An Easter sermon on Mark 16

Meditation on Mark 16. 1-8
For Worship in the ecumenical centre on Monday April 23 2007
Ecumenical Prayer Cycle: Somalia and Djibouti.
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Roll away the stone

They had stood and sat for hours at the foot of the cross
watching minute by minute the torture, suffering and death
of the one they had followed,
the one who had taught them more about the meaning of life than anyone.

There had been no time at the end of that tragic day for much more than a hurried burial
And so at the earliest moment following the day of rest
the women return to the grave
Their hearts are weighed down with grief
And in their hands they carry the pungent perfumes and sad spices
for anointing a precious dead one
Yet their talk, their chatter if you will,
was of the practical problem of how they will manage to roll away the stone.
Those of you who have had to organize the funeral of a loved one will understand this need to focus on and talk about practical matters ... the funeral tea, food, transport, papers…
Talking about these things rather than about our beloved means that our voices don’t break down and tears don’t run down our cheeks the whole time,
nor do we feel quite so laid down by the leaden lethargy of grief …

Focusing on the practical unction with perfume and the heavy stone to be rolled away
no doubt helped those first female disciples to rise from their beds so early that morning
Their rising early and setting off for the tomb also speaks to us in a profound way of how the wondrous work of resurrection is already under way on that first Easter morning
Although unaware, they have already been touched by its energy, renewal and transformative power

When they arrive at the tomb the stone is rolled away,
no need now to find the muscle power they feared they lacked.
But the body of their teacher,
the one who taught them righteousness, justice, love and meaning, is not there.
The anointing cannot happen.
So much for focusing on the practical.
The young messenger robed in white, tells them, shows them, what has happened
Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified has been raised!
And the messenger gives them a new task – which is both practical and spiritual
That of going and telling the other disciples and Peter that Christ precedes them to Galilee.
To become bearers of this resurrection message they will need to roll away even larger stones than the one that covered the tomb:
The massive stone of their own fear,
the stone of their aphasia – they must dare to speak,
dare to say what they have experienced and seen, dare to be ridiculed and not believed –
And the stone of others’ prejudice will also need to be rolled away – why should anyone want to believe three grief-stricken women?

Yet even though the text says “and they said nothing to anyone” we know they overcame their fear and spoke,
We know this because we are still telling the story today. (I could of course make an easy joke about it always being difficult to shut women up, I’ve heard something along those lines in Easter sermons over the years.)
Actually the resurrection makes it difficult to shut any of us up.
Christ’s mighty resurrection destabilises and transforms the status quo,
women who are struck dumb with fear are given a message to announce – roll away the stone

incredulous disciples are given a new truth and a new path – roll away the stone

the perfume of death is replaced with the sweet smell of life triumphing – roll away the tomb

the grieving are given grounds for rejoicing – roll away the stone…

And yet I wonder,
particularly as we reflect and pray this week with the peoples of Somalia and Djibouti,
and over coming weeks with other countries in the horn of Africa
do I really believe in the resurrection? Do we believe in the resurrection?
Can it be possible to roll away the stone in southern Somalia - after more than a generation of misrule by local warlords?
Can the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons be transformed into a culture of peace? Will the many unemployed in Djibouti ever find decent work?
Will the tens of thousands of refugees ever be able to build homes and live in peace?
Will famine be overcome and a just sharing of the world’s food resources ever be possible?

And do I really believe that my concern, my prayers, my campaigning, my anger, my voice, my action make any difference?

I suppose I really do – even the western European, doubting, secularised, cynical kind of Christian that I am does really believe that my, that our, bearing spiritual and practical witness together with others will make a difference.

And given how cynical I can sometimes be that is certainly something the transformative power of resurrection has done – roll away the stone.

As the three women fled the tomb in fear on that first Easter morning
I am sure that as they began to slow down and calm down they will have begun to see things differently, and perhaps also begun to say to each other, just like the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke's resurrection story,
“this morning was different, even before we got to the tomb, we could feel something, a presence, his presence burning inside us helping us on our way.”
That presence of the living Word will have helped them find words to tell the resurrection message, and opened the ears of others to listen
The message is simple – there is hope, there is hope, there is life, there is love.

The message entrusted to those first three witnesses was practical and spiritual.

There are many more than three of us today. Yet we too are often in fear.

Christ’s resurrection calls us out of our lethargy of grief and helplessness
as we look at our own lives and today's world,
and offers us transformative practical and spiritual hope, concrete hope which we must share. Calling us to focus not on the perfume of death but on the risen one who precedes us and calls us and all humanity insistently back to life.

It is a serious but also a joyous task.

In the face of personal tragedy, death camps, famine, genocide, child soldiers and war
In the face of high school massacres, battered children … and much, much more -
roll away the stone.

Amen

copyright: Jane Stranz/WCC

A short Maundy Thursday sermon on John 13.1-15 for World Water Day

A short Maundy Thursday sermon on John 13.1-15 for World Water Day

Water Passion and Betrayal...
Water Passion and commitment…
Bread, water and wine

Judas does it with a kiss
Pilate does it by publicly washing his hands
Hoping that such ritual political cleanliness will prove it wasn’t his fault
The Chief Priests and the authorities plot and scheme, set traps, try to buy off his friends and incite the crowd to call for blood
And the crowd do it by shrieking in glee and passion “crucify him!”
(Of all these we only ever hear of Judas feeling unbearable guilt...)

Betrayal…

In the end they come with spears and swords in the night

Truth and integrity won’t stand much of a chance

The bowl and the towel are symbols of that truth, integrity and resistance

Jesus takes responsibility
The great leader becomes a foot-washing humble slave
The teacher does not run away or hide
He takes responsibility in a very personal and intimate way for his disciples
and their future

Passion…

There is beautiful intimacy and caring in the way Jesus washes and cares for their feet.
There’s some obstinacy and focus too in the way he says “no, this is the way I must do it”
Kneeling there to wash his friends' feet, this is his priority,
his passion and cross are not far away,
yet he takes time to do this unessential, essential, caring thing.

Commitment…

The flogging and mocking and the crown of thorns and the cross will break his human body and spirit.
The friends will be alone, their feet will tread the path without him, but not one step will be taken without a deep memory of this intimate final washing by the master.

From that time forwards every time they wash one another's feet, every time they serve others sacrificially in the world they will remember him cleansing and cooling their aching feet and pains with water, their master kneeling before them in humility.

In remembrance of that profound act of caring and service we also seek to follow Christ today as we care, heal and serve.

Jesus' first miracle in John's gospel is to turn water into wine.
Dead on the cross, water and blood pour from his side when it is pierced by the soldier's spear. That water is a sign of the body's agony and breakdown in death and speaks deeply of Christ's humanity and life offered up.

Later risen from the dead he will call his disciples to conquer the deep and make a miraculous catch of fish from the waters.

As we meditate Christ's passion,
As we meditate these signs of sacrament before us
As we meditate his deeply personal service of others,

We reflect on our own service of others.

We also seek to understand and enter into the suffering of so many in our world whose right to be human is being undermined by their daily struggle for access to clean water.

So are we going to follow Christ source of living waters
and take up the cloth and the bowl
or will we follow Pilate and wash our hands?

Copyright: WCC/Jane Stranz

Water passion and Betrayal - Midday communion for Maunday Thursday

This order of service was prepared for Maunday Thursday with World Water Day in mind in the background. A large bowl of water and a towel will be set amongst the people and will be the source of blessing and exchanging peace at the end of the service, though this is not obligatory for those who don't like the touchy-feely business!
We want to try and use this event to gently publicise the work of the Ecumenical Water Network - we've been doing a Seven Weeks for Water blog from which the idea for this service grew. The meditation will be based on this week's meditation.

We never know how many people will turn up - anything from 5 to 40 is possible in a space that houses over 250. And as ever our main theological constraint is time. This really musn't take more than 30 minutes otherwise we'll never get anyone to chapel again - communion or not, people want lunch!
And finally I have tried to scrupulously note the sources for all of the prayers, apologies if I've missed something. This service will take place in English and French, I'll celebrate together with my colleague Ian Alexander from the Church of Scotland.

Water, Passion and Betrayal
Water, Passion and Commitment
An order of Communion for Maunday Thursday
Scripture sentences
Jesus ... laid aside his garments and girded himself with a towel.
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet...
John 13.4-5

When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing... he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood, see to it yourselves."
Matt 27.24

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear,
and at once there came out blood and water.
John 19.34

We meet in the name of the God
Who promised that seedtime and harvest would never cease
We meet in the name of Jesus
Who is source of living water
We meet in the name of the Spirit
Who creatively brooded over the waters of chaos

We pour water, we listen and we confess our sin

Merciful God
we meet each other today at this cross
as inhabitants of one world…

As those who inflict wounds on each other:
Be merciful to us
As those who deny justice to others
Be merciful to us
As those who seize wealth
Be merciful to us
As those who are greedy
Be merciful to us
As those who put others on trial
Be merciful to us
As those who refuse to receive
Be merciful to us
As those afraid of the world’s torment
Be merciful to us.
Giver of life,
We wait with you
To bear your hope to earth’s darkest places.

Where love is denied
Let love break through
Where justice is destroyed
let righteousness rule
Where hope is crucified
Let faith persist
Where peace is no more
Let passion live on
Where truth is denied
Let the struggle continue

Reach into the silent darkness
With your love
Deepen the terror of this moment
Into new hope
Relieve the hideous cries
With your quiet voice of peace;
That hear we may know your salvation,
Your glory
Your future
In Jesus Christ, the crucified Lord.
Amen
(Source: Robin Green Litany for Good Friday in Bread of Tomorrow ed Janet Morley, Christian Aid 1992)

Sing: Jesu, Jesu verses 1 and 2

Scripture reading ~ John 13.1-15
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

Meditation

Sing: Jesu, Jesu verses 3 and 4

Prayers and Lord’s prayer
To you, O Lord
On bended knees
Our heads we bow in prayer:
That you may hear
Our cry for blood-drenched lands
And their exhausted people,
who have seen too much death
and have been afraid too long
to understand your love,
comprehend your presence,
acknowledge your goodness
and concern for them, a battered people;
yearning for freedom
as they bear your cross…
in Tibet, in Kenya, in Zimbabwe, in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos
(source: Lesley G. Anderson, Panama/UK 1989 in Bread of Tomorrow ed Janet Morley SPCK/Christian Aid 1998)

Silence and time to pray aloud for people and places



We take bread
Symbol of labour – exploited degraded,
Symbol of life:
We will break the bread
Because Christ, the source of life,
Was broken for the exploited and downtrodden.

We take wine symbol of blood,
spilt in war and conflict,
Symbol of new life.
We will drink the wine
Because Christ the peace of the world,
was killed by violence.

Now bread and wine are before us,
The memory of our meals,
Our working and talking;
The story which shapes us,
The grieving and the pain,
The oppressor
who lies deep in our own soul;
The seeking and the loving.

And we give thanks to God our creator
for all that holds us together in our humanity;
That binds us to all who live
and have lived,
Who have cried and are crying,
who hunger and are thirsty,
Who pine for justice,
and who hold out
for the time that is coming

And in this we are bound to Jesus,
Who in the same night that he was betrayed, took bread and gave you thanks;
He broke it and gave it to his disciples saying:
“Take eat; this is my body which is given for you.”
In the same way after supper he took the cup and gave you thanks;
He gave it to them saying:
“Drink this all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many
For the forgiveness of sins.
Do this as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me.”

This is the death we celebrate.
This is the new life we proclaim.
This is the vision we await.
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
(source Eucharist of Liberation from Living Beyond our Means WSCF, 1985, altered. Much of this prayer has also been translated into French.)

Prayer and epiclesis
The Lord’s prayer (said by each in their own language)
Invitation and Communion
(during communion we will sing the verses of Agape will be sung by a soloist and you are invited to join in the refrain)

Post-communion prayer

Commitment
Come to the waters
All you who are thirsty
Children who need water free from diseases
Women who need respite
From labour and searching,
Plants that need moisture
Rooted near the bedrock,
Find there a living spring.
O God, may we thirst
For your waters of justice,
And learn to deny no one the water of life.
(Source Dear Life Janet, Morley, Hannah Ward, Jennifer Wild Christian Aid 1998 copyright)

Blessing

Following the blessing you are invited to share signs of peace with one another, saying “Christ’s peace by with you”. You are also invited to come forwards dip your hands into the water and make the sign of the cross on the palm or forehead of your neighbour if you wish

Catholic-Orthodox statement a 'first step' to agreement

Ecumenical News International
Daily News Service
21 November 2007


Catholic-Orthodox statement a 'first step' to agreement
ENI-07-0898

By Luigi Sandri and Stephen Brown
Rome/Geneva, 21 November (ENI)--Church leaders have cautiously welcomed a document issued by a joint Roman Catholic-Orthodox commission dealing with the papacy, among other things, as an important move towards overcoming a 950-year rift between the two Christian traditions.

"We must be clear this is only a first step, a modest step" said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, after the 14 November publication of the document agreed at a meeting the previous month in Ravenna in northern Italy.

A central issue considered at the 8-14 October meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox theological commission concerned the role of the papacy, one of the issues that led to the schism between the two Christian traditions in AD 1054.

The Catholic Church teaches that the Pope has a leading role among Christians but Orthodox Christians reject papal jurisdiction.

Still, both sides at the Ravenna meeting accepted that before 1054, the Bishop of Rome had the first place among the other bishops. But the document stated that today's Catholic and Orthodox negotiators disagreed, "on the interpretation of the historical evidence from this era regarding the prerogatives of the bishop of Rome".

The document also says that there must be "synodality", that is, responsibility exercised by all the bishops together, on the universal level.

However, the fact that the Orthodox were willing to discuss how authority in the church was exercised on the universal level was a "real breakthrough", Cardinal Kasper said in an interview with Vatican Radio.

Some Italian newspapers reported that the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches were "on the eve of reconciliation".

But the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, told Ecumenical News International it was "quite misleading" to say, as some media reports had suggested, that the Orthodox now accept the primacy of the Pope.

"The Orthodox cannot accept a view of the Pope, as bishop of Rome, which sets him 'over and above' other bishops," Fitzgerald said. "The Orthodox would say that the nature of the authority of the bishop of Rome which developed from the Middle Ages is unacceptable."

Cardinal Kasper in his Vatican Radio interview noted that the next meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox commission would deal with the role of the bishop of Rome in the first millennium, and then go on to deal with the teaching of the first and second Vatican councils.

The First Vatican Council of 1870 promulgated papal infallibility and the universal jurisdiction of the papacy. "This will not be an easy dialogue," said Kasper.

The Ravenna meeting was marked by a walkout by representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church in a protest at the presence of an Orthodox church from Estonia that the Moscow Patriarchate does not recognise.

Kasper said he was concerned by this. "It's an inter-Orthodox problem. We can't interfere but we are saddened and worried because for us it is important that the Russian church participates in our future dialogue,"

Still, Fitzgerald said the significance of the Ravenna document was not diminished by the Russian walkout. He said the talks were seeking to establish a "theological consensus in dealings with the Catholic Church", something that was not linked to the perspective of any one Orthodox church.

:: Ravenna document. [559 words]

Are we part of the crowd or are we among the witnesses? A Poem by Manoj Kurian.

The following verses by Dr Manoj Kurian who works with the WCC HIV/AIDS programme was inspired by Setri Nyomi's sermon which you can find here.

Are we part of the crowd or are we among the witnesses?

Are we part of the crowd ?
Swayed by the influential and the appealing?
Making convenient compromises,
Preserving and expanding our power and status;
Oblivious of the Messiah among the vulnerable and the poor;
Broadening the highways of our selfish desire;
Obstructing the narrow paths;
That lead to the reign of God.

Are we among the witnesses?
Striving consistently to know God;
In creation, community, in the other and in oneself;
Reflecting truth in our own lives and all that we do.
To recognize the crucified Christ amongst us;
To be with and work with the suffering and the tortured;
For the liberation of all creation;
From the shackles of greed and exclusion.

Striving consistently to see the risen Lord;
In creation, community, in the other and in oneself;
Working for liberation in all we endeavor.
Humbly persisting to be transformed, to transform the world.
In victory and in failure;
In joy and in pain;
In solidarity and in betrayal;
Are we among the witnesses or are we with the crowd?
copyright: Manoj Kurian / WCC

Witnesses or part of the crowd? A sermon for Holy Week by Setri Nyomi

The following sermon was preached by Rev. Dr Setri Nyomi at Morning Prayer in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on Monday, March 16, 2008, the beginning of Holy Week.

Picture this. The great Passover celebrations were just around the corner. Then what may have looked like a demonstration was appearing on the scene.

The Crowds shouted – Hosanna – Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven. The city of Jerusalem was excited. It may have crossed the minds of many in the crowds that this could be the promised Messiah. And so the procession went on with this kind of excitement. It does not matter that the centre of attraction was not riding a specially trained horse. He was riding on a donkey – a choice of transportation the high and lofty would not have made. The crowds could care less – their shouts were such that the Gospel writer could only describe it as the whole city was in turmoil.

Let us fast-forward the tape to a few days later.

In those few days, the same crowds have somehow changed their tune. Matthew indicates that they were convinced by the religious powers of the day. Yes, that same crowd which just a few days before were saying blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord were shouting – “Let him be crucified”. “Crucify Him”. What a difference a few days make!

These two pictures of course are a part of the story we have heard over and over again around this special week in the life of the church. The Western Christian calendar has just begun this special week. The first picture we looked at normally gets presented at the beginning of the week when we celebrate Palm Sunday. And the second picture we normally reserve until later in the week – on the trial of Jesus.

So what made a difference between the first day and a few days later to make the crowds change their tune from “Hosanna” to “crucify him”. What could make us who live in the 21st Century say one thing about our faith and yet when challenges come change our tune.? Why is it that far too often in both professional and private lives there is such a human tendency to sing the praises of someone or express commitment to a cause, and yet at the least possibility also participate in betraying. These are questions that we may not have all the answers to. But I invite us to reflect on these questions in this Holy week.

One pointer to the answer could be found in the difference between being in the crowd and being witnesses.

Being in the crowd, they could hail Jesus when everyone else seems to be hailing him, and condemn him to be crucified when everyone else is condemning him. That is crowd behaviour. A witness is different. A witness on the basis of what she or he has seen can do no other but stand with what has been seen, and articulate that clearly.

In the event of the first Holy week, unless one was a real witness to the meaning of things Jesus was doing, it would have been very easy to follow the dictates of a group of aggrieved leaders who have reason to put a different spin on who Jesus is. After all, they began the week being threatened by what looked like a more popular leader, who then went on to vividly break the chain of injustice around economic practices in the temple, and whose message was liberating. To add injury to insult, he then called them hypocrites. They had every reason to strategize for getting rid of such a person. And the best instrument in the hands of any such is a crowd, which unlike witnesses do not take time to really understand what they are seeing.

Today, we have a similar challenge. It is so easy to talk about justice in the world today. Everybody does – justice in the economy, gender justice, greater ecological responsibility, etc. It is easy to speak the language. And many in our pews can talk about this. That is until the powers of the world begin to paint these as extremist and unrealistic in the face of free market economy today. Then we begin to feel a need to shout crucify him to all the ideas that bring greater justice in the world. Unless! Unless! We understand our calling to be witnesses – martyrs prepared to stand by our Lord Jesus no matter what the social cost we have to pay.

A witness stands by what he/she has seen, and is prepared to go against the tide to proclaim it. A witness looks at the evil and injustice in society, and sees God’s call to be agents of transformation – and we can do no other. Someone who goes with the crowd, may when convenient speak the language of justice because we find ourselves in the company of people who are talking justice in this house – but when we are in another setting where people are condemning those who stand for justice as fanatic and ideological, we go along with the flow. It is easy to do.

Are we witnesses? Or we are parts of the crowds. It is only the spirit of being witnesses for our Lord Jesus Christ that enables us to be consistent and which resists the temptation to join the crowds to seek to destroy or crucify others or to seek to betray the calling we have.

The Negro spiritual “Were you there when they crucified my Lord” in the tradition of such spirituals that come from the African American heritage articulates a double message. It brings our minds back to Passion week and challenges us to look at what our Lord Jesus went through. It also points to the existential situation of the era – where human beings were being unjustly crucified daily. While the crowds and the powerful people could not see it as a crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, these people of African descent were witnessing to a truth – As these things are being done to the least of these, it was being done to Jesus.

We too can look around and as part of the crowds ignore the injustices around us in our world – even sometimes in this very building – and remain unconcerned or even participate in perpetrating the crucifixion. Or we can be a part of Jesus witnesses, reversing that trend.

This year as we reflect in this passion week, let us reflect on who we are in relation to Jesus. May our reflections this week strengthen our resolve to be witnesses rather than merely participants in the crowd.

Amen.

Copyright: Setri Nyomi / World Alliance of Reformed Churches

An order of worship ~ from Palm Sunday to Good Friday

This order of worship was prepared by colleagues at the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and Rev. Dr Setri Nyomi in particular.
The service takes place on the Monday of Holy Week and the biblical readings chosen link Palm Sunday and Good Friday.
In the week preceeding this service the ecumenical centre learnt of the death of eminent theologian and ecumenist Lukas Vischer and of Chiara Lubich, founder and leader of the Focolare movement

Ecumenical Centre Morning Prayer Monday, March 16, 2008

Praying for Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in the ecumenical prayer cycle this week


Opening Sentences

Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

Blessed is the coming reign of God.
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

Blessed is the one who came so that we may have life in fullness.
Hosanna in the Highest Heaven!

Blessed is the one who came for the healing of the nations.
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

Blessed is the one who came to transform the world.
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

Blessed is the one who prays for the unity of God’s people.
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

Prayer
O Lord God, We thank you for this week as we reflect on your passion, death and resurrection.
You entered Jerusalem as King, but not as a dominating power.
You entered on a donkey, not on an elegant horse.
While the powerful of the day could only see in you a threat to their power, the ordinary people see in you the one who ushers in the reign of God.
Be with us O Lord as we offer ourselves to you this week. Help us to have the hearts of those ordinary people who recognize you as the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Be present with us at this time of reflection and prayer.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.

Hymn – “All Glory laud and Honour to Thee Redeemer King”
Words: Theodulph of Orleans circa 820, translated from Latin to English by John M. Neal, 1851.
Refrain:
All glory, laud and honor,
To Thee, Redeemer, King,
To Whom the lips of children
Made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou art the King of Israel,
Thou David’s royal Son,
Who in the Lord’s Name comest,
The King and Blessèd One.

Refrain

The people of the Hebrews
With palms before Thee went;
Our prayer and praise and anthems
Before Thee we present.

Refrain

To Thee, before Thy passion,
They sang their hymns of praise;
To Thee, now high exalted,
Our melody we raise.

Refrain

Matthew 21: 8 - 11 (Read in Spanish)
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Matthew 27: 20 - 25 (Read in French)
Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

Hymn “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”
Words & Music: African American spiritual

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

Reflection ~ Rev. Setri Nyomi

Hymn – Thuma Mina 253 – “Jesus Christ is waiting”

Prayers of intercession
For the churches and peoples of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam

Dear Lord, we pray this week for Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, countries which have experienced for many years the horror of wars and the challenge of revolutions. We pray for the welfare of their people. We pray that the wounds of war may be healed. We pray that in these countries, where Christian Churches are a minority, they may be a reconciling force within society, and that they may contribute towards the peace and progress of the region and in international organizations. We pray that their governments may be wise, and resolute in the cause of justice. In the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, we pray.

…Lord hear our prayers
And let our cries come to you

In gratitude for the lives of Lukas Vischer and Chiara Lubich praying for their families ...

…Lord hear our prayers
And let our cries come to you

For ourselves as we reflect on this week – remembering the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ...

…Lord hear our prayers
And let our cries come to you

The Lord’s prayer – each in our own language

Sending forth and benediction

Closing Hymn: Thuma Mina 107 – “Siya hamba”

Sermon by Simon Oxley on the radicality of Christians praying the Lord's prayer togehter

The following sermon on the Lord's prayer was preached by Rev. Simon Oxley in Geneva on March 10th 2008.


Considering all the things that divide the churches, the Lord's Prayer has caused us very little trouble compared, say, the Creeds and the Eucharist. But should the churches be more scared of people saying the Lord's Prayer than joining in the creeds or participating in the Eucharist together?

Let's have a look at Luke's account of Jesus giving the Lord's prayer.

Reading Luke 11.1-4
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."

In Luke, Jesus offers what we now call the Lord's Prayer in response to a specific request. Matthew includes it in a cut and paste collection of teachings, probably drawn from different times and places in Jesus’ ministry.

I have changed my mind about the Lord's Prayer. I had always understood it to be a pattern prayer. In other words, it showed as how we should create our prayers. In terms of intention, rhythm, style and content. This meant that saying the Lord's Prayer itself, word for word, was not so important. However, I now think that Jesus was doing what other teachers of his time did for their disciples. There’s a clue in the request – ‘as John taught his disciples’. A unique and specific prayer was a sign of belonging to the community that gathered around the teacher – the learners, the disciples. If you like, in today’s terms, a prayer came as part of the membership pack, together with the membership card, poster, t-shirt etc.

Not surprisingly, being the prayer that marks people out as being members of the group, the language is our and us – not the usual religious language of I and me. This contrasts with the ‘I believe …’ (even though the words and maybe the concepts are not ours) and the tendency for an individualised reception of bread and wine as being about my relationship with Christ. The prayer is not offered by or about you and me – it’s offered by us but not just for us.

Note the nature of the prayer. It is not just for the interests of the group of disciples, nor indeed for the institutions that we now know as churches. You might expect a prayer in a ‘membership pack’ to be focussed on the group, community or association – for its success, for the achievement of its objectives for its members. Such an interest would be only natural but this is not the way of God, the father of our lord Jesus Christ. The prayer is for the coming of God's kingdom on earth as in heaven. Whether we now like the term kingdom or not, it stands for something beyond our narrow understandings and practice of community, association, council, church or nation. It breaks us out of the narrow confines and self-serving intentions of our institutions and organisations – even the churches and their ways which are precious to us.

In introducing the gospel reading, I contrasted the Lord's Prayer with the creeds and the Eucharist. To offer some challenging caricatures, we could say that the creeds are the radical God confined in sets of words resulting from human political and theological conflict and the eucharist as the radical grace of God being confined in our patterns, processes and interpretations. The Lord’s Prayer is an opening of ourselves up to God – not confining God to our personal or institutional limitations. To pray that God’s kingdom may come is to open ourselves to the possibility that all that we cherish, all that we have built up will be transformed – to be open to the new.

In my academic researches have been reading through issues of the Ecumenical Review. I was struck by early issues, which reflected the enthusiasm and purpose of the ecumenical movement, as embodied in the World Council of Churches.

In the Editorial of the first issue of the Ecumenical Review in 1948, the WCC General Secretary, Visser’t Hooft, wrote about the opening up of ecumenical conversation between the churches in the newly formed WCC. The conversation was:
not merely in order to learn more about each other, but in order to learn more about their common Lord and about His will for the Church.
The whole enterprise was:
a common spiritual adventure, leading to unexpected and surprising discoveries.
The strength of the ecumenical movement:
lies in the fact that it is essentially a humble movement … of those who stretch out their hands to receive from God a fuller knowledge of His truth and for the manifestation of His Church.
In other words, in these early days the ecumenical movement and the WCC were not seen as merely a means of rapprochement between the churches - leading to better relationships and mutual understanding but leaving the churches basically unchanged within their traditions. It was a way of discovering together the new that broke out of the confines of the old. The fact that we have not succeeded and somehow institutionalised denominationalism should not deter us but make us more determined to fulfil these original purposes of ecumenism.

But why did we have the reading from Ezekiel this morning? The Old Testament reading appointed for Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary which many of you will have heard in church. The reading asks the question of the religious establishment, will these dry bones live? One answer given by the Lectionary is to tell the story of the raising of Lazarus from John's gospel. Another answer, which I suggest to you this morning is that saying the Lord's Prayer with its request, for God's kingdom to come, and God's will to be done opens the way for the wind of the spirit to rush through us, transforming our dry bones.

Saying the Lord's Prayer together, if we do so with the intention of and the openness for the radical transformation that God offers to us, is a foundation for the renewal of the ecumenical movement. It breaks us out of the controlling instincts for self-preservation, or even for self-aggrandisement, of the churches into the freedom to which God calls us. Praying for God’s kingdom to come is the most daring and dangerous thing we can do in our worship.
Amen

Copyright WCC/Simon Oxley

Weltkirchenrat: Luther-Jahr 2017 kann kirchliche Einheit fördern

Weltkirchenrat: Luther-Jahr 2017 kann kirchliche Einheit fördern

Bonn (epd). Die 500-Jahr-Feier der Reformation 2017 kann nach Ansicht
des Theologen Walter Altmann vom Ökumenischen Rat der Kirchen (ÖRK) auch die kirchliche
Einheit voranbringen. Bis dahin seien aber noch viele wechselseitige Ressentiments zu
überwinden, sagte der Vorsitzende des ÖRK-Zentralausschusses bei einem Besuch des Evangelischen Entwicklungsdienstes (EED). Zugleich warb der brasilianische Theologe für einen
differenzierten Umgang mit der Pfingstbewegung und mit evangelikalen Kirchen, wie der EED am Mittwoch in Bonn mitteilte.

Das 500. Reformations-Jubiläum, das „Luther-Jahr 2017", soll an den Beginn der Reformation
erinnern. An die Tür der Wittenberger Schlosskirche soll der Augustinermönch Luther 1517
seine 95 Thesen angeschlagen haben.

Altmann ist Präsident der Evangelischen Kirche Lutherischen Bekenntnisses in Brasilien. Er
lehrte an verschiedenen Universitäten. Sein wissenschaftliches Werk beschäftigt sich mit Martin
Luther, der lateinamerikanischen Befreiungstheologie und ökumenischen Studien. Der ÖRK umfasst mehr als 560 Millionen Christen in 349 Kirchen aus über 110 Ländern. Der
Evangelische Entwicklungsdienst (EED) ist ein Werk der evangelischen Kirchen in Deutschland.
Jedes Jahr fördert er etwa 300 Projekte und Programme in Afrika, Asien und Lateinamerika, in
Ozeanien, Südosteuropa und im Kaukasus. (02359/27.2.2008)

An order of Worship for March 10th - Lent 6 - Praying with Myanmar and Thailand

This order for Monday morning worship was prepared by Simon Oxley
Morning Prayer 10 March 2008 ~
In the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle this week we pray for the peoples and churches of Myanmar and Thailand

Gathering Hymn – Comfort Comfort Now My People
Greeting and Welcome

Opening sentences
Let us learn from you, Lord Jesus:
without you we do not know how to worship God with all our heart and mind.
Let us learn from you, Lord Jesus:
without you we do not know how to pray with commitment and passion.
Let us learn from you, Lord Jesus:
without you we cannot understand God’s word to us.
Let us learn from you, Lord Jesus:
without you we cannot love ourselves and each other.
Let us learn from you, Lord Jesus:
without you we do not know how to work for the Kingdom.
Let us learn from you, Lord Jesus:
so that we may become more like you.

Prayer from Thailand
O God, our Father,
the fountain of love, power and justice,
the God who cares,
particularly for the least, those suffering the most and the poorest among us.
O God, Lord of creation,
Grant us today your guidance and wisdom,
So that we may see the human predicament for what it is.
Give us courage and obedience so that we may follow you completely.
Help us, Lord
to bear witness to the cross of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who alone is the reason for hope
and in whose name we pray.

Hymn
As for the next few weeks in the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle we will be praying for countries in Asia, we sing God of Asia, God of All

Old Testament Ezekiel 37.1-14
The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD." So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act," says the LORD.

Responsive Psalm Psalm 130
Out of the depths
I cry to you, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with the Lord is great power to redeem.
It is the Lord who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

Gospel Luke 11.1-4.
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."

Reflection ~ Simon Oxley

Hymn
Christ Be Our Light

Longing for light, we wait in darkness. Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people, light for the world to see.

Refrain – Christ be our light. Shine in our hearts. Shine through the darkness.
Christ be our light. Shine in your church gathered today.

Longing for peace, our world is troubled, longing for hope, many despair
Your word alone, has pow’r to save us. Make us your living voice. REF

Longing for food, many are hungry. Longing for water, many still thirst.
Make us your bread, broken for others, shared until all are fed. REF

Longing for shelter, people are homeless. Longing for warmth, many are cold.
Make us your building, sheltering others, walls made of living stone. REF

Many the gifts, many the people, many the hearts that yearn to belong.
Let us be servants to one another, making your kingdom come. REF

Prayers
This week in the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle we remember the peoples and churches of Myanmar and Thailand. We especially remember:
those who are working towards non-violent solutions to the military and ethnic conflicts in Myanmar. those working in Thailand to support refugees from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
those working on behalf of exploited children, particularly those in the sex trade.

Silence for our prayers

Your kingdom come. Your will be done.

Let us each bring to mind one headline from today’s news and pray to the Lord for the people in that situation.
Silence for our prayers

Your kingdom come. Your will be done.

Let us each bring to mind one member of our family, a friend or a colleague who stands in need of our prayers.

Silence for our prayers

Your kingdom come. Your will be done.

Let us each think about the work we must do today and offer it to the Lord.

Silence for our prayers

Your kingdom come. Your will be done.

Lord not only hear us but give us the love and strength to act so that we may become an answer to the prayers we have offered. Amen

Lord’s Prayer each in our own language

Closing Prayer (Stand)
Lord God, you open wide your love for all.
We open our lives to one another and to you.
In your Spirit we go to do our daily work.
May our worship become our living and our living become our worship.
Amen

Closing Hymn
Hakuna Wakaita sa Jesu (There’s No One Like Jesus -once in Shona, then in English)

Meditation on "discerning the body" in the words of institution in 1 Corinthians 11. 17-29, by Theodore A. Gill

The following meditation on the words of institution in 1 Corinthians 11: 17-29 was given by Theodore Gill at morning prayers on Wednesday April 5th 2008
Bible Reading ~ 1 Corinthians 11: 17-29
Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.

Reading the letters of Paul, anachronistically speaking, is often like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. One has to imagine what is being said at the other end of the line. There are moments in early passages of this epistle when we imagine that all is not well at the Corinthian church, but as we reach the section that we know as chapter 11 there is no longer room for doubt. Paul begins to berate the Christians of Corinth for their unabashed disunity, their lack of hospitality – much less charity, their gluttony and drunkenness at the table of the Lord and – most of all – their failure to “discern the body” there.

Often in Christian history, a particular verse or phrase from scripture has been taken up as a cudgel with which to punish those with whom we disagree. Incompetence in “discerning the body”? Surely, later theologians would conclude, Paul had the foresight to offer a word of warning against the coming apostasies of Gnostics, Docetics, Zwinglians, Unitarians, rationalists, myth-and-symbol historians of religion … well, you can fill in the blanks.

But doctrines of transubstantiation, consubstantiation, and the rest lay far in the future. And Paul, though unquestionably interested in the sharing of bread and cup, seems more concerned with the place of each Christian within the community as a whole. Only a little further on in this letter, in the next chapter as we know it, he lays out his understanding of the “body of Christ” in which each believer is a member of the whole, in which all collectively are members one of another. This is not only our relationship in Christ, it is at the heart of our relationship to Christ. In faith, hope and love, in the way we interact with one another, we discern the body of Christ.

The well-to-do who failed to share their food and drink with the less fortunate had no real discernment of the body. It became clear, Paul suggested, that they were not “genuine” in their Christianity. For they emphasized the church’s division. Paul called that contempt, humiliation, unworthiness, the eating and drinking of judgment against oneself. In time, we have come to call similar divisions “ecclesiology”.

But why are we not outraged, as Paul was? Why do we not rage that we will not now, nor shall we ever commend this rending of the body that has some eating and drinking in one corner according to their own richesse, others in another corner glaring suspiciously at the first group, and everyone failing to discern the body of Christ and to make their proper contribution towards the life of the body?

It is only when we are proven worthy members of the body that we are proven genuine in our faith. And when we eat the bread, and drink the cup and embrace our fellow Christians in the discernment that we are members one of another… we proclaim the Lord’s death, until he comes.
Amen.

Copyright: WCC/Theodore Gill

An order for morning prayer for the ecumenical prayer cycle praing for Andorra, Austria, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Switzerland

This order of service was put together by Theodore Gill. I highly recommend his meditation on the words of the institution in 1 Corinthians called Discerning the Body which I have also posted.


Morning Prayer ~ Ecumenical Centre, Geneva ~ Wednesday 5 March 2008

The ecumenical prayer cycle bids us pray this week for the people and churches of Andorra, Austria, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland.

Opening sentences

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
God’s greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall laud your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.

Prayer
Eternal God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you have spoken to us.
In your Son, you have revealed yourself as the Word:
You have made yourself perceptible and accessible to us
in the flesh, in this world. We are not alone.
The revelation of your name does not lack illumination.
You have taken a human face, which you show to us.
By means of a human voice, we can hear what you say to us.
We do not live in a world without God.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.

[Adapted from Karl Barth, Prayer. 50th anniversary edition (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2002), p. 32]

Song: Lumière de Dieu, Thuma Mina (three times, in French)

1 Corinthians 11: 17-29

Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.

Meditation: Discerning the body

Prayer

At the New Delhi assembly in 1961, the World Council of Churches vowed
to build “one fully committed fellowship, holding the one apostolic faith,
preaching the one gospel, breaking the one bread, joining in common prayer
and having a corporate life reaching out in witness and service to all”.

We confess that a common table and the sharing of one loaf elude us still,
that common prayer remains a subject of dispute,
that common witness too often is blocked by rivalries among Christians.

God, have mercy upon us. In your grace, transform us.
By the guidance of your Holy Spirit, lead us to work and worship together,
that we may share in one Eucharist,
to the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer (each prays aloud in his or her own language)

Reprise: Lumière de Dieu, Thuma Mina 150 (three times, in French)

Blessing

The peace of the Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be upon you, and remain with you always.
Amen. Thanks be to God!

Prayers for peace for the visit of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

PRAYER FOR PEACE
Ecumenical Centre, Monday, 3 March 2008
For the visit of United Nations’ Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon
(This service was put together by Sabine Udodesku, Theodore Gill, Simei Monteiro and Hannelore Schmid)

Opening

L: We are gathered here to pray for peace and to ask for God’s assistance.

Opening Prayer

L: O God, Lord of the universe, all-merciful and compassionate,
have mercy upon us and illumine our way, our hearts and our minds.

O God, creator and sustainer of all things,
Lord of infinite love, kindness and mercy,
guide us to the way of love when hatred and pride appear to be the easier and more attractive way.

O God, cherisher and sustainer of all beings,
sovereign Lord over all your creation,
in your boundless mercy and care, teach us wisdom and compassion.

All: Amen.


Song: Juyeo narŭl (Lord, make me an instrument of your peace! Sung by the choir of the Korean Church in Geneva)

Prayer

All: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;


where there is hatred, let me sow love;


when there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt, faith;


where there is despair, hope;


where there is darkness, light;


and where there is sadness, joy.


Grant that I may not so much seekto be consoled as to console;


to be understood as to understand,


to be loved as to love;


for it is in giving that we receive,


it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,


and it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.

Bible Reading – Micah 4: 3b

… they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Intercessions

L: Eternal God, you gave us this promise in Jesus Christ:


“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers for peace throughout the world.

All: From the depths of our reality we bring our cries to you.

L: Lord, you created one humanity spread through every nation on earth,
and you have called us to become ambassadors of reconciliation.
We confess that your children war with one another,
and our best efforts often fail to stop them;
and we ask your forgiveness, and guidance.
We ask your blessing on all who seek peace and justice.
Especially we pray for the United Nations,
its Secretary General and all who serve its goals.
May the United Nations, and the men and women who work with it,
master the arts and science of peace-making,
promote the healing of human divisions, and improve the lives of all.

Sung response: Ososo (1st verse in Korean) Agape No

L: Lord, you call us to love our neighbour
without distinguishing between family or tribe or homeland;
you show no partiality in bestowing your blessing.
Open our minds and hearts, that we may learn to live together
and to cooperate in the spirit of love and freedom.
We pray today especially for all the people of Kenya, and their neighbours,
that solemn promises may be kept, and animosity be overcome,
and a new beginning be realized in hope.

Sung response: Ososo (2nd verse in Korean)

L: God our Creator, you are sovereign over east and west, south and north.
Despite our determination to divide humanity into camps,
you break down the walls of hostility that keep us from one another.
We pray today especially for the people of Korea,
that the factors which have divided them for too long may be set aside,
that their fellowship and common visions may be reawakened,
and that families may be reunited at last.

Sung response: Ososo (3rd verse in Korean)

L: God of history, you set choices before us and encourage us to act
for the sake of conscience, for the sake of our souls, for the saving of lives.
Be with those who are closest to the crises of this day.
We pray especially for Serbians, for Kosovars, and for their neighbours;
for the people of the Middle East;
for those caught up in the conflicts surrounding Darfur and southern Sudan;
and for all, anywhere, who face danger and death.

We pray, too, for ourselves:
Make clear our own choices, and force us to take action.

Sung response: Ososo (4th verse in Korean)

L: Lord of the Church, and God of all the nations,
continue to be our revelation, our companion, and our guide.
We pray especially for the World Council of Churches,
that it may serve you humbly
in fellowship with its member churches and ecumenical partners,
and in harmony with inhabitants of the universe of living faiths.
Bless all people of faith, loving Spirit,
and lead us to live out our faithfulness in your world.
( copyright WCC by Theodore Gill)

Sung response: Ososo (1st verse in English)

Sending Forth

L: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation. (Isaiah 52, 7a)


Let us go in peace!

Postlude

A Cross Made from Bullets

A symbol of suffering, resistance and peace from Liberia

The biblical vision of changing swords into plowshares is an inspiration for peace efforts. In Liberia, this vision has found new meaning.

Through assistance provided by the Lutheran World Federation Department for World Service Liberia program, George Togba and 30 compatriots are producing crosses in various sizes from spent bullets or shells. “In a dream I had the idea of turning spent bullets and rocket shells into symbols of peace”, says Togba, who was a car mechanic before the civil war.

The marketing of thousands of these peace symbols to Europe and to North America has turned the project into a source of moderate income.

Togba, who joined rebel forces during the conflict to protect his family, is now a Christian peace activist and supports his family by peaceful means.

“Bright Designs and Our Disorder” ~ a sermon by Theodore A Gill

“Bright Designs and Our Disorder”

A sermon preached by Rev. Theodore A. Gill, Jr. in the Chapel of the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, 3 March 2008

Biblical Text: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

This week the Revised Common Lectionary calls the attention of many of our churches to an incident related in the book of Samuel – which is one book in the original Hebrew, but later it was divided by Christian scribes and publishers into two more manageable volumes, the books we know as First Samuel and Second Samuel.

One of the oddities of this re-invention of the literary opus called “Samuel” is that the story told in the second “Book of Samuel” takes place, in its entirety, after the prophet Samuel is dead and gone. Even his one spectral appearance, to Saul and the witch of Endor, takes place late in First Samuel; by the opening chapter of the second book, even the shade of Samuel has been laid to rest.

I can’t help but think that this outcome would have come as a shock to the original narrator who composed the introduction to this work, the first two chapters of First Samuel, the birth narrative that provides a parallel in Hebrew scripture to the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel. Like Luke, Samuel begins within temple precincts – but the gospel moves more quickly than the earlier account to the little town of Bethlehem.

The first chapter of First Samuel, in particular, gives us the impression that we are beginning a book about Samuel – all about Samuel, perhaps … though the final verses of that chapter offer clever hints that a character named Saul also will fill a starring role. Vows made by a new mother, Hannah, include the naming of her son Samuel, but in a flurry of Hebrew wordplay with verb forms that seem to bounce “Samuel” off the sound “saul”, and the Hebrew word saul itself – “to give as a gift” – is used to describe Hannah’s dedication of Samuel to the Lord.

An opening like that was the equivalent of a title page in books today. We are being told that this is the story of Samuel, the prophet of the Lord, and of Saul, God’s chosen king.

Yet the whole second half of the work called Samuel will proceed in the absence of Samuel. And our second book of Samuel begins with the phrase, “After the death of Saul…” Despite the fact that Samuel is the title and Saul a sort of subtitle to the whole work, the second book of Samuel is all about David. Not about Samuel at all, nor God’s first anointed king. It is about what happened next.

The story of David begins midway through First Samuel, in the passage we heard a few moments ago. And the prophet Samuel seems to have sensed the shift in his circumstances, even then.

God’s word came to Samuel: “How long will you continue to grieve over Saul?”

“Grieve over Saul”?! Saul, who was alive and well? Saul, who was reigning over a united kingdom? Saul… whose days were numbered.

Samuel was grieving over his broken relationship with Saul, knowing that this breach represented the broken covenant between King Saul and the Lord of Israel. Samuel had the gift, and the curse, of true prophecy… so he knew enough to mourn.

Samuel obeyed God’s call, and took up the oil of anointing, and brought a sacrificial calf, and made his way to the unlikely town of Bethlehem for a rendezvous with Jesse’s least likely son. Seven sons would pass before Samuel – and seven is one of “those” numbers in the Bible, a complete number, a divine number – yet Samuel would ask after reviewing the first seven sons, “Are there no more to be seen?”

This part of the story is about kingship, which is to say that it is about sovereignty. There are kings of the earth, and orders of succession, but the Bible teaches that, ultimately, there is only one who is sovereign.

Not even the greatest prophet may see things in the manner of the Sovereign of earth and sky, the Lord who is not captivated by outward appearance, who is not afraid of radical reversals, who is – it seems – immune to uncertainty.

In the end, Samuel does as God commands, and then he makes his way back to Ramah. The Bible tends not to focus too sharply on psychological detail, and we are left to wonder: did Samuel continue to grieve? Was he still as puzzled by the vagaries of history as he had been on arrival in Bethlehem?

In the 18th century of our era, William Cowper wrote: “Deep in unfathomable mines… [God] treasures up…bright designs…” Often, the treasure seems to have been buried deep, in the most inaccessible of vaults. And it is difficult for us to appreciate God’s intentions when our reality of the moment is anything but bright.

In a newly published Festschrift for Konrad Raiser, our friend and ecumenical colleague Wesley Ariarajah introduces his article with a recollection of the theme of the First Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held at Amsterdam in 1948. That theme, as you know, was “Man’s Disorder and God’s Design”.

Wesley reminds us that the Swiss theologian Karl Barth argued that the order of the phrases ought to have been reversed. We must appreciate God’s Design first, and only then treat with the disorder we impose upon ourselves.

But Wesley Ariarajah continues: “I am glad that Barth came into the picture rather late and did not have the chance to throw his theological weight around to change the order of the words…

“Clearly, in the aftermath of World War II, what was most evident to the committee that gathered to recommend a theme was not God’s Design but [Human] Disorder.

“Beginning with the realities and asking, ‘What would God…have us do?’ has been the theological method…that arises from situations of desperation… Even to believe that there is a Design that God intends for humanity, that it would come to pass, and that we are co-workers with God in bringing it about, is an act of faith.”

Faith entails a dependence on God that helps us look beyond outward appearances, to seek an authentic answer to our question, “What would God have us do” – and “Who would God have us be?”

Apart from short-term answers and interim solutions to immediate needs, faith provides the assurance that the Lord is sovereign… and the Lord is gracious. The Lord, in other words, is different from you and me.

For all the failings we see in ourselves and admit, for all the weakness we perceive in our peers, for the corruption and disillusionment attending our institutions, still the question must be asked: “How long will you grieve?”

How long will we indulge our resentments? How long will we wait, before moving on to discover what happens next?

“Stop it!” said the Lord to grieving Samuel: “Get up. Get active. Take up your flask of oil, and hit the road. Something unexpected is awaiting you in Bethlehem!”

And perhaps this voice persisted. “Samuel,” it may have said, “I’m afraid the story turns out differently than you thought, differently than anyone imagined, and your official biographers will have to plan a re-write.

“From the soil of Bethlehem, from the root of Jesse, from the solid trunk of David will grow a family tree. That is how this narrative will build.

“This change in plan may seem disorderly to you – but if you think this is Disorder, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! This change in your expectations is essential to my Design.

“And you, Samuel … you still have your calling, for I am calling you to continue to play your part. So stop grieving for what might have been, take up your flask of oil, and put your faith in the Lord.”
Amen.


Copyright: Theodore A. Gill , Jr/WCC

An order of worship for Lent ~ 1 Samuel 16:1-13

The following order of worship was prepared by Revd. Theodore A. Gill who works in the communications department of the World Council of Churches.

Morning Prayer ~ Ecumenical Centre, Geneva ~ Monday 3 March 2008

The ecumenical prayer cycle bids us pray this week for the people and churches of Andorra, Austria, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland.

Welcome
We welcome all who join in prayer, and today we greet the plenary planning
group of the Joint Commission on Faith and Order.


Call to Worship

We will extol you, our God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forevermore.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; God’s greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall laud your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.

Prayer
Eternal God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you have spoken to us.
In your Son, you have revealed yourself as the Word:
You have made yourself perceptible and accessible to us
in the flesh, in this world. We are not alone.
The revelation of your name does not lack illumination.
You have taken a human face, which you show to us.
By means of a human voice, we can hear what you say to us.
We do not live in a world without God.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.

[Adapted from Karl Barth, Prayer. 50th anniversary
edition (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2002), p. 32]

Hymn: Réveille-toi, peuple fidèle – all 3 verses, in French
Genevan Psalter, Psalm 33. Melody by Louis Bourgeois, Geneva 1544.
Taken from Cantate Domino

Scripture lesson: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 ( read in French)

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”

Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint, for me the one whom I name to you.”

Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they came, Samuel looked on and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look upon his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.”
Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel,and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.”
He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. And the Lord said,“Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and
anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Hymn: God Moves in a Mysterious Way

Meditation: Bright Designs, and Our Disorder

Ascription of praise

The Lord is faithful in every word,
and gracious in each deed.
The Lord upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand,
satisfying the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is just in every way,
and kind in every action.
The Lord is near to all who call on God,
to all who call upon the Lord in truth.
God fulfills the desire of all who are faithful;
the Lord hears their cry, and saves them. Amen.

Hymn: It Is Good to Sing Thy Praises

Prayers of intercession

Lord of all creation, we pray for this world, for its environment, for the universe that surrounds us. This week we pray especially for the nations of this earth, for the United Nations and for the particular lands of Andorra, Austria, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland.

Sung response: O viens, Esprit Créateur, et renouvelle la face
(tune: next page) de la terre. Viens, Saint Esprit !

Lord of the Exodus: you led your people out of the house of slavery, when slavery seemed inevitable. After the tragedy of the crucifixion, you revealed your purpose for all humanity in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Sung response: Komm, du Schöpfer Geist, erneuere das
Angesicht der Erde. Komm, Schöpfer Geist!

You offer your people hope, when all seems hopeless. Remind us again that, with you, all things are possible. Teach us to doubt the inevitability of any human plan. Prove to us the power of repentance, and the triumph inherent in all those things that make for peace.

O viens, Esprit Créateur, et renouvelle la face
de la terre. Viens, Saint Esprit !

Almighty God: We pray for your church, and for all whom we are called to serve.
We pray for those who suffer, for those who mourn, for those who are consumed by confusion, for the widow, the orphan, the immigrant and the asylum-seeker. We pray for members of other faith communities, and for those who seek spiritual direction. We pray for those whom we once remembered regularly in our prayers, but have since neglected. Hold them all in your heart, Lord; for you alone are faithful.

Komm, du Schöpfer Geist, erneuere das
Angesicht der Erde. Komm, Schöpfer Geist !

Hear our prayers, O Lord, have mercy upon us, and grant us your peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer (each prays aloud in his or her own language)

Blessing

Sending hymn: Nita mwimbiya Bwana
kwa kuwa Yeye Ameniona

Sermon for the funeral of Walter Josef Stranz

Sermon for the funeral of Walter Josef Stranz

"From theatres of memory to the threat of resurrection" (With apologies to Raphael Samuel)

Several decades ago Mum posted a valentine to Dad in the February 14th columns of The Guardian
(Poor historian that I am I have consulted neither the written nor the oral sources available to me, worse than that I know that the quote is not quite right but the essence is there and anyway I am sure that Mum will supply the correct version for you all later)
The valentine greeting read "Araucaria and Lovengro may rule our bedtimes, but Alert W rules my heart".
Dad scanned the pages of the Guardian and, on spotting the Valentine intended for him, immediately said "But you always say you're no good at anagrams!"

For those of you a little puzzled or concerned at what it was that was going on in my parents' bedroom I should explain that every evening they would try to do the Guardian cryptic crossword - Araucaria and Lovengro are two of the names of the setters of that crossword,
and for those still in the dark about the Alert W - it had to be explained to me at the time, I am still no good at cryptic crosswords - it is an anagram of Walter.
As a translator and interpreter I feel I should also add that when Dad said "But you always say you're no good at anagrams" what he meant was "Thank you, I love you too".

Today as we enter the theatres of memory and remembrance, each of you will have your own personal memories of Walter.
As I play with words to speak about Alert W and what he was to so many of us, I am very aware that there is much, much more that could be said.
I recognize also that playing with words, telling stories, teaching history were central to Walter's being.
And in telling and weaving stories today we will participate in that essential human activity of trying to make a little more sense of our lives.
Honest historical inquiry, learning about and from the past, can only enrich our own stories, even if that enrichment comes sometimes through recognition of powerful challenges to cherished prejudices and received ideas.
But honest inquiry will always help us tell our own stories with more integrity and it allows history from below to flourish and prosper between the generations.

To guide us on our way two Jewish sayings about remembrance:
"To remember leads to salvation to forget leads to the wilderness"
"To remember is to live" (This second one is the title of a film made about the Jewish cemetery in Weissensee, Berlin where our Jewish great grandparents are buried).

So, if you are sitting comfortably, let us begin ( Yes, sorry we are still only at the beginning, you have been warned Stranz's are rarely brief - I am my father's daughter! )
Let us enter the theatres of memory

Towards the end of John's Gospel Christ utters these words from the cross as he dies
"It is over"
Words which speak powerfully both of suffering and of an end of suffering
"It is over"
These were also my own thoughts as I received the news of my father's death, on holiday in the city of his birth.
"It is over" expressed my complex feelings of relief and release that his terribly debilitating illness no longer held him and also my mother in its grip
Yet as I flew away from Berlin to return to Redditch I realized very powerfully how easily the life we give thanks for here might not have been.
We cannot even begin to comprehend how many millions of other Walters humanity has lost to Nazi gas chambers, to Stalinist gulags, to Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, to Mobutu's vicious politics of corruption, to ethnic hostility between Hutus and Tutsis, to dictatorships, and to political and religious bigotry the world over… the list through history and into our own time is so long...

These are not natural disasters but human beings choosing to systematically annihilate, terrorize and subjugate their fellow men and women.

If only that were over...

Before we leave this particular theatre of memory, I must mention Tante Helene, my great aunt - only Gertrude here today actually knew her - who had great pester power, she sat in Sir Stafford Cripps’ office, for several days and simply said, no doubt with a strong German accent, "my brother is a lawyer so are you, you will sign his immigration papers". I'm sure she also said please and was polite. She it was who also got the redoubtable Mrs Freeman who opened her “Welcome House” to over 16 German Jewish children, to be guarantor for her nephew and niece, Walter and Gertrude, and finally through quiet but determined conviction the Quakers became guarantors for my grandmother. Without all of the courage and determination and conviction of these other people, Walter would never have met Betty and we would not be here today.

Churches throughout the world continue to remind politicians that one of the key ethical tenets of the Judeo-Christian inheritance is to welcome the stranger.

Politicians of left and right and centre, so keen in other circumstances to speak about Christian values, or to denounce axis of evil, seem not to think those bits of the Bible are relevant.

As I give thanks for my feisty aunt, for the quiet Quakers, I also give thanks for this local congregation here at Emmanuel Church which as part of its regular Christian commitment had a collection for the Refugee Council on the Sunday before Walter died.

Long may we continue to read the Bible and tell and retell its stories and injunctions prophetically to the men and women of our own time.

Before I descend into ranting, let us move on to the next scene in our theatre of memory
This scene has the title
"Walter the party man"
The title is also Mum's invention and it is of course another play on words, many of the photos that Richard has displayed in the hall show Dad at family parties, eating his way through several deserts - with ice cream custard and whipped cream please - and enjoying the people he was with, the party man was also a people person.

He was of course also a party man in that other way.
Peter Mandelson (who was once taught chemistry by Walter's sister Gertrude, though not I gather terribly successfully) once wrote in his obituary of an old Labour party activist "She was neither old Labour nor new Labour but tribal Labour"

Tribal Labour describes Walter the party man well, wearing his red shirt today for the last time, off to canvass the opinion of a higher power.
The words conviction, commitment, justice and love come into this theatre of memory, as do dogged determination, attention to planning detail, belief in community and also I suspect biting wit and the ability to go for the political jugular.

Walter's political and religious convictions were forged against the backdrop of global concerns, he threw himself into local action but could never forget the wider global picture,
think globally act locally - the mayoral charities he chose reflected his own deep sense of responsibility and privilege, to simply be alive.

There will not be time, even for a Stranz, to mention the other theatres of memories, many of you have already done so very eloquently in your letters and cards, but here are a few headings for you to develop later:

Walter as teacher; as listener; in his wheelchair as a local embodiment of the integration of the disabled; as local historian; as speech maker; academic; councillor; reluctant gardener; believer in civil society and informed political debate; Walter as brother, father, husband.....

We move forwards from the theatres of memory to the threat of resurrection.

The passage Hywell read earlier represents the ancient ending to Mark's gospel, it's the earliest gospel account of the resurrection, telling us that resurrection is simply an empty tomb and fear - later generations of story tellers thought this ending was a little cryptic and needed adding to (and that's how we got the extra ten verses or so at the end of chapter 16 which are still a good story but an addition nevertheless).

Julia Esquivel, the Latin American theologian, speaks of resurrection being not only a promise but also a threat, a threat to our received ways of thinking,
resurrection destroys prejudice,
changes the world
In Mary's words in the Magnificat, it lifts high the humble and sends the rich away empty handed.

Walter very much believed in and practised what theologians call a realised eschatology - I do apologise for these long words, and in a brief aside to Mum, whose hearing is not always all it could be, want to add I did say eschatology Mum, not scatology.
A realised eschatology is all about bringing the Kingdom of God to bear on the here and now, it means daring to take a stance and be thought wrong by others, it means daring to get involved, going to vote, valuing democracy and debate.
Perhaps then, the threat of resurrection is the threat of the new experiences getting involved might bring to us.
Redditch is in so many ways a credit to many, many people - not just my father - who dared to live with the threat of resurrection, of daring to dream that something new could be built and go on being built.
That building is not just dependent on bricks and mortar and planned buildings, though of course they are also very important – claiming the opposite would make my father turn in his grave before we have even laid him in it!

But it is the operatic societies and the sports clubs and the guides and scouts and music societies and the theatres and charities and churches and mosques and schools and hospitals and gurdwaras and temples and synagogues and green spaces and coffee shops and meeting places and doctors and nurses and so, so much more
that build up community, carry it into the future and offer promise that we will learn from the theatres of memory and joyfully dare to be threatened by resurrection.

I was surprised to come to the realisation as I prepared these words that my father was essentially a contented man, he knew that life is not only about working and striving to achieve, but life is also about holiday, about pottering around town on a Saturday morning, about humour and laughter.

Britain seems so proud to have the longest working hours in Europe. In that Bible I read it talks about Sabbath, time off, with God, with family. Gentle contentment is also part of resurrection's promise and truly a threat to an established order of continual overwork.
This is something I am surprised to learn from my father today and an area I still need to make progress in!

Mum, the very Alert W ruled not only your heart but conquered hearts and minds of many in this ordinary but extraordinary town called Redditch.

As we struggle with life's cryptic clues and try to figure out not anagrams but the meaning of our own existence

As I puzzle and question what thinking globally and acting locally means for me

I rejoice and give thanks to God that my father was such a positive example for so many

However, and I imagine Richard feels the same, it is of course not always easy for the children and family to accept that example as easily as others do. I'm sure that Dad would even expect us to say that!

Nevertheless (and this bit will make me cry) with English understatement, I would say we thought he did quite well really,
And we loved him very, very much.
Long may we all continue to tell history in a way which leads us ever more into life
Long may we move from the theatres of memory to the promise of resurrection
as we commit ourselves to building civil society in this place and in the wider world - and yes I really do still believe that.
Finally, and this really will make me cry, Mum, thanks for everything.

Some notes
My father was head of history at the local high school for many years, after which he moved into teacher training and then to be head of the faculty of town planning and the built environment at the University of Central England.
He was a member of Redditch Council for over 40 years and of Hereford and Worcester County Council for 20 years. He led the labour party group on both councils, in opposition and in power, for many years and was mayor of Redditch on three occasions.
In 1994, having repeatedly refused other national honours, he was made the only Freeman of the Borough of Redditch – he delighted in the fact that this gave him the ancient right to drive sheep for free over the town bridge!
One of the last books I gave my father, some 10 years before his death when he could still hold and read a book, was Raphael Samuel’s “Theatres of Memory”. At the time he was busy writing his own history of Redditch Council and we had a long conversation about testing our own memory against the written sources and also about local history.
Walter had Parkinson’s disease for 22 years. Thanks in large part to his own tenacity and the incredible mobility, nursing and support given by his wife Betty, he was out and about in the town he loved and helped to build until a few weeks before his death.
Redditch is a new town of around 80,000 people, south of Birmingham and north of Stratford upon Avon. Jokes are told about the calendar featuring its roundabout system and it being rather a boring place. As are the places most of us come from it’s an ordinary extraordinary place.