State of the Parish Address, Pentecost
George Herbert’s poem for Whitsun begins:
Listen sweet Dove unto my song,
And spread thy golden wings in me;
Hatching my tender heart so long,
Till it get wing, and flie away with thee.
Where is that fire which once descended
On thy Apostles? thou didst then
Keep open house, richly attended,
Feasting all comers by twelve chosen men.
Whitsun, aka Pentecost, tweely referred to as birthday of the church. The Holy Spirit descends and the disciples are upgraded to apostles – from ‘following’ to being ‘sent’, it’s a sort of graduation. And the Spirit specifically comes in the gift of tongues – languages – so that the Gospel can be taken to all nations. But as well as the birthday of the church, it’s also the birthday of the Church of England. The Book of Common Prayer was brought into use on this feast in 1549, 472 years ago, the first time English had ever been used liturgically in the Christian church. And it was no accident it was on Whitsun – as English became one of the gifted tongues and Latin, the universal language – a sort of old-fashioned Esperanto –was outlawed. In Herbert’s eyes the gift of the Spirit was enough to make earth seem like heaven. His complaint is that the Spirit received by the apostles is too little seen today:
Such glorious gifts thou didst bestow,
That th’ earth did like a heav’n appeare;
The starres were coming down to know
If they might mend their wages, and serve here.
Thou shutt’st the doore, and keep’st within;
Scarce a good joy creeps through the chink:
And if the braves of conqu’ring sinne
Did not excite thee, we should wholly sink.
Inspiration comes and goes in the church. Traditionally this is the time for fetes and Morris dancing, so not all inspiration is either divine or wanted. On the other hand, it’s at Pentecost that the knights of the Round Table saw a vision of the Holy Grail – and so began the great quest to restore the spiritual life of the realm.
2020 was a year of sickness, of fear, of death. It will become a year of reference – like 2001 – the year of 9/11, Like 1989, (the fall of the Berlin Wall and birth of Taylor Swift), 1963, 1945. But unlike many celebrity years, the effects were personal, felt everywhere, and the ability to make a difference was local; People talk about community all the time – so much that it usually means nothing. But for a good part of 2020 you probably had a much better idea about whether you belonged to a community, or not.
The year for the church started well. 2019 was a year of plenty – Sunday attendance was up 30% and our income had increased by £35,000. Year on year, the first quarter saw an increase in the Sunday congregation of 20%. I was installed as vicar and there was a “social occasion”. You hardly need to be reminded how the year turned. One moment Nick was playing an organ recital with an orange, and within two days, just before Mothering Sunday, the church was shut and the world made strange.
If Pentecost is the sending out of the Spirit to take the church into the world, in streaming our worship has taken up a new language. I know of churches that have deliberately not invested in streaming for fear that people will not return to church. What was immediately apparent to me, was that streaming immediately took church to people who had been excluded. If streaming enables even one person to reconnect to our community, who through ill health, distance or being housebound has been excluded, it’s worth the cost. A church that doesn’t stream cannot call itself inclusive. And it’s worth remembering that it’s only in 2020 that the sound system was installed which has done so much for improving the accessibility of our church. Given that the sound system was already being installed we were able though generous donations to put in a first-rate streaming system, and the quality of our services exceeds anything I have seen in other churches. And for all the difficulty and stress, and I’m thinking as much of everyone who had to sign up to Facebook and navigate social media in order to connect, But for all the difficulty I look back on those services streamed from homes across the country, and the zoom chats, with a sort of fondness. I think everyone learned something through that first lockdown.
But the most enduring development for the church was in the streaming of morning and evening prayer. Many told me they enjoyed having them as a structuring point in interminable days. With time it’s developed into an ongoing community of prayer. More people are leading services and it’s given new momentum to the spiritual life of St Margaret’s: We’re no longer a church that prays together weekly. St Margaret’s genuinely comes together to pray daily. Even if you’ve no time in the week, I hope you draw strength from the fact that every day people are coming together to pray for you and our community.
Our Sunday services have seen total disruption. Many taken for granted elements – hymns, the chalice, sharing the peace, Sunday School, coffee – often the things we look forward to most in coming to church – are long gone and even now it’s not clear when things will return. Other elements like facemasks and social distancing are very damaging to the pastoral and fellowship aspects of church. We have been treated, however, to some of the best singers in the country. And while the spirituality of our services has changed, and I especially lament the loss of hymns, I think there have been some extraordinary moments in the last year in which, despite the constraints, our souls have been lifted. People pray in many different ways. Having a focus, however, is helpful and making things clear and easy for people is how to be inclusive. John Marston’s cross sat behind Mark Steward’s garden became a focus and meeting point for people outside the church, while Gil’s votive candle stand has become an essential part of the daily ministry of the church. There is never a day when at least a couple of candles are lit, and it’s wonderful to have developed this space in the church which was hitherto left unnoticed.
The pandemic most directly required a response in our pastoral care for one another and the wider community. I was able to gather a tremendous community of volunteers almost immediately, numbering over 100, and we set about meeting the needs of those isolating, who called from our leaflets or were referred to us by GPs, Age UK, Wandsworth Hub and other charities who had heard about our work. For the most part the volunteers were not church-attenders, and these formed the initial group to deliver our soup and cake run, which last week drew to a close. There’s something very Anglican about a church organising volunteers from the community who minister to all who have need. One of my favourite reports from the year was from Anne, our Reader who was delighted to have soup handed to her from a young woman she’d never met telling her she was ‘from the church’! The other comment that sticks in my head is a volunteer delivering soup and cake who had gone back to work, but still delivered because it was the favourite part of her week. When charity is working well, it’s a blessing to everyone.
So many have been involved in care – from pastoral calling to deliveries. We operated a foodbank when the local foodbank closed and the generosity was inspiring. We have supported Regenerate-Rise, the Scrubberies bags of treats for hospital workers, made a tremendous effort with Rackets Cubed to send 140 Christmas hampers to struggling households in Roehampton; continued as best we could with Glass Door, and raised a huge amount of money for them; and much more besides, with individuals stepping up to support in myriad ways through their own gifts. All through this we’ve been helping households suffering for all sorts of reasons, but most notably bereavements – and the attendant difficulties of not being able to say goodbye, or attend funerals, which tripled in 2020 to 44. It’s perhaps fitting for the year that liturgically and musically the most involved service was the All Souls’ Requiem – a beautiful moment to remember those we love before the November lock down closed churches again.
Much of our ministry has been depleted – supporting schools and Ashmead care home has been very difficult – with only videos and zoom calls. Likewise with the limits on socialising, the Community Development Team has had little opportunity – though the Advent walk was a great success. Our plans for the garden have taken a push-back. A positive impact of this has been that a volunteer task force led by Andrew Gairdner has stepped in to make interim improvements. So while the major works which have long been needed, especially replacement fencing, are still on hold, the garden is already visibly improved, and with the new signage designed by Laura, making good strides. Alongside this we’re continuing to take forward the eco-church agenda, which is given the highest priority by the deanery and diocese, and have a small group to do some significant work, not only around the garden, limiting waste, and spirituality and education, but also looking at how we use and generate energy.
Finally, we should recognise as a church that we have made a considerable impact on the life of the arts in the past year. We now have a reputation as a place for rehearsal, recital and recording, and with our excellent acoustic and quiet location are proving very popular. Our very open and positive outlook has given us a reputation as a generous and friendly church, which will benefit everyone, bringing in some exciting music with a stream of revenue, boosting the arts and supporting musicians through a very difficult time.
St Margaret’s has changed. Shifts in congregation, in the style of our worship, reflecting the limitations of the pandemic, in the need that we are aware of, in the opportunities that are presenting themselves. Moving forward I have 4 key areas where I’m looking to develop our mission.
Firstly, we need to remain focussed on our Sunday worship as our core business. This will change under regulations, but I want to continue to think about how we develop our choir and music. It’s vital we remain connected with our children as they move through Sunday school and so we will begin to look at creating a children’s choir and integrating children into our serving team. Having moved the altar forward we also need to extend our current lighting, and having replaced the choir’s robes we’re now researching vestments.
Children are the second area of development. As well as serving and singing, we will continue to review Sunday School, looking to recruit more volunteers and consider what materials we are using and whether we can be bolder in our activities and events.
The Garden and Eco-Church are the third area. Ultimately we’re looking at resurfacing, replacing the fencing and creating a ramp for access to the side of church. There are further developments to connect with children, education and the spirituality of outdoor space. We currently have a bronze award and my aim is to have achieved silver by 2022.
The final area is to establish St Margaret’s as a Centre of Music and the Arts. In 2020 we have successfully established a weekly recital series. Nick has composed a Mass Setting and we’ve premiered several contemporary pieces, including last year’s Requiem. We’re used more and more by professional and amateur groups, but we’re now thinking through some more ambitious projects that could bring new connections.
With these four areas of development there is also a need to develop our space. We have good resources here but with some investment we can make better use of what we have. To this end we are beginning to look at whether we can join the church and halls, creating separate access to the halls, which would immediately increase revenue. Alongside this safer access to the crypt would open-up more space, and having access to more toilets in church is essential for the use of the church we’re now seeing. Such a project will take time but some ground work has already been done by a previous generation, and now is the time to start thinking ambitiously and positively about the future.
I have more things to say but you cannot bear them now.
They say that the time to invest is when there’s blood on the floor. Our nation, our community, has been pressed as never before in the last year. Some would shrink back and lick their wounds. I do not believe this has ever been the advice of the Spirit.
We have connected more, worked harder and accomplished some quite special things in recent months. There is a Spirit, an energy, here that is recognised in our community, and in the Church. Now is the time to prophesy, to see visions, to dream dreams. Now is the Lord’s great and glorious day. When St Francis asked the Lord what to do with his life the Lord spoke openly: ‘Francis, go and rebuild my church, which as you see is falling down.’ Let us set to this task in this place. Let us pray for the strength and the vision to accomplish these things.
Lord, though we change, thou art the same;
The same sweet God of love and light:
Restore this day, for thy great name,
Unto his ancient and miraculous right.