Commissioning of Bishop Sandy Millar |
I want to ask you a question. Is Britain a Christian country?
Just raise that at your next Alpha supper and I suspect that almost inevitably the answer will depend on which of three levels you are talking about – the constitution; civil society; popular culture.
First there is the constitution. The Queen thank God is a Christian who takes her coronation oath very seriously and has spoken more about her own faith in recent years. Every day in Parliament the session is introduced by prayer and we read some of the Psalms – The Lord is King be the people never so unquiet. Our church has a recognised role in the constitution although we are not a one confession state and have not been for a long time.
The church is also a player among the many institutions which make up civil society although its influence is waning. Ironically in many ways our church is the most disestablished in Europe in the vital matter of public support for great monuments like this one. In France where there is a total divorce between religion and the state, all church buildings are maintained by the state at little cost to the worshipping community.
The third level is that of popular culture dominated by the media.
In our country the constitution is clearly Christian and at the second level the church has a role though a diminished one but at the third level the culture dominated by the media is not supportive. Where the culture leads, civil society will follow and very soon the constitution will change to reflect the shift.
Let me tell you a true story from a Christian in broadcasting – “a tough and challenging place to be a Christian where there are very few convincing role models”. There was a phone-in programme on that very subject of role models. Several people e mailed that they wanted to nominate Jesus Christ.
Now this is not just a pretext for telling that story about the school visit where the bishop came across a lad writing an essay on “my hero”. He was delighted to see that the youth had chosen Jesus as his subject but his delight turned to dismay when the lad said “you see it’s because I cannot spell Arnold Schwarzenegger”.
No in this case listeners to the programme wanted to nominate Jesus but despite the protests of the Christian member of staff who was shocked by the way in which the name of Jesus excited derision among her colleagues these contributions were edited out. By contrast those who wanted to nominate Mohammed were given air time because there are certain targets for inclusion of other faiths and other racial groups in programmes which have to be fulfilled. I am not criticising the inclusion agenda but I am denouncing the exclusion agenda.
Partly of course we have only ourselves to blame. One of the most significant letters I have received over the past few months was one from the organiser of one of last year’s election campaigns on behalf of one of the three main parties. The polling to discover what the British were thinking involved 130 focus groups and 500+ interviews each night. My friend reviewed the evidence. Everyone noted the erosion of common values and there was general concern about the decline of “respect for others”. There was confusion about moral true north and sympathy for parents in their task of passing on the love of what is good and true and beautiful to the next generation.
And there was more. Everyone knew who was to blame. Those in the dock included the judges, the police, the schools and the teachers, the media and the politicians. Oversimplified and unfair no doubt but there was one really extraordinary fact - Nobody blamed the church.
No the news was much worse than that. Nobody mentioned the church positively or negatively. The agenda of the people of England is pointing to the God shaped gap in our lives as a community. But their deafening silence about the potential role of those who say that they are by grace the friends of Jesus Christ is a judgement but also an opportunity.
Of course it is also true that in the midst of the loss of Christian nerve, the Churchy introversion with its endless fidgeting about an in-house ecclesiastical agenda, there have been bright lights where the love of Jesus Christ has shone.
This place is one of them. The Cathedral is a place of mission and gathering for huge numbers of seekers every week and the growth of the Cathedral ministry in the Diocese is one of the many good news stories of the past decade.
There is also the work that has flowed from the report Faith in the City which alerted a whole generation to the wasteland which was being created in some of our inner city areas and it is marvellous that those who support the Besom project are continuing to apply and extend the love of Jesus Christ to some of the most deprived areas of our own city.
And then there is Alpha and the ministry of Sandy Millar and [he would be the first to say] the team which has built the communities we see represented tonight. An office has just been opened in Shanghai. There is proper Christian ambition that the light and love of Jesus should be known throughout the whole world.
One thing however is obvious. The Christian culture of England will not be built by some kind of sales strategy and deft advertising campaigns. You know the sort of thing – huge bill boards with the message “Don’t let worry kill you let the church help”. It has to be real and it has to be grounded in the love of Jesus Christ himself. This land will be transformed by renewed confidence in Christian families and the discovery that freedom and fulfilment are to be found in following Jesus and his loving laws in our life.
What you do to support marriages and families is crucial. But the church can be too preoccupied with families and not notice that we are serving a society where there are huge numbers of people living by themselves. The first thing which God according to the Holy Scriptures saw that it was not good was the spectacle of people living isolated lives. Members of the Church community have the responsibility to befriend one another and to build a workshop of relating
There is no magic formula but there is a transforming power and that is the love of Jesus himself. Turn to the gospel which we have heard. This is the question which Jesus addresses to Peter and it is also the question which Archbishop Henry Orombi echoes in his gracious letter. “Do you love me”
It is a question asked three times. Do you love me? The questions recall the three times that Peter betrayed Jesus and claimed that he did not even know him let alone love him. Peter was hurt but then facing reality about ourselves is painful. It often seems preferable to fly off into fantasy religion and to proclaim loudly that we are loyal and on the way. The truth is however that if we are to be faithful friends and servants of Christ then we must know our own need of forgiveness and the fact that we have been forgiven by the risen Son of God. It is this painful clarity about our own situation which qualifies us to reach out to others in the Spirit of Christ and not out of the superiority of our own spiritual achievement. It is Christ’s love which is healing. Our own self regarding love can be oppressive.
Love when we are young is intoxicating and exciting. We fasten our Gucci belts and set off to conquer the world. When we grow old we begin to realise that we draw close to God and allow his love to shine through us more by subtraction than by addition.
But when you grow old said Jesus to Peter you will stretch out your hands and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.
No one can have exhibited less desire to be consecrated as a bishop than Sandy. But he has been given a ministry of oversight and encouragement in the fresh circumstances of our modern wired up world. Bishops are knots in the fisherman’s net, in Peter’s net which holds our world-wide community together. Although Sandy himself looks evergreen [like the amaryllis which Annette gave us recently which has produced eight magnificent trumpets with the stems bound together naturally so that they do not need any artificial support – these things are a parable] nevertheless a bishop’s ministry belongs to that part of life when we understand that the love of Christ often takes us where we do not want to go. We are people who have been sent in other words we are apostles.
All bishops have their part in an apostolic ministry. “The Mission Shaped Church” was not the discovery or the invention of the recent report. God has sent his love and his word into the world in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. That is the mission we serve - the mission of God to irradiate the world with his love.
Sandy’s experience and witness fit him to be a bridge builder in this mission and pontifex – bridge builder is one of the other words commonly used of a bishop. We rejoice tonight in someone who links the worlds of Uganda and London via China and Kazakhstan. We salute someone who is a knot in the net and links fashionable Brompton with up and coming Tollington Park.
Few know as much abut establishing and fostering missionary congregations and Sandy’s main role as a bishop will be to encourage and mentor those involved in the front rank of pioneering ministries.
The Area Bishops and the other members of the College have shown their welcome for you in your new role in the mission of God which you have served for so many years. We shall soon be praying together for the role of every one in this great church and your part, beloved, in the mission of God.
Is this a Christian country? The answer is doubtful. Will this be a Christian Country, will this be a Christian City, a Christian London or a capital of porno-tainment and a place where Jesus Christ is unknown and unhonoured. I believe that while there are people who hear him say “do you love me” and can answer with realism and humility “Lord you know everything: you know that I love you” then the Holy Spirit will have his witnesses to follow Jesus Christ and together we can build a church worthy of the name of Jesus against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail.
