Today’s joint celebration of SS Peter and Paul represents two streams in church life, institutional and charismatic, the partnership of apostolic order with apostolic vitality. As a Society parish we are committed to apostolic order and teaching in a special way, refusing the innovations in marriage and ordination now widely accepted in the Church of England. I believe God is honouring that costly faithfulness, which sets us apart, as we look to him to maintain our Christian freedom amidst all the disorder in our dear Mother, the Church of England. Seeing the slow stream of new members and vocations linked to The Society should assure us that holding to apostolic order, to the faith of the church across the world and down through the ages beckons the Holy Spirit’s anointing.
First I apologise for my absence on Sundays linked to the increasing scarcity of priests and invitations to cover as well as my historic links with St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill and St Bartholomew, Brighton alongside commitment to serve St Mary’s Balcombe helping Fr David with his challenging task overseeing both our churches. Those of you who come to weekday Mass see me more often and the Treasurer sees half of our tithe, the 10% scripture encourages us to give to God’s work. Anne’s main Church, All Saints, Lindfield sees the other half. St Richard’s is very much my Church as was evidenced two weeks ago when I arranged the cross-generational exchange on town history at Ric’s Bench.
Praying through today’s readings, it came to me that I should address institutional order and revitalisation linked to the church, the nation, Haywards Heath and St Richard’s – so let’s get going!
First heading the universal church.
Institutions are getting a bad name in western culture for various reasons linked to the misdoings of office holders in church and government, lack of belief in accountability, a generation brought up with less clarity about right and wrong and excessive self-centredness. Our role as Christians is to hold critical loyalty to the institutions we are part of starting and ending with God’s never ending family, the ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’.
Today’s double commemoration of Peter and Paul represents the two necessary streams in church life, institutional and vitalising. As we heard in the holy Gospel Christ made Peter the ‘rock’ man of the institutional Church – ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church’ (Matthew 16:18). The papacy survives to this day and Anglicans look to its renewal for a primacy over the institutional Church.
The Church of Rome, historically the leading authority in Christianity, has a double foundation as the graves of both Peter and Paul are in that city. The association with St Paul reminds us of the need for apostolic vitality alongside apostolic order represented partly by the charismatic- evangelical stream of the church. Though Rome and the Reformation are put as opposites the foundation of the Roman Church has both Catholic and Evangelical patrons in SS Peter & Paul whose joint martyrdom we celebrate today. An evangelical papacy such as that of Pope Francis is an exciting recovery that is having an effect upon the whole of Christendom.
The joint celebration of SS Peter and Paul represents two streams in church life, institutional and charismatic, the partnership of apostolic order with apostolic vitality. As a Society parish we are committed to apostolic order and teaching in a special way, refusing the innovations in marriage and ordination now widely accepted in the Church of England. I believe God is honouring that costly faithfulness, which sets us apart, as we look to him to maintain our Christian freedom amidst all the disorder in our dear Mother, the Church of England. Seeing the slow stream of new members and vocations linked to The Society should assure us that holding to apostolic order, to the faith of the church across the world and down through the ages beckons the Holy Spirit’s anointing.
Second heading the nation and the general election on Thursday. I have been dismayed by a number of young people I know who are dismissive of the institution of government and say they won’t vote, even those who say the election has a certain outcome so there’s no point. As Christians we follow scripture which places the responsibility of service to the community upon us part of which is being salt and light to the communities we inhabit, supporting and providing leadership and doing all we can to vitalise the institutions of government be they local, national or international. When it comes to politics, choosing what’s true is a minefield. The good of any nation rests on the goodness of its rulers and whether they have the Holy Spirit. T.S. Eliot wrote of the futility of ‘dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good’. Politics stands or falls on personnel as much as policy. The major challenge in our society has been described as the transformation of consumers into citizens. People to some extent resist the call to public service through a self interest unconcerned about the common good beyond making sure they have the consumables they want and the neighbourhood watch functions in case others want to take these from them! The lack of readiness among people to take responsibility for civic institutions and the common good is of great concern and we need strong leaders with courage and integrity deft in building community locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Third heading Haywards Heath which is changing to lower gear. In 2019 Haywards Heath Town Team formed up a local history project engaging young people looking towards a series of talks, dramatic presentations and exhibitions linked to Town Day 2020. Local schools, youth clubs and uniformed organisations began to welcome visits from local historians to form up plans. This project, including Town Day itself, was cancelled due to the COVID 19 Lockdown. Five years on following conversations with Haywards Heath Town Council I served a plan to resume a cross-generational celebration of town history by approaching our Church School where our Head, Simon Hateley invited me to present an interactive talk on Haywards Heath to Year 6 children and prepare 30 of the children to interview, as it ended up, 18 people who had mostly lived in Haywards Heath all of their lives as part of St Richard’s Church weekday church hall hospitality, Ric’s Bench. On Wednesday 12 June Fr David welcomed the children along with some of our church members. For just over an hour the children interviewed the town residents about their best memories of Haywards Heath, the biggest changes they had seen and what they thought the future holds for the town. I am currently working on their notes looking to incorporate some of the findings into a book to be published on Town Day, 14 September. It is hoped that St Wilfrid’s School project will catalyse other local schools to engage with long term residents about their memories and aspirations for Haywards Heath. Our town is an institution badly in need of vitalising and we as a parish Church are leading in getting Haywards Heath to believe in itself more through owning and celebrating its near two centuries existence since the railway arrived in 1841.
Last heading: St Richard’s and up a gear! The two streams in church life, institutional and vitalising were evident to me especially on 12 June when the hall, a great and costly institution, was put to service of the town – what a ‘buzz’ there was as the children engaged with the 18 volunteer residents! St Richard’s is an institution with an ordered structure – bishop, priest, PCC and so on – that complements the elements of vitalisation flowing from the spiritual formation of our members. We have a call to seize the missionary opportunity of the new family friendly Mass time at a season when St Richard’s is getting more and more on the town map. We need fresh courage to invite our family and friends to come along on a Sunday for which we could pray invoking today’s Saints so our congregation grows in faith, love and numbers.
Praise God with St Peter this morning for order and structure in God’s Church! Praise God with St Paul for the revitalising that comes generation by generation in answer to prayer and mission action! Peter and Paul pray for us, for our parish, for Haywards Heath and for our nation in election week and that ‘the kingdom of this world may become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ’ (Revelation 11:15)
