story of the prayer you think God might have answered? Or the time when that coincidence, was so much more than just a coincidence? or when Jesus became more than a swear word ? If not may I encourage you to do so, first to one another and then to those outside your church circle.

We have just celebrated Pentecost and at that time when all the disciples began to speak about what had happened, they could not contain themselves, it was infectious and others who heard them, themselves believed.

By telling stories about our faith, about our changed lives, inside and outside our church buildings will certainly make disciples.

The reading I have chosen for this evening sets the Christian way of life apart from others by the way we behave. Jesus’ followers do not reciprocate, do not retaliate and do not draw their behavioural patterns from those who would victimise them. We are to act according to the kingdom principals of love, forgiveness and generosity. Jesus sets before us a vision of a kingdom where prodigals are given parties, and where tax collectors and sinners are welcome at table.

The passage is about integrity – what we are, what we do and what we say are an inseparable union, as are a tree and its fruit.

So thirdly I want to encourage us to make our story telling authentic. We need to practice what we preach, or as those in business prefer to say, walk the talk. I believe, more than anything we say today, or do in our churches or with our churches the thing that will speak more than anything is lives lived with integrity. Of course we are going to fail, and make mistakes but let’s try and be as Christ-like as we can.

Telling our stories with our lives and by our buildings will only make a difference if we model what we believe. I know it’s very hard out there in your particular parish – with parish share to pay, and volunteers to find, and lead or similar metal to keep replacing on the roof. But listen again to words from that reading: ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given you.

If we are generous then God says he will not just give back, but will give to you ‘ a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.’ I really love that image of a generous God, compared to my often small contribution.

And when he comes to that analogy about the tree and its fruit we realise that God always knows the truth, and others do too – they see if we are producing figs or grapes, or thorns or brambles.

So we need to both tell our stories and to live our stories, the stories of our churches and the stories of our lives, that way as Bishop John commends us we can make a difference to our society – leaving good fruit wherever we go for others to become healthy and enjoy.

Being Christian isn’t about lovely churches and having beautiful music, it’s not about fine doctrine or ‘being good’, although they are all important. As Jesus himself set out, being Christian is about bringing good news to the poor, sight to all those who are blind, release to the captives and setting the oppressed free – it means going where Christ is in the world and telling our story, the story with integrity and conviction, so what we do makes a difference.

Fourthly and finally I want to encourage us to tell our stories together. That was the power of Pentecost and is the power of Christian community. The common Christian story which shapes all of our lives, is the thread which holds us all together, which binds us into the body of Christ and which gives us a common witness in the world. And in that telling of the story together we each have different roles, some to be ordained, some to be churchwardens, some to visit those who are ill, some to keep the accounts, some to offer a smile and a word of encouragement and that way we share a common ministry to be the church in whatever place God has put us. We are each equally valued by God and knowing that we can then each confidently collaborate in the task God has called us to – to worship and serve the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

My visit to the District six museum last month left an impression on my heart of commitment, of people’s struggle to be the people they were born to be, of vibrancy and of life. My prayer is that our Christian communities do the same, and not only that, that they reflect such a love and a warmth that people won’t be able to resist wanting to discover the living God who makes them like that.

And one last thought thinking back to your childhood, what was your favourite story ? the hungry caterpillar? James and the Giant Peach? Just William? Aesop’s fables? Enid Blyton? And do we remember having it read to us? Often the best story is the one you want to hear again and again; you know the ending but you don’t care, it is the familiar words you like, it is the warm feeling you get when you image the scenes and it is the joy you get from the wonder and it makes you smile.

Now what about that for our churches ? and our worship ? for our Christian communities ? We each have a story to tell of our buildings, of our lives, with integrity and together. What are we waiting for?

Karen Gorham
May 2008