Requiem for Bishop Alan Rogers |
"We should think of Religion quite simply as a Life of Friendship - friendship with God and friendship with people." That was the teaching which Alan said he had received from the Principal of his Theological College, Robert Moberly. We thank God for the way in which Alan himself made that teaching a reality in his own life and passed it on to us, to the Church in London, Mauritius and the Seychelles, to the Chaplaincies in Europe and to the great host of people and organisations whose lives he touched and whom we represent in this church.
We miss his earthly presence. Christ's tears for his friend Lazarus sanctify our tears. Whenever Alan was present at some event, I could feel his prayers, and his encouragement. He never turned in upon himself but was gloriously fresh and open to the adventure of the life of faith and making new friends. On the day of his death he was still blessing anybody who came into view as he lay in the nursing home.
But with our tears for our own loss, thanksgiving, which was the very first note of this service, breaks through.
I have been moved to read some of the story of Alan's life in his own words in the memoir he composed when he was only 82 and had returned to beloved Twickenham with Barbara. Alan's ministry took him out into all the world but he was nurtured here and loved here in London. He was a Sunday school scholar at St Saviour's Warwick Avenue; confirmed by the Bishop of Kensington; a London ordinand trained at Bishop's College Cheshunt; ordained in St Paul's [the sermon was a call to embrace celibacy which was "rather late in the day for some of us" said Alan who was engaged already to be married to Millicent. He was a curate at St Stephen's Shepherd's Bush, where he was also married in 1932.
Family life brought Alan many blessings during a fifty year marriage to Millicent and after her death in his marriage to Barbara. As a son, and then father and grandfather, great grandfather and even great, great uncle he felt blessed in his family life and radiated that gratitude to others in ungrudging hospitality.
Soon after his marriage Alan moved to his second curacy in Twickenham, where he was to return many years later as Vicar of St Mary's. He had great happiness in this church where he introduced the Parish Communion. One older priest a this stage was worried that Alan might be part of the "liberal establishment" because he would give communion to divorced people. He then became Vicar of Hampstead and after further spells of overseas work, the very first Area Bishop of Edmonton in 1970.
The description of this busy life in "Threads of Friendship" is marked by supernatural charity. Describing a bishop who was notoriously difficult, Alan typically observed "he was essentially a kind, warm-hearted man, though people sometimes felt that he took a great deal of trouble to conceal the fact." That is the harshest comment in a work which does not gush but breathes goodness.
Born in imperial India, Alan was one of those who worked for a peaceful and creative transition to a new post colonial world. As we assemble here, the faithful in Mauritius and the Seychelles are giving thanks for Alan's work in education and fostering an indigenous leadership in the Church of the Indian Ocean.
Open to changing times, supple, always interested in others, Alan embodied the Church of England at its best. He was no party man and wary of excessive ideological rigidity. His wide sympathies embraced support for the Royal Martyr's Church Union, [he was devoted to the memory of King Charles I] while at the same time he described himself as a Christian Socialist. The breadth of sympathy cohered in a character of rare integrity which was based not on theories and opinions but on a wholehearted and living identification with Jesus Christ.
Scripture returns again and again to the simplicity and clarity of the state of commitment and how unlike this state is to the mind-made substitutes of thought and language. We learn to be simple as we enter into the perfect freedom of an unambiguous commitment to the absolute love of God, the love that passeth all understanding. To be simple is to be like Christ, an unqualified "yes" to God. "The Son of God, Christ Jesus," said St Paul in his second letter to Corinth, "was never a blend of yes and no. With him it was and is Yes." We thank God that in Alan we saw the Yes to friendship with God and friendship with all that God, the lover of human beings has created. This friendship matured throughout the whole of a long life - something he reflected in his other published work, "Walking with God as a Friend". His was a life which made sense. The threads of friendship were woven into a tapestry which convinced by its spiritual beauty.
What a privilege to be here today at St Mary's, in a place which was so important to Alan as he started out and as he came home. Drawn by God's love and His call, he lived out those words of the poet and church warden in this Diocese, T.S.Eliot,
"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
What we saw in London was a man who loved God, loved God's world, loved the church and loved his fellow priests. Often we are ordained because we are especially needy people but equally often we do not like to admit this, so we become worn out, beating ourselves up and constantly judging ourselves. What a blessing and gift to have known a father in God like Alan who [without making a parade of it or gushing] was just [fighting for equal pay for Mauritian and European clergy alike] but above all a friend.
Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. We believe by virtue of the Spirit working in our own deepest being that Alan was in touch with the Truth in Christ. We could feel the reality and the power of his friendship with Christ so we give thanks that Alan helped us to see clearly the Way. Now we do not doubt that he is in the Life which is enjoyed by all those whose lives have been given away in love. The earthbound cannot see this, but for those who have been granted a taste of the Truth and have walked the Way, experiencing the power of the love of God in Jesus Christ, faith and hope are taken up into eternal love.
Rest eternal grant unto him O Lord
And let light perpetual shine upon him.
