St. Anne's, Soho - like any church or organisation - is difficult to sum up in a few words. We probably have as many views as we have members of the congregation... but if you want to hear some of the words which shape our particular voice then the sermons given by our clergy (and visiting clergy) are a good place to start.
Sermon preached by Father Jason Phillips for Saint Anne’s Patronal Festival, July 25th 2010.
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit Amen.
How wonderful to be back and what a blessing to be part of your patronal Festival St Anne’s Day! Since being here last I have been on the rollercoaster ride of ordination and now stand here as a priest and thanks be to God a priest that was Soho trained and has the enduring pulse of Soho racing through my veins and ministry.
This ordination journey especially in recent weeks has caused me to reflect upon one’s life journey and the people I have encountered along the way. Some of these people have had very clear and obvious with very public roles in my journey- others have had more background, quiet or even hidden roles but without whom my ordination journey would not be possible. These hidden people are rather like St Anne who in your window - hidden than not or in the New Testament not mentioned at all- yet without St Anne as the grandmother of Christ, there would no Christian story as we have received it. Hidden yet hugely significant.
On this patronal festival I’d like us to think about the people who have shaped our lives and especially those that have a gentle or muted presence yet whose impact has been hugely significant and to challenge you to be significant in the Christian story of others.
Just the other week I received my copy of
One of the first walks I had through
When I was a teenager I went to
Please Hear What I'm Not Saying
Don't be fooled by me.
Don't be fooled by the face I wear
For I wear a mask, a thousand masks,
Masks that I'm afraid to take off
And none of them is me.
Beneath lies confusion, and fear, and aloneness.
But I hide this. I don't want anybody to know it.
I panic at the thought of my weakness exposed.
That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,
to help me pretend,
to shield me from the glance that knows.
But such a glance is precisely my salvation,
my only hope, and I know it.
That is, if it is followed by acceptance,
If it is followed by love.
It's the only thing that can liberate me from myself
from my own self-built prison walls
It's the only thing that will assure me
of what I can't assure myself,
that I'm really worth something.
But I don't tell you this. I don't dare to. I'm afraid to.
I'm afraid you'll think less of me,
that you'll laugh, and your laugh would kill me.
I'm afraid that deep-down I'm nothing
and that you will see this and reject me.
I don't like hiding.
I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me
but you've got to help me.
You've got to hold out your hand
even when that's the last thing I seem to want.
Only you can wipe away from my eyes
the blank stare of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you're kind, and gentle, and encouraging,
each time you try to understand because you really care,
my heart begins to grow wings --
With your power to touch me into feeling
you can breathe life into me.
I want you to know that.
I want you to know how important you are to me,
how you can be a creator--an honest-to-God creator --
of the person that is me
if you choose to.
You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,
you alone can remove my mask,
if you choose to.
Please choose to.
Do not pass me by.
Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet.
By Charles C. Finn
There was a little girl who lived on a street right next to a cemetery. Her school was straight across, on the other side of the cemetery. That cemetery frightened all the children who lived on her street. In fact, they took great pains to avoid the cemetery, walking all the way around it to get to the school, and then all the way around it to come home.
But not so our little girl. Every morning she would just head straight through the cemetery, and at the end of the day she would walk back, straight through, to come home, usually whistling all the way.
An elderly neighbour looking from her window each day watched and wondered. One afternoon, she called the little girl over as she returned from school and said to her, “My little friend, I notice that every day, all the children on our road walk around the cemetery to go to school and back, but you just walk right through. How can you do that? Doesn’t it frighten you to walk so close to death?”
And the little girl replied, “No. I’m not frightened, because I know that I’m only passing through.”
We are only passing through this life and as our first reading says we need not fear as our God is with us. But a lot of people we encounter do live with fear because they know not of God and his promises and have not been treated with the love and care they deserve. We are called by Christ to live faithfully to follow his way. Living faithfully as Christian people has everything to do with how we pass through our daily lives. Living faithfully means always being connected with God as our ruler and guide and always with one another. Being Christian means that we recognize the image and likeness of Christ in everyone we meet. It is worth remembering as we pass through life that when we respond to those we meet we could be one of those anonymous, muted, incidental encounters that could have eternal significance in another’s life. You could lift the mask of that man or women you meet and liberate the life in them. Like Saint Anne you may be hidden in the Christian story but you could influence beyond measure the Christian story as it is received by those you meet.
The way we pass through life each day – the way we walk – matters. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and through those who have been called according to his purpose.
May the Lord bless you this Saint Anne’s Day and always, may you see the face of Christ in those you meet and may they see the face of Christ in you. Amen
Westminster Abbey 12 July 2009 - Fifth Sunday after Trinity - Evening Service 6.30 pm
Conducted by The Reverend Graeme Napier, Minor Canon of Westminster.
William III (1650–1702)
All stand as the Officiant enters. All remain standing for the Introduction.
All sing the Hymn:
Lord, while for all mankind we pray
of every clime and coast,
O hear us for our native land,
the land we love the most,
O guard our shores from every foe;
with peace our borders bless;
with prosperous times our cities crown,
our fields with plenteousness.
Unite us in the sacred love
of knowledge, truth, and thee;
and let our hills and valleys shout
the songs of liberty.
Lord of the nations, thus to thee
our country we commend;
be thou her refuge and her trust,
her everlasting Friend.
St Peter 242 NEH 491 NEH Alexander Reinagle (1799–1877) John Wreford (1800–81)
All sit for the Reading: from Joshua 1
All stand to say the Psalm:
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion: then were we like those who dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter: and our tongue with songs of joy. Then said they among the nations: ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’The Lord has indeed done great things for us: and therefore we rejoiced. Restore again our fortunes, O Lord: as the river beds of the desert. Those who sow in tears: shall reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed: will come back with shouts of joy, bearing their sheaves with them. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning is now and shall be for ever.Amen. Psalm 126
All sit for the Reading: Matthew 21: 1–17
All stand to say the Canticle:
A Song of the Heavenly City
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
By its light the nations shall walk, and the rulers of the earth shall bring their glory.
Its gates shall never be shut by day, nor shall there be any night; they shall bring into it the glory and honour of the nations.
I saw the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
And either side of the river stood the tree of life, yielding its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be there, and his servants shall worship him; and they shall see God’s face and his name shall be on their foreheads.
To the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might, for ever and ever. Amen.
All sit for the Address by The Reverend David Gilmore , Rector, St Anne’s, Soho.
All stand to sing the Hymn
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,
be thou ever with me, and I with thee, Lord;
be thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.
Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight,
be thou my whole armour, be thou my true might,
be thou my soul’s shelter, be thou my strong tower,
O raise thou me heavenward, great power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
be thou my inheritance now and always,
be thou and thou only the first in my heart,
O sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.
High King of heaven, thou heaven’s bright Sun,
O grant me its joys after vict’ry is won;
great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be thou my vision, O Ruler of all.
Slane 339 NEH Irish, c8th century, translated by Mary Byrne (1880–1931) traditional Irish melody and versified by Eleanor Hull (1860–1935)
All kneel or sit. The Reverend Peter Boyland, Assistant Curate, The Tove Benefice, leads the Prayers:
At the end of each petition there is said:
Lord, in your mercy;hear our prayer.
The prayers conclude with the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
All stand to sing the Hymn:
Thy kingdom come! on bended knee
the passing ages pray;
and faithful souls have yearned to see
on earth that kingdom’s day.
But the slow watches of the night
not less to God belong;
and for the everlasting right
the silent stars are strong.
And lo, already on the hills
the flags of dawn appear;
gird up your loins, ye prophet souls,
proclaim the day is near:
The day in whose clear-shining light
all wrong shall stand revealed,
when justice shall be throned in might,
and every hurt be healed;
When knowledge, hand in hand with peace,
shall walk the earth abroad:
the day of perfect righteousness,
the promised day of God.
Irish 500 NEH Frederick Hosmer (1840–1929) from Powell’s A Collection of Hymns, Dublin 1760
All remain standing for the Blessing. the Wreath-Laying
A wreath of orange lilies and Irish yew is laid upon the tomb of William III and Mary II, his Queen and Co-Monarch. If you wish to view their place of burial, please follow the Clergy to the South Aisle of the Lady Chapel. The remains of William and Mary rest in the vault beneath the Chapel.
As you pass over their remains, you may like to use this prayer silently:
Rest eternal grant unto them O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.
The clergy recite the Funeral Sentences and Psalms which were sung at the funeral of King William in March 1702.
The Organist improvises on traditional Irish melodies. Please be guided by the Honorary Stewards to leave the Abbey by the Great West Door.
A retiring collection will be taken. It will be divided equally between The Lord Mayor’s Charity: for dementia (improving the quality of life of those affected by dementia) and the work of the Abbey. If you are a UK tax payer and would like to take advantage of Gift Aid please ask for a Gift Aid envelope.
Hymns covered by Christian Copyright Licensing (Europe) Ltd are reproduced under CCL no 1040271 and MRL no1040288. Scripture Readings are from the New Revised Standard Version.