Institution of Charlotte Allen at St Mary’s, Portchester

13^th June 2007

Readings: 2 Cor 3:4-11/Mt 5:17-20

Thursday morning is Hospital Clinic day for me, so tomorrow will find me at the Royal South Hants Hospital, in Southampton. Before I see the Consultant, I will have been to the blood nurse, following the same old routine I’ve got used to over recent months: undo the right shirt sleeve, roll it up, and be ready for the needle to go into the vein, before three small vials fill up with blood. Sometimes the number is more than three, seldom less. I have to say that before this illness started, I would have been a shrivelled wreck, lying on the floor at the very thought of a needle being stuck into me. But I sit back now, let it all happen, and even watch the needle being moved around to find the vein on those occasions when it’s a bit elusive. There’s a hidden message there for any new priest, and any congregation welcoming a new priest - we never quite know what we’re signing up for!

But let me go back to those vials of blood. Over a couple of hours, they are processed in a laboratory, and the results are put up on the computer. It’s really amazing how much information can be contained in so little fluid, such as how the kidney and the liver are doing, what the overall blood ‘count’ is, and – for my present illness – the all-important figure of what are called the neutrophils – those blood-cells whose job it is to fight infection. Tomorrow’s blood-test, like any other at the moment, is about providing an overall picture of how the whole body is functioning, and which bits are weaker, or stronger, than others.

It is a partial picture, of course, and not the whole scene. You could say that the Parish Profile that a congregation puts together when seeking a new priest is a bit of a blood-test, too, an overall signal of what the parish thinks it’s like and wants to be. But things can get a bit out of hand. I sometimes look with horror, not so much at the profiles, but at what some parishes (not this one!) put into an advertisement. What they sometimes appear to desire is the Archangel Gabriel, aged 35, with 2.5 children, who will be a visionary leader, effective manager, superb with the young, empowerer of everything in sight, but no upsetter of the elderly, and a bit of journalistic experience would be good to revive the parish magazine, and preferably not too much theology, please, because we’re really a ‘down-to-earth’ (whatever that is) kind of community! I exaggerate, but to make a point. But on an occasion like tonight, the community is both nervous and stimulated by the expectation of something new, and that is quite understandable. Nevertheless, into the parish profile went a great deal of thought and prayer. It probably contains some kind of analysis of the present, that comes right from the veins of the parish. But it will also contain some hopes, some pointers to the future, rather like what the consultant says they think can be done do once those tests have come through!

But, as any sensible doctor, priest or bishop would say, we’re dealing with art, not science. Human beings are not machines. They do not respond in a pre-programmed way to what is given them, for all that some peoples’ reactions to certain things can become (shall we say) a bit predictable. Were your new priest to dance a hand-stand during the first Sunday sermon, the Churchwardens could probably tell who would write angry letters, perhaps to me, protesting that the Church of England is going irretrievably down the plughole, because worship isn’t exactly as it was five hundred years ago! Christian ministry is, indeed, more of an art than a science. It requires some of the exactness of the blood-test, provided that we know roughly what we’re looking for, and are ready for surprises, welcome and less welcome. But it also requires the skill and the detachment of the Consultant, the priest, the archdeacon, the bishop – who, for all that we live in a Church in which everything is debated and authority is (rightly and properly) challenged, may have some insights to give.

Whenever I drive through Portchester, or look across at Portchester from the Motorway, or look down on Portchester from Portsdown Hill, I am always struck by the mixture of history and the present-day that hits me in the face. Legend has it that St Birinus, missionary to this part of England, sailed past the old Roman castle in 635, on his way to Fareham Creek. He disembarked in order to take the gospel, not as far as Mercia and the Midlands (we never travel as far as we want in the business of the Gospel!) but up the Meon valley and beyond to Dorchester. There’s a window in Titchfield Church that (we’re told) dates from about 50 years after Birinus’ mission.

For you, here in Portchester, your history is this ancient building, one of the most stunning Romanesque Churches of the diocese. I know what ancient buildings can be like for a parish community – adored (perhaps too much) by some, and inwardly resented (just a little bit) by others. But it’s the base history has given you, and perhaps mission here is how to relate to this building, how to understand its contours, its shape, its potential better. After all, buildings are like people – they don’t benefit from adoration all the time, or negativity; but they do flourish on love, when combined with understanding, and fresh perspectives. A new priest may well help that process. It may not be an easy business to see what is so familiar to you (perhaps too familiar?) in a new light. I remember a former colleague transforming the worship offered in a church from a similar era by getting the congregation to use it more flexibly, more imaginatively, using the spaces more effectively with some movement. I can still see the expressions on the faces of people who said they thought they knew their building so well, but they realised that old buildings can have their own share of surprises.

Which brings me to this evening’s readings. Paul tells the Corinthians that their ‘competence’ (‘sufficiency’ in the old translation, ‘ability’ in the Greek) is from God. Jesus then tells his large, mountainside congregation that he has not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it. There is a truth here that might apply to the start of a new ministry. Charlie Allen is more than a young incumbent who is a woman: so please don’t fall into the trap of patronising her with that kind of stereotyping! She knows that all that she can bring comes from the strength that only God gives, and that is her prayer right now, like any other new priest. She also knows that she has not come to abolish what has gone before, but to help fulfil it. No sane Christian ministry can negate its inheritance. A new Christian ministry is about fulfilment, about development, about growth, – and not stagnation, atrophy, nostalgia.

But there’s a much deeper question of each one of us. I think it is about ensuring that we tip the balance of our life together in the faith in the direction of the person of Christ, and not some modern, intolerant, judgemental version of the Jewish ‘Law’ that Jesus would confront in exactly the same way as he does in the Sermon on the Mount, and which St Paul would have found equally inadequate when writing to the Christians of Corinth. There are always going to be superficial alternatives to Christianity that can make us feel very comfortable, placing us always on the high moral ground, looking smugly down on the world, perhaps also glancing at other Christians who do not quite make the grade. The Gospel is not about gathering new-style Pharisees, well-organised, articulate, always ready with a convincing answer. The Gospel is about a collection of forgiven sinners, living thankful lives. My own experience of serious illness has brought me face to face with human fragility in a way I’ve never known before (such as loss of self-confidence), and one of the results is that I find myself less able as time goes on to trust some of the harder certainties that can sometimes travel by the name of faith.

So, St Mary’s, Portchester, we wish you good luck in the name of the Lord! Quite what your next spiritual blood-test will be like, the balance of ingredients, the weaknesses and strengths, is up to the Holy Spirit. Whatever the future holds, may the Lord bless you all in your endeavours for His Kingdom, now and for ever!

+ Kenneth Portsmouth: