Sermon
15th November 26
We are observing today as the Feast of the Saints and Martyrs of England. In the Church of England Calendar, this should be kept on the 8th November, which was last Sunday, Remembrance Sunday. As it could never be celebrated in practice on the official date, I have moved it a week later.
I am particularly grateful to Steve who has produced the service booklet. I wanted to sing the Hymn of the Church of Northumbria as the Offertory hymn, but we couldn’t find the words either online or in any hymnbook.
However, I sang this when I was at Theological College over fifty years ago. We didn’t have photocopiers then, so I copied the words by hand, which Steve has patiently transcribed. Don’t worry: you probably won’t have seen the words before, but we’ll be singing it to the tune of “Onward Christian Soldiers!
SERMON
I’ve been watching ‘The Northumbria Mysteries’, in which Robson Green plays Joe Ruby, an ex-con who now helps the police solve murders. Taken together with all the deaths that Vera has investigated, Northumbria appears to be getting nearly as dangerous as Midsomer! It’s not great drama, but that is made up for by the scenery which is spectacular.
I see some of those marvellous views from the train when visit my daughter in Scotland but, until this year, had never otherwise been there. In September, I visited Holy Island/ Lindisfarne from where monks, initially from Iona, evangelised the area from the 7th Century onwards. I went to Durham Cathedral, in which both St Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede are buried, and to Bamburgh, from where St Oswald ruled and where St Aidan died.
The origins of Christianity in England are complicated. Those of us from the South were taught that it came direct from Rome: brought first by Roman soldiers and settlers who converted England’s first martyr St Alban in the 3rd or early 4thcentury, and much later by the mission of St Augustine, who arrived in Kent in 597. Those of you who hail from northern parts would probably give greater importance to the Church of Northumbria, and the work of St Aidan who, at the invitation of King Oswald, founded the community on Holy Island in 635.
The last verse of the Hymn of the Church of Northumbria talks about the history of the Christian faith in this country as two lamps: the northern lamp being lit in Northumbria; the southern in Canterbury. But there were significant differences: the north following the Celtic Christian traditions; the south those of Rome.
It was necessary to reconcile the differences between the two. They met at the Synod of Whitby in 664 where, amongst other issues, they agreed on a common date for Easter. What our hymn calls “unit(ing) Britain’s Church in one”, is often described in spiritual terms as following Christ’s prayer that his followers might be one. There is, however, a more prosaic explanation which I have put as an appendix to this sermon on the WhatsApp page and on our website!
Today, we are celebrating the Saints and Martyrs of England. We hear of the period between the end of the Roman occupation and the Norman invasion being dismissed as the ‘Dark Ages’, but that darkness was illuminated by those who brought the faith and who evangelised this country. We also remember the many who fought to keep this country Christian, especially those, both Catholic and Protestant, who gave their lives during the Reformation period, including of course St John Fisher, a former Bishop of Rochester.
But more than that. We celebrate all those folk, whether known or unknown, whether ordained or lay, who have kept the faith and have handed it on to successive generations. And we pray for England, that the lamps of faith may continue to shine, and indeed grow brighter.
APPENDIX
The official accounts of the Synod of Whitby emphasise the importance of Christian Unity and celebrate the resolution of difference between the practices of the Celtic Church in the North and the Roman Church in the South. Of all of these, the most important was to agree a common date for Easter, which led to the acceptance of the Roman calendar in this respect.
However, there is another and, to my mind, more likely motive: Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ tells us that Oswiu, King of Northumbria between 654 and 670, was converted to Christianity by Irish monks and thus kept the Celtic traditions, whilst his Queen Eanflaed, was from Kent and followed Roman practices.
It all came to a head one year when the King was celebrating Easter Day. His wife, however, was keeping the day as Palm Sunday, and thus had to observe the strict Lenten fast for another week. In those days, part of the Lenten discipline included abstinence from sex, even for married couples. Therefore, the King was obliged to extend that aspect of Lent for an extra week. You can understand why he brought pressure to bear on the Church to fix a common date for Easter in future!
Amen.
