Memorial Service for The Revd Sally Muggeridge

Here's the sermon that I preached today in the Memorial Service for Sally Muggeridge held at St Stephen Walbrook:

The opportunity to minister at St Stephen Walbrook together with Sally was one that I greatly enjoyed and appreciated. I greatly valued having her as a colleague. She was a special colleague with great insight and ideas coupled with real humility and a servant heart. We were very fortunate to have enjoyed Sally’s assistance and ministry at St Stephen Walbrook during her curacy and were particularly grateful for the links she established with the City and with businesses locally.

Her time with us also broke down barriers as she was the first woman to preside at the Eucharist in St Stephen Walbrook. It was a privilege to be at the ‘At Home’ for WATCH during which she celebrated her first Eucharist and became the first woman to celebrate the Eucharist in that church. I also remember with real pleasure our conversations about her uncle Malcolm Muggeridge and his impact as well as all she did to work on his legacy. I will always remember her time with us and all she brought to ministry with deep gratitude.

As we have just heard, Sally had her calling as a priest confirmed to her as she cared for and sat through the night with a lady in Calcutta who was dying while in the care of Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity. This remarkable experience culminated with a moment of communication between the two just before the woman died and coincided, in a God-incidence, with the death of Sally’s own mother, who received a call from Desmond Tutu just before she died.

Reflecting on these experiences would have confirmed a priestly call for Sally because they are experiences of being with, something that is at the heart of what priestly ministry involves. Being with is based on the belief that to find the meaning of life we need each other. We need to spend time being present and attentive to others who may be different to us and to ourselves and the world around us. As we do this, we can discover a way to be attentive to God and discover that God is present to us.

This discovery occurs because God has always been with, although never more so than in his incarnation as Jesus. The kingdom of God comes near to us when Jesus comes near because Jesus is God with us. That is what the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection are all about. The Gospel of Matthew begins with the angel's promise that the Messiah will be called Emmanuel - God with us. The Gospel ends with Jesus's promise to his disciples, "Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." In between we get Jesus's promise to the church, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them." … And, perhaps most significantly of all, the Gospel of John says "The Word was made flesh and dwelt with us." Jesus's ministry is about being with us, in pain and glory, in sorrow and in joy, in quiet and in conflict, in death and in life. God is with us when Jesus comes near, which is, in reality, all the time. That is our witness as Christians and it is also our ministry. If the heart of the Gospel is that God is with us in every circumstance and into eternity, then our task is to be with others in order that they experience God with them.

This was Sally’s experience and was at the heart of her priestly ministry being the key aspect of her ministry about which she spoke when she was profiled by the Financial Times: “My role is now one of pastoral care of stressed City workers. So many seek chats, prayers, a quick discussion [about] a worry about family life and work. A prayer needed, a smile, a service — I can help with examples and encouragement.”'

She was able to do this so well because of the time she had spent in the business world and the experience gained. Being with those who work in the City involves making connections between faith and working life and Sally was able to do that supremely well because of the prior experience that she brought to ministry. Again, this featured in the FT profile where it was noted that: "Throughout her career, Revd Muggeridge has been a vocal advocate of increasing the role of women in business and the church.”

As such, Sally organised a 'Women in the City of London - More than just a place of work' event which highlighted the civic, cultural, charitable and social opportunities in the City of London, including networks as a route to fuller participation. She also contributed to a series of events we ran to explore the place of faith in the world of business. We titled this series as ‘plus+ presentations’ flagging that we were seeking to add value to the experience of being in the City. Sally spoke from personal experience about campaigns to increase the numbers of women on Boards. She also chaired a Volunteers from the City event which explored the benefits of volunteering, preparation, training and support for volunteers, and the part that Corporate Social Responsibility plays in volunteering. These are just a few examples of the links she established for St Stephen Walbrook with the City and with businesses locally. They, and other gatherings, were opportunities to meet and be with the City workers to whom she ministered pastorally.

She also contributed regularly to Start:Stop, our popular ten-minute Tuesday morning reflections, one of several initiatives that created ‘a new pattern of missional engagement at Walbrook.’ These included the uplifting ‘Discover and Explore’ series of services on Mondays, which featured different themes accompanied by the music of the Choral Scholars. This service involved speaking on an eclectic but interesting variety of topics depending on the theme. Among the topics on which Sally spoke were the following: Lanning Roper, Love, the Temple of Mithras, Christopher Wren, George Croly, Hope, Sir John Vanburgh, Chad Varah, John the Baptist, Guidance, Faith, St Paul in Rome, and St Columba. Always, however, with a deep perception of where God was to be found with us in relation to the topic.

In speaking once about architecture, she noted that this impulse: “the planning and specification of buildings, is perhaps as old as man’s wish to build. But we also know we cannot look to any building, however majestic, for permanence. Buildings are by nature, like us, transitory, here today and gone tomorrow. In the search for true permanence and stability, in wishing to build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land, we must look to God.”

That thought brings us back to the permanent nature of God’s being with us in the reality of life experiences that are changing and transient. As we heard in the reading from Romans, “nothing can separate us from his love.” That remains true in all that we experience as we go through life.

As Sam Wells has said: “God doesn’t spare us from the fire. God doesn’t rescue us from the fire … God is with us in the fire. ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me.’ ‘When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.’ That’s the gospel …

Jesus isn’t spared the cross. Jesus isn’t rescued from the cross. Jesus is with God on the cross. The bonds of the Trinity are stretched to the limit; but not ultimately, broken. When we see the cross we see that God is with us, however, whatever, wherever … forever. This is our faith.”

As Henri Nouwen says: “God’s protection is not a promise that nothing will happen to us, but that nothing—absolutely nothing—will separate us from His love.”

As a result, we can say with the Psalmist: “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side … then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters.” May we know that truth in whatever difficulty we face currently.

Finally, though, God’s being with in the incarnation and in the vicissitudes of life is so that we can be with him forever in the coming kingdom of God where there will be nothing for us to fix and where there will simply be being with God, with each other and with creation. That is now Sally’s experience having come through all that she experienced in this life with the knowledge that Christ was with her in all things.

And, as will be of great importance for someone who was always learning, growing, developing and doing something beautiful for God, that experience of being with will not be static, formulaic and dull but instead will be exploratory as there is always something more to know of love, joy and peace in the never-ending depths of God. Although at rest, Sally remains on her journey of faith, exploring her calling, discovering more of the beauty in God, in others, in herself, and in creation. May the same also be true for us. Amen.

My review of 'Jesus, The Man Who Lives by Malcolm Muggeridge, with an Afterword by Sally Muggeridge, can be read here.

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Heart and Voice recital with The Choral Scholars of St Stephen Walbrook.

Revd Sally Muggeridge R.I.P.

At the beginning of December 2025 I received the sad news of the death of The Rev Sally Muggeridge, who served with me at St Stephen Walbrook as our curate. Sally's obituary has recently been published by The Telegraph, who characterise her as an Anglican priest who defended the reputation of her renowned uncle Malcolm Muggeridge. Ordained a vicar after a career in business, she ministered to ‘stressed City workers’ while at St Stephen Walbrook.

The opportunity to minister at St Stephen Walbrook together with Sally was one that I greatly enjoyed and appreciated. I greatly valued having her as a colleague. She was a special colleague with great insight and ideas coupled with real humility and a servant heart. We were very fortunate to have enjoyed Sally’s assistance and ministry at St Stephen Walbrook during her curacy and were particularly grateful for the links she established with the City and with businesses locally. 

Her pastoral heart combined with her business experience and insights was absolutely the right combination for ministry at Walbrook. Her understanding of the pressures of life in the City helped her provide the support others needed. As she said in an FT profile, “My role is now one of pastoral care of stressed City workers. So many seek chats, prayers, a quick discussion [about] a worry about family life and work. A prayer needed, a smile, a service — I can help with examples and encouragement.”'

Her time with us, as well as creating new links and initiatives with the business community, also broke down barriers as she was the first woman to preside at the Eucharist in St Stephen Walbrook. It was a privilege to be at the ‘At Home’ for WATCH during which she celebrated her first Eucharist and became the first woman to celebrate the Eucharist in that church. Her legacy also includes all she did to work on the legacy of Malcolm Muggeridge and I also remember our conversations about him and his impact with real pleasure. I will always remember her time with us and all she brought to ministry with deep gratitude.

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Choral Classics with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Valuing the God-bearers

Here's the sermon I preached at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Maude Royden, Elsie Chamberlain, Isabella Gilmore, Betty Ridley, Una Kroll, Christian Howard, Monica Furlong, Joyce Bennett, Florence Li Tim-Oi, Constance Coltman, Margaret Webster. Have you heard of any of them? I found out about these women through the website of Women and the Church (or WATCH) who point out that though they were all icons in the campaign to get women ordained, as with many women’s lives, they are in the ‘hidden gallery’ of history.

To give you a very brief flavour of some of their stories: Elsie Chamberlain was the first female full chaplain in the RAF; Una Kroll famously shouted, ‘We asked for bread and you gave us a stone’ (a reference to Matthew 7:7-11) when in 1978 the General Synod refused to allow women to be ordained, creating the momentum for the Movement for the Ordination of Women to be formed; and Florence Li Tim-Oi was the first female Anglican priest, ordained during the war to serve behind Japanese lines in China.

WATCH argue that, although women have been a majority in the church, their ministries have mostly been hidden in the background, carrying out children’s work, making tea, cleaning, in the office, caring for neighbours, letting the vicar know when someone needs a visit. In other words, fulfilling the sort of role that Martha was playing in our Gospel reading today (Luke 10. 38 – end).

Martha opened her home to Jesus and his disciples. Providing hospitality and welcome to strangers was of vital importance within Judaism and in Middle Eastern culture generally. The rabbis taught that Abraham left off a discussion with God and went to greet guests when they arrived at his camp. He ran to greet them during the hottest day on record and served them the best food he could put together. Based on this example, the rabbis say that taking care of guests is greater than receiving the divine presence.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him to come to towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, he told them to look out for and stay with those, like Martha, who would welcome them. So, Jesus’ words to Martha are not a denigration of the role she is fulfilling, which has a vital place in Middle Eastern culture, but point instead to an alternative role which has led to the point that we have currently reached in the Church of England of seeking to ordain women, not just as priests, but as bishops.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. This was the usual posture of a disciple of any teacher in the ancient world. But disciples were usually male, so Mary would have been quietly breaking the rule that reserved study for males, not females. Martha was possibly not merely asking for help but demanding that Mary keep to the traditional way of behaving. Jesus, though, affirms Mary in the place and role of a disciple: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus refused to be sidetracked by issues of gender when faced with women in any kind of need and consistently put people before dogma. Luke’s Gospel not only reports that Jesus had female disciples, but specifically names them in Luke 8. 1-3. Throughout his Gospel Luke pays particular and positive attention to the role of women; presenting women, not only as witnesses to the events surrounding the birth and resurrection of Jesus, but also as active participants in God's Messianic purposes.

This sense of the equality of men and women in God's plan of salvation and their equal importance in the new community that was the Church, has inspired women throughout Church history to active service of our Lord and to leadership roles within his Church. Ultimately, this has led to the point that we have reached relatively recently in the Church of England of ordaining women as priests and bishops. This includes the many women whose ministries we can celebrate and remember in relation to the history and current ministry of our churches.

In our Gospel reading today, Mary shows all of us the importance of making Jesus the central focus of our life and learning while Martha shows us all the value of welcome, hospitality and service. Our Lady is “the prime God-Bearer, bearing for us in time the One who was begotten in eternity, and every Christian after her seeks to become in some small way a God-bearer, one whose ‘yes’ to God means that Christ is made alive and fruitful in the world through our flesh and our daily lives, is born and given to another” (Malcolm Guite). Saint Catherine of Alexandria was persecuted for her Christian faith after protesting against the treatment of her fellow Christians at the hands of Maxentius, Roman Emperor from 306 to 312 AD. She was among the most venerated female saints of medieval England and is the patron saint of young girls, students, philosophers, and craftsmen working with wheels.

We can rightly add to those inspirational women, others associated with our churches such as Christine McCafferty, Tara Frankland, Jane Freeman, and, currently, our own Sue Wise and Emma Doe. Additionally, there are a large number of lay women who have and continue to support and lead within our churches. These, and other women (including those named by WATCH), are examples to all of us of what real commitment to Christ entails and involves. This is particularly so because the campaigns to see women take their place alongside men as bishops and at every level in the Church of England have not been about women gaining an ascendency which men have had in the past but, instead, about the full equality of women and men in the Church as part of God's will for his people, and as a reflection of the inclusive heart of the Christian scripture and tradition.

The ministries of each one of us can be enhanced by reflecting on the examples that both provide and, through that, the recognition that the saints are not special, super-human people but: sisters, like Martha and Mary, who become frustrated with each other’s choices; engaged women, like Mary, challenged to obey God in ways that put their relationships under strain; and students, like Catherine, who bravely debate with scholars, philosophers, and orators. What we see through their lives and examples is that each one of us are saints; whatever our gender and ministry, its prominence or hiddenness. The only saints to feature in the New Testament are each and every member of a local church. The saints are simply those who are church members whether in Ephesus, in Jerusalem, in Rome, or wherever including, today, those of us here in Wickford and Runwell.

In Christ’s Church and kingdom there should be no gender divide in how we serve and follow him. So, like Martha, each of us (male and female) can practise and value the ministries of welcome, hospitality and service of all and, like Mary, each of us (female and male) can practise and value making Jesus the central focus of our lives and learning as his disciples. May we be inspired by their examples and those of other women we have mentioned and the same time that we support all those women who lead us so well within our Team Ministry currently recognising that these are they who are God-bearers, “those whose ‘yes’ to God means that Christ is made alive and fruitful in the world through our flesh and our daily lives, is born and given to another” (Malcolm Guite).

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Carolyn Arends - All Flame.

Start:Stop - Advent waiting

Bible reading

Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning-- lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch." (Mark 13:33-37)

Meditation

Advent is a time of watching and waiting. Waiting to celebrate the first coming of Christ and reflecting on our wait for his second coming. Waiting is a common experience; one that used to characterise the British as we were known for our ability to wait patiently in queues. Now that would seem to have changed, as adverts claim that impatience is a virtue.

Alan Stewart, a clergy friend, has written a meditation which helps us reflect on our common experiences of waiting. He begins:

Waiting for news / News you long for / News you fear / Waiting for answers
Waiting to rejoice / With tears of laughter / Tears of regret / Waiting to grieve
Waiting to remember / Waiting to forget
Waiting to greet / or to say goodbye / Waiting to embrace / or to push away

He ends: Waiting for God / And in the waiting / God waits / With us.

So, God is with us in our waiting. That is the first thing for us to realise and sense. It is something that we see both in the Christmas story and in the wider story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as I have highlighted in another meditation:

Waiting. / Elizabeth waiting years for the conception of a child.
Waiting. / Mary waiting nine months for the birth of God’s son.
Waiting. / Simeon waiting to see the salvation of Israel.
Waiting. / Eastern visitors following a star, waiting to worship the baby born King of the Jews.
Waiting. / Joseph and Mary living in Egypt waiting for the death of Herod.

So, I conclude: Love waits. / Birth waits. / New life waits. / Revelation waits. / God waits.

Why are we waiting? Why does God wait? The answer that the Bible seems to give is that he is waiting for us to respond to him. W. H. Vanstone wrote: “So it is with the love of God. For the completion of its work, and therefore its own triumph, it must wait upon the understanding of those who receive it. The love of God must wait for the recognition of those who have power to recognise … Recognition of the love of God involves, as it were, the forging of an offering: the offering is the coming-to-be of understanding: only where this understanding has come to be has love conveyed its richest blessing and completed its work in triumph.”

God waits for us; waits for our recognition, understanding and response to his love. So, let us make it our aim and prayer this Advent to see him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly day by day.

Prayers

Watchful at all times, let us pray for strength to stand with confidence before our Maker and Redeemer. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

Lord, you wait for us to come and see you. You wait to shine light where there is darkness, to show love where there is hate, to share peace where there is conflict, to give hope where there is despair. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

Lord, you wait for us to come and see you. Let us gather round the manger to shine your light, to show your love, to share your peace, to give your hope. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

Let us come, and remember what has been fulfilled. Let us prepare for what must yet be done. Let us come to the One who waits to show us love. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

(Christine Sine)

Almighty God, as your blessed Son Jesus Christ first came to seek and to save the lost; so may he come again to find in us the completion of his redeeming work. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

Blessing

Christ the Sun of Righteousness shine upon you, scatter the darkness from before your path, and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Steve Bell & Malcolm Guite - Epiphany on the Jordan.

Reformation 500

The following piece is included in the latest newsletter for Churches Together in Westminster:

2017 is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on the door of the castle chapel in the German town of Wittenberg – an event that has become known as the starting point of the Reformation. Across the continent, numerous events are planned, from art to worship, to remember that episode in Christian history, and to reflect on its influence on our society as an extensive movement of reform. The anniversary is an opportunity to explore how a better understanding of what took place 500 years ago in Wittenberg can draw people and churches closer together. 

Churches Together in England have been urged to keep this anniversary together in the spirit of five 'R's:

• Rejoicing – because of the joy in the gospel which we share, and because what we have in common is greater than that which divides; and that God is patient with our divisions, that we are coming back together and can learn from each other. 
• Remembering – because all three streams of the Reformation have their witnesses and one church’s celebration could be another’s painful memory; and yet all believed they acted in the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ for their time. 
• Reforming – because the Church needs always to grow closer to Christ, and therefore closer to all who proclaim him Lord, and it is by the mutual witness of faith that we will approach the unity for which Christ prayed for his followers. 
• Repenting – because the splintering of our unity led us to formulate stereotypes and prejudices about each other’s traditions which have too often diverted our attention from our calling as witnesses together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world. 
• Reconciling – because the call to oneness in Christ begins from the perspective of unity not division, strengthening what is held in common, even though the differences are more easily seen and experienced. In national and local events, whether together or separately, churches are seeking to honour each other and give thanks for our growing friendship and fellowship in the Gospel. 

One such initiative is ‘Still Reforming’, in which twelve parishes across London are welcoming each other, fellow Londoners, and visitors on their doorsteps, inviting them to experience for themselves the diverse heritage of the Reformation. Each month, a different congregation is hosting an event beginning at its open door, in the hope that all those involved will learn something new, exchange ideas and perspectives, and attempt to understand together what the relevance of the Reformation is for us today. Several CTiW churches are involved. 

The Anglican-Lutheran Society in Partnership with Women and the Church (WATCH) London and St Anne’s Lutheran Church is organising three evenings of interactive presentations and social time to be held at St Mary-at-Hill, Lovat Lane, Eastcheap, London, EC3R 8EE, home to the Lutheran Congregation of St Anne’s, on Women of the Reformation: Overlooked Stories. On Thursday 18 May, 6.30-8.30pm, Anne Boileau, author of Katharina Luther: Nun. Rebel. Wife, will present Katharina von Bora, Dr. Martin Luther's Wife. Then, on Thursday 22 June, 6.30-8.30pm, Rev'd Dr Roy Long, a retired Pastor in the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, will speak about Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's Last Wife. Finally, on Thursday 29 June, 6.30-8.30pm, Rev’d Eliza Zikmane (Lutheran Pastor), Rev’d Dr Julia Candie (Anglican Vicar) and Sally Barnes (Anglican Lay Woman) will provide stories of Women Reformers Then and Now. 

Conferences which may be of interest include Reformation 500: Ecumenical Perspectives, the annual conference of the Society for Ecumenical Studies, on 17 June in Oxford and Responding to the Reformation, the Churches Together in England conference, from 16-18 October in Swanwick. 

See www.reformation500.uk for a fuller listing of Reformation 500 events.

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Martin Luther - Come, Christians One and All, Rejoice.

Start:Stop - celebrating and encouraging greater diversity

Bible reading

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10. 38 – 42)

Meditation

Martha opened her home to Jesus and his disciples. Providing hospitality and welcome to strangers was of vital importance within Judaism and in Middle Eastern culture generally. The rabbis taught that Abraham left off a discussion with God and went to greet guests when they arrived at his camp. He ran to greet them during the hottest day on record and served them the best food he could put together. Based on that example, the rabbis said that taking care of guests is greater than receiving the divine presence.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him to come to towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, he told them to look out for and stay with those, like Martha, who would welcome them (Luke 10). So, Jesus’ words to Martha, while they can appear critical, were not intended as a denigration of the role she was fulfilling, which, as we have thought, has a vital place in Middle Eastern culture. Jesus had already affirmed Martha's hospitality by welcoming and receiving all she offered. However, he also wanted to affirm Mary’s action as well because Mary's action points to an alternative role for women which could only begin to be realised as a result of his affirmation.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. That was the usual posture of a disciple of any teacher in the ancient world. But disciples were usually male, so Mary would have been quietly breaking the rule that reserved study for males, not females. Martha was possibly not merely asking for help but demanding that Mary keep to the traditional way of behaving. Jesus, though, affirmed Mary in the place and role of a disciple: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus refused to be sidetracked by issues of gender when faced with women in any kind of need and consistently put people before dogma. Luke’s Gospel not only reports that Jesus had female disciples, but specifically names them in Luke 8. 1-3. Throughout his Gospel, Luke pays particular and positive attention to the role of women; presenting women, not only as witnesses to the events surrounding the birth and resurrection of Jesus, but also as active participants in God's Messianic purposes. This counter-balance to the patriarchy of the time was necessary in order to signal the value of both women and men in God's plan of salvation and their equal importance in the new community that was the Church. Ultimately, this has led to the point that we have reached relatively recently in the Church of England of ordaining women as priests and bishops.

We know that within the Church and wider society, including the City of London, gender equality and full equality across the diversity agenda is still to be fully realised. Here at St Stephen Walbrook we have held two events recently regarding gender diversity; a meeting of Women and the Church regarding the ongoing campaign for gender justice in the Church of England and ‘Women in the City’ an event which highlighted women’s involvement in the civic, cultural, charitable and social opportunities in the City of London and argued that gender balance on boards encourages better leadership and governance. At St Stephen Walbrook, we wish to work more fully with a range of organisations in the City to celebrate and encourage greater diversity.

In Christ’s Church and kingdom there should be no gender divide in how we serve and follow him. So, like Martha, each of us (male and female) can practice and value the ministries of welcome, hospitality and service of all and, like Mary, each of us (female and male) can practice and value making Jesus the central focus of our lives and learning as his disciples.

Prayer

Fathering and mothering God, you have given all peoples one common origin. It is your will that they be gathered together as one family in yourself. Fill the hearts of humankind with the fire of your love and with the desire to ensure justice for all. By sharing the good things you give us, may we secure an equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. May there be an end to division, strife and war. May there be a dawning of a truly human society built on love and peace.

May we choose the better part and sit at your feet as your disciple.

Loving God, you hold us in your hands for we are all made in your image. Help us to celebrate our differences. Help us to use our diversity to share with each other the richness of our many cultures, languages and backgrounds. Challenge us again lest we wither and perish, by holding to the familiar when it has lost its savour. Help us to dissolve the barriers of difference and work for a just society in which none are despised and discriminated against on the basis of false divisions and in which each is valued for their true humanity.

May we choose the better part and sit at your feet as your disciple.

Living God, we pray for your holy people and for the Church. We ask that every member may be freed to serve you in truth and grace. You have visited us through women who have been filled with your Spirit. You have blessed us all with dreams for a common future and gifts for a common life, in all things keep us faithful to the message of your gospel, that as women and men we may together bear witness to your love in Christ Jesus. As your daughters and sons, may we be brought nearer to a new vision of your love.

May we choose the better part and sit at your feet as your disciple.

Blessing

Sharing the good things you give us, dissolving barriers of difference, securing equality, working for a just society, serving you in truth and grace, sitting at your feet as your disciple. May all those blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Eric Whitacre - Five Hebrew Love Songs.

Church: unlikely people living, serving and leading in counter-cultural ways

This morning I preached at St John the Divine in Richmond, an Early Gothic Revival church with a marvellous early twentieth century Arts & Crafts reordering.

In 1905, Arthur Grove extended the church by adding the sanctuary and Lady Chapel. Together with friends from the Arts and Crafts Movement (including Eric Gill and N.H.J. Westlake) he created an harmonious extension. In 1921, a large blue and gold cross, carved by a nun from one of the London convents, was hung and in the 1960s the Stations of the Cross were carved by Freda Skinner, a pupil of Henry Moore, based on the Stations by Eric Gill in Westminster Cathedral. Eric Gill’s own work in the church can be seen in the stone carving over the sacristy door and on the triptych. The triptych behind the altar was completed in 1908 by N.H.J. Westlake who also painted the sanctuary ceiling which illustrates passages from the Book of the Revelation, chapter 14.

The sermon I preached was as follows:

Maude Royden, Elsie Chamberlain, Isabella Gilmore, Betty Ridley, Una Kroll, Christian Howard, Monica Furlong, Joyce Bennett, Florence Li Tim-Oi, Constance Coltman, Margaret Webster.

I wonder how of these names you recognise? I originally found out about these women through the website of Women and the Church (or WATCH) who point out that, though they were all icons in the campaign to get women ordained, as with many women’s lives, they are in the ‘hidden gallery’ of history.

To give you a very brief flavour of some of their stories: Elsie Chamberlain was the first female full chaplain in the RAF; Una Kroll famously shouted, ‘We asked for bread and you gave us a stone’ (a reference to Matthew 7:7-11) when in 1978 the General Synod refused to allow women to be ordained, creating the momentum for the Movement for the Ordination of Women to be formed; and Florence Li Tim-Oi was the first female Anglican priest, ordained during the war to serve behind Japanese lines in China. Since beginning my ministry at St Martin-in-the-Fields, I have discovered more about the ministries of Joyce Bennett and Florence Li-Tim-Oi, in particular, because of their connections with that church.

WATCH argue that, although women have been a majority in the church, their ministries have mostly been hidden in the background, carrying out children’s work, making tea, cleaning, in the office, caring for neighbours, letting the vicar know when someone needs a visit. In other words, fulfilling the sort of role that Martha seems to have played in the Gospel reading (Luke 10. 38 – end) we have heard today.

Martha opened her home to Jesus and his disciples. Providing hospitality and welcome to strangers was of vital importance within Judaism and in Middle Eastern culture generally. The rabbis taught that Abraham left off a discussion with God and went to greet guests when they arrived at his camp in today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis 18.1-10a). He ran to greet them during the hottest day on record and served them the best food he could put together. Based on this example, the rabbis say that taking care of guests is greater than receiving the divine presence.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him to come to towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, he told them to look out for and stay with those, like Martha, who would welcome them (Luke 10). So, Jesus’ words to Martha are not intended as a denigration of the role she is fulfilling, which has a vital place in Middle Eastern culture, but point instead to an alternative role which has eventually led to the point that we have reached relatively recently in the Church of England of ordaining women as priests and bishops.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. That was the usual posture of a disciple of any teacher in the ancient world. But disciples were usually male, so Mary would have been quietly breaking the rule that reserved study for males, not females. Martha was possibly not merely asking for help but demanding that Mary keep to the traditional way of behaving. Jesus, though, affirmed Mary in the place and role of a disciple: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus refused to be sidetracked by issues of gender when faced with women in any kind of need and consistently put people before dogma. Luke’s Gospel not only reports that Jesus had female disciples, but specifically names them in Luke 8. 1-3. Throughout his Gospel, Luke pays particular and positive attention to the role of women; presenting women, not only as witnesses to the events surrounding the birth and resurrection of Jesus, but also as active participants in God's Messianic purposes.

This counter-balance to the patriarchy of the time was necessary in order to signal the value of both women and men in God's plan of salvation and their equal importance in the new community that was the Church. The Epistle (Colossians 1. 15-28) also emphasizes this for us through its claim that all things in heaven and on earth were created through Jesus and for Jesus and that, as he is the head of the body, the church, in him all things hold together. All things means all of us; whatever our differences of gender, race, disability, sexuality or religion. Christ holds all together in his body, the Church; meaning that, while we all have a different parts to play, we are all equally valued and necessary if Christ’s body, the Church, is to function as he intends and reveal him as he really is.

The Church of England has made significant recent progress in this respect in relation to gender equality, with women now increasingly taking their place alongside men as bishops and at every level in the Church of England. Those women named on the WATCH website played key roles in the early stages of the journey that has led to this point. This was recently reinforced for me, as I had the opportunity to attend with others from the congregation at St Martin’s, the consecration at Canterbury Cathedral of Jo Bailey-Wells as Bishop of Dorking and then, that same evening, host at St Stephen Walbrook an ‘At Home’ for WATCH during which our curate, Sally Muggeridge, celebrated her first Eucharist while also becoming the first woman to celebrate the Eucharist in that church.

While the Church of England has made significant recent progress in relation to gender equality, there is much further to go in relation to other aspects of diversity as the conversations at General Synod this week regarding sexuality and disability indicate.

In a debate at Synod on Nurturing Senior Leaders in the Church of England, Revd Zoe Heming spoke about the Church as the bride of Christ. She spoke of Christ as “the one who rode into Jerusalem on a ridiculous, baby donkey, yet eclipsed the Roman horses and chariots and their victory parades.” By contrast, though, she expressed immense frustration that the Church, Christ’s Bride, continues to look so very different to her Groom, when it comes to nurturing the vocations of disabled people.

“The essential characteristic of our church,” she said, “must be of unlikely people living, serving and leading in counter-cultural ways, where the weakest are not tolerated, pitied or accommodated but prized, cherished & followed. This needs to be deliberate and visible for all to see - and maybe even mock, as some undoubtedly will have done, that day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on his donkey.”

Whether we use the metaphor of the Church as the bride of Christ or as the body of Christ, we are called to model our lives and actions on Christ. In our Gospel reading, we see Jesus holding together sisters who have become frustrated with each other’s choices. He affirms the different ministries which both have as, although his response to Martha can appear critical, he has already received and welcomed her ministry but wants to also affirm that of Mary as well. Similarly, we, like Martha, can practice and value the ministries of welcome, hospitality and service of all and, like Mary, can practice and value making Jesus the central focus of our lives and learning. While our focus today has been on the ministry of women, this is as inspiration to us all to work towards and work within the full equality of all within the body of Christ, the Church.

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Jonathan Dove - The Three Kings.

Sally Muggeridge - Priesting

Sally Muggeridge, curate at St Stephen Walbrook who was profiled in Thursday's Financial Times, was priested at St James's Sussex Gardens this afternoon along with five other of her priestly colleagues. The Service was splendid with excellent music and was led by The Rt Revd Nigel Stock, Bishop at Lambeth.

The FT profile noted: "Throughout her career, Revd Muggeridge has been a vocal advocate of increasing the role of women in business and the church. At Pearson, she was head of diversity and in 2010 became the first woman to be appointed to the board of Total, the French energy group."

Accordingly, as part of her ministry at St Stephen Walbrook, Sally is currently organising our 'Women in the City of London - More than just a place of work' event on Tuesday 12th July from 6.30pm. This is an evening which will highlight the civic, cultural, charitable and social opportunities in the City of London, including networks as a route to fuller participation. We also look forward to welcoming WATCH (London) to St Stephen Walbrook for their At Home this Wednesday.  

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Joseph Haydn - Missa Sancti Nicolai.

Women and the Church

Maude Royden, Elsie Chamberlain, Isabella Gilmore, Betty Ridley, Una Kroll, Christian Howard, Monica Furlong, Joyce Bennett, Florence Li Tim-Oi, Constance Coltman, Margaret Webster.

Have you heard of any of them? I found out about these women through the website of Women and the Church (or WATCH) who point out that though they were all icons in the campaign to get women ordained, as with many women’s lives, they are in the ‘hidden gallery’ of history.

To give you a very brief flavour of some of their stories: "Elsie Chamberlain was the first female full chaplain in the RAF; Una Kroll famously shouted, ‘We asked for bread and you gave us a stone’ (a reference to Matthew 7. 7-11) when in 1978 the General Synod refused to allow women to be ordained, creating the momentum for the Movement for the Ordination of Women to be formed; and Florence Li Tim-Oi was the first female Anglican priest, ordained during the war to serve behind Japanese lines in China."

WATCH argue that, although women have been a majority in the church, they have mostly been hidden in the background, carrying out children’s work, making tea, cleaning, in the office, caring for neighbours, letting the vicar know when someone needs a visit. In other words, fulfilling the sort of role that Martha was playing in our Gospel reading (Luke 10. 38-end) today.

Martha opened her home to Jesus and his disciples. Providing hospitality and welcome to strangers was of vital importance within Judaism and in Middle Eastern culture generally. The rabbis taught that Abraham left off a discussion with God and went to greet guests when they arrived at his camp. He ran to greet them during the hottest day on record and served them the best food he could put together. Based on this example, the rabbis say that taking care of guests is greater then receiving the divine presence.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him to come to towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, he told them to look out for and stay with those, like Martha, who would welcome them. So, Jesus’ words to Martha are not a denigration of the role she is fulfilling, which has a vital place in Middle Eastern culture, but point instead to an alternative role which has led to the point that we have currently reached in the Church of England of seeking to ordain women, not just as priests, but as bishops.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. This was the usual posture of a disciple of any teacher in the ancient world. But disciples were usually male, so Mary would have been quietly breaking the rule that reserved study for males, not females. Martha was possibly not merely asking for help but demanding that Mary keep to the traditional way of behaving. Jesus, though, affirms Mary in the place and role of a disciple: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus refused to be sidetracked by issues of gender when faced with women in any kind of need and consistently puts people before dogma. Luke’s Gospel not only reports that Jesus had female disciples, but specifically names them in Luke 8. 1-3. Throughout his Gospel Luke pays particular and positive attention to the role of women presenting women, not only as witnesses to the events surrounding the birth and resurrection of Jesus, but also as active participants in God's Messianic purposes.

This sense of the equality of men and women in God's plan of salvation and their equal importance in the new community that was the Church, has inspired women throughout Church history to active service of our Lord and to leadership roles within his Church. Including the many women whose ministries we celebrate and remember in relation to the history of St Margaret's Barking.

The example of commitment to Christ, despite mockery, torture, and martyrdom, which is found in the story of St Margaret of Antioch led to her becoming one of the most popular saints among the laity in medieval England with more than 250 churches dedicated to her. Many churches housed side altars or images of St Margaret and had guilds dedicated to her. Her story also became one of the most common subjects for wall paintings in England.

St Ethelburga was the first Abbess of Barking Abbey and epitomises a strong woman who exemplifies the virtues of committed social action and self-sacrifice. She is especially noted for her heroic conduct in caring for the sick during an outbreak of the plague in 664 which eventually killed her and most of her community. During this time she is said to have had a vision of a light "brighter than the sun at noonday" which inspired her and her community to works of great compassion in caring for others. The Venerable Bede wrote of her: "her life is known to have been such that no person who knew her ought to question but that the heavenly kingdom was opened to her, when she departed this world."

We can rightly add to that list, of inspiring women associated with this church, Pat Nappin; who was the first woman Honorary Secretary of the Central Reader’s Council of the Church of England appointed in recognition of her vision and commitment which enabled her to see through a number of significant developments in Reader ministry.

These, and other women (including those named by WATCH), are examples to all of us of what real commitment to Christ entails and involves. This is particularly so because current campaign to see women take their place alongside men as bishops and at every level in the Church of England is not about women gaining an ascendency which men have had in the past but, instead, is about the full equality of women and men in the Church as part of God's will for his people, and as a reflection of the inclusive heart of the Christian scripture and tradition.

Mary shows all of us the importance of making Jesus the central focus of our life and learning. Martha shows us all the value of welcome, hospitality and service. Margaret, the ability to remain true to Jesus despite great opposition and personal suffering. Ethelburga, the inspiration of sacrificial leadership in times of crisis and need. Pat, of the vision needed to bring about significant change and development.

The ministries of each one of us can be enhanced by reflecting on the examples that each one provides and through that the recognition that the saints are not special, super-human people but: sisters, like Martha and Mary, who become frustrated with each other’s choices; a daughter, like Margaret, in conflict with her father; a sister, like Ethelburga, given prominence as a result of family favours; and a Reader with a national role, like Pat, who continues to immerse herself in local ministry.

What we see through their lives and examples is that each one of us are saints; whatever our gender and ministry, its prominence or hiddenness. The only saints to feature in the New Testament are each and every member of local church. The saints are simply those who are church members whether in Ephesus, in Jerusalem, in Rome, or wherever including, today, those of you here in Barking.

A Patronal Festival is a time to reflect on the example of the Patron Saint of this church but only as inspiration to live as saints ourselves. Current developments in the Church of England, our Gospel reading for today, and the significant ministries exercised by women associated with this church have all led to my focus today on the ministry of women but, again, only as a inspiration to us all to work towards and work within the full equality of women and men in the Church that sees us all as being saints.

So, to you the saints in Barking, the faithful in Christ Jesus: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

(Sermon preached at St Margaret's Barking for the Festival of St Margaret).

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Laurent Mignard Duke Orchestra - Something 'bout believing.