大象传媒

Please note:

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

It鈥檚 ten past eight. This morning鈥檚 Sunday Worship, the second in an Advent Series, 鈥楲earning to See鈥�, comes from Brentwood Cathedral in Essex, It鈥檚 an ecumenical service introduced by the Cathedral Dean, Father Martin Boland, and begins with James MacMillan鈥檚 advent anthem, O Radiant Dawn.

Choir聽O radiant dawn 鈥� James MacMillan (1st section)

Welcome and Introduction

Good morning. We often associate the season of Advent with the prophet John the Baptist, who called people to prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This morning, we warmly welcome you as we celebrate two contemporary prophets of mercy: Brother Roger of Taiz茅 the 75th anniversary of the founding of his Taize community we celebrate this year, and Pope Francis, whose proclamation of a year long Jubilee of Mercy beginning this Advent has so impacted Christian communities across the world. Each in his own way, calls us to prepare in the ordinary circumstances of our lives for that time when Jesus Christ will return again and all of creation will be taken up into Him.

Brother Roger鈥檚 vision was of 鈥渁 community where heartfelt kindness and simplicity would be at the center of everything.鈥� If such a vision were to be more than mere words and pious sentiment, then any community would need to be ecumenical in its practice and commitment. It is with this in mind that this service is jointly led by myself and the Dean of Chelmsford Anglican Cathedral, the Reverend Nicholas Henshall, a coming together with our respective communities to bear witness to Brother Roger鈥檚 vision of biblical community expressed in love and cooperation between Christians of different denominations.

Both Brother Roger and Pope Francis, give prophetic voice to the fact that God is always waiting for us, that His Mercy makes us more aware that we are children of God, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, and that we will be more credible Christian witnesses if we, too, become prophetic heralds of God鈥檚 mercy.

Let us pray.

We come to you, O Lord, Father of all mercies,
in order that we may abandon ourselves more fully to your Divine mercy.
Inspire us by the witness of your faithful servants,
Brother Roger and Pope Francis,
so that through them, we may appreciate more fully your loving-kindness
and to be given the courage to live this in community with our Christian brothers and sisters of every tradition and all men and women who seek you with sincere hearts.
We ask you, during this Jubilee Year of Mercy,
to fill us with your graces so that we may enter through the Door of Life, Jesus Christ, your Son,
and begin to live more fully the new life of mercy
that He has made real to us through His coming to the earth.
We make this prayer, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our first hymn was written in the fourth century by St Ambrose, Come thou redeemer of the earth.

Hymn: Come thou redeemer of the earth

Penitential rite

As we prepare to celebrate the mystery of Christ鈥檚 love, let us acknowledge our failures and ask the Lord for pardon and strength.

Sung Kyrie (Taize)

May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
[After our first reading the Dean of Chelmsford Nicholas Henshall will speak about Brother Roger of Taize.]

Bible reading (Reader 1)

A reading from the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 55, beginning at the sixth verse.

Seek the Lord while the Lord may be found; call on God while God is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn back to the Lord, who will have mercy on them, to our God, who will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Music聽The truth from above 鈥� James Devor

Nicholas Henshall

This year, we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Brother Roger, who founded the Taiz茅 community. He had a profound intuition that people living together in community - mirroring the life of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit - could be a powerful and persuasive witness to God鈥檚 love in our world. (

Pre-recorded insert:
Reading: Brother Roger (actor)
Jesus Christ, Love of all loving, you were always in me and I did not know it. You were there, and I kept on forgetting you. You were in my heart of hearts and I was looking elsewhere. Even when I remained far from you, you kept on waiting for me. And the day is coming when I can tell you: Risen Christ, you are my life: I belong to Christ, I am Christ鈥檚.

Choir聽Wait for the Lord (Taize)

Nicholas Henshall

Brother Roger chose Taiz茅 because when he knocked on a door in the village he was welcomed in. Hospitality to the stranger was a key note from the beginning. The village was mostly deserted in 1940 鈥� the country ravaged by war and the men all away fighting or working. Roger came to France precisely because of the suffering: it seemed to him exactly the right place to begin a life of prayer and service. Indeed an early ministry was that of welcoming refugees and displaced persons 鈥� a ministry still core to Taiz茅 today. When I was on the hill at Taize this summer a house had just been made available to a newly arrived refugee family from the Middle East. Burgundy itself remains one of the most depopulated areas in western Europe.

I met Brother Roger nearly 30 years ago on my first visit to Taiz茅. We were a group of students, and found ourselves ushered through to the monastery after one of the prayer times, and sitting talking with Br Roger and some of the other brothers.

What I felt then is what I still feel now about the gift of Taiz茅, its promise and its purpose: its fundamental ordinariness. It is in so many ways an extraordinary place. But at heart it is all about 鈥渙rdinary Christianity鈥� 鈥� a group of people saying their prayers, building community and seeking to serve their neighbour. Not rocket science but the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Br Roger鈥檚 vision was founded in a profound understanding of Christian community. From his doctoral research on the Rule of St Benedict to the first community at Taiz茅, to the thriving monastery today and indeed in his very pragmatic practice of ecumenical Christianity. It was all rooted in his understanding of community, ordinary community, different people living, praying and serving together.

Br Roger was not a great preacher or writer; he was not in the academic sense a theologian or a systematic thinker. But he was a man who simply refused to recognise boundaries.聽 A Protestant pastor who received the Eucharist daily at a Catholic Mass. And the multi-lingual, trans-denominational monastic community epitomises those values today 鈥� an inclusive vision.

And he knew therefore that the community had to live in a very particular way, always pointing towards the other and the God they were there to serve. Hence the refusal of all financial donations and the insistence that the brothers live by the work of their hands.

And simply because we refer to Taiz茅 as an 鈥渆cumenical鈥� community, we mustn鈥檛 be misled into thinking of Roger as an ecclesiastical negotiator. The word 鈥渆cumenical鈥� actually means, after all, a concern for the whole inhabited world 鈥� and that was ultimately the unity that Roger and the community he founded sought to serve, particularly in the person of the outcast and the stranger. The church lives to serve that greater unity, and can even be a foretaste of it. Indeed that is the experience of so many who go on pilgrimage to Taiz茅 itself.
Brother Roger and the community he founded have embedded a simple yet powerful vocabulary of peace and trust. That extraordinary word 鈥渕ercy鈥� lies at the heart of it 鈥� a whole palette of words variously translated 鈥渓oving kindness鈥�, 鈥渃ompassion鈥�, 鈥渕ercy鈥�. The conviction that the God we know in Jesus meets us in our human frailty and heals us by his love.

This summer, during the week that marked the 10th anniversary of his death, the 100th anniversary of his birth and the 75th anniversary of the community, I was again sitting on the floor of the great Church of the Reconciliation, with about 3,000 fellow pilgrims, most of them less than half my age. Among them my eldest daughter encountering Taiz茅 for the first time in her 20s. Late into the night we chanted a new song for this special year 鈥� a special chant setting Brother Roger鈥檚 three-word interpretation of the Beatitudes. 鈥淛oy, simplicity and mercy鈥�. That鈥檚 what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Choir聽Heureux qui s鈥檃bandonne 脿 toi (Taize)

Prayers (1)

Nicholas Henshall: Let us pray:

Reader 1: For the ministry and mission of the Taiz茅 community: that its community life may always be deeply anchored in the mercy of Christ through prayer, worship and a special care for the poor and the hurting.

Reader 2: For all those, like Brother Roger and Pope Francis, who bear witness to the mercy of God: that they may live as fearless and joyful heralds of His loving-kindness to all men and women.

Choir: O Lord hear our prayer (Taize)
Fr Martin

This week, throughout the Catholic world and beyond, Pope Francis will formally open an extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. This time is for all people, men and women of all shades of belief and none, to come to know something of the transforming mercy of God, who calls us into a deeper relationship with him and makes us ambassadors of mercy that are sent to establish embassies of mercy for every man and woman. Pope Francis is convinced that in a world that can be so cold and unforgiving, God鈥檚 mercy has the power to thaw human hearts and restore life to dry bones so that they can sing.

Pre-recorded insert:
Reading: Pope Francis (Actor)
Mercy is the very foundation of the Church鈥檚 life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she makes present to believers; The Church鈥檚 very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love. Perhaps we have long since forgotten how to show and live the way of mercy. The temptation, on the one hand, to focus exclusively on justice made us forget that this is only the first, albeit necessary and indispensable step. On the other hand, sad to say, we must admit that the practice of mercy is waning in the wider culture. Without a witness to mercy, life becomes fruitless and sterile, as if sequestered in a barren desert. The time has come for the Church to take up the joyful call to mercy once more. It is time to return to the basics and to bear the weaknesses and struggles of our brothers and sisters. The Church鈥檚 first truth is the love of Christ. Wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.

Music: Like a sea without a shore

Homily (Fr Martin)

It is time to grow up. It鈥檚 time to see and understand God in a more complete light. Now is the moment to be merciful like our Heavenly Father. It is not enough to admire the concept of mercy from a safe distance, we have to take the risk of experiencing it and being it, up close and personal. We 鈥� the church - have to live it. This is the prophetic call of Pope Francis that will resound throughout the Jubilee year of Mercy which begins this coming Tuesday, just as it was the call of Brother Roger of Taize.

鈥淢ercy鈥�, says Pope Francis, 鈥渋s the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.鈥� We are now just weeks away from celebrating Christmas, the historical moment when God was made flesh in Jesus Christ. He is the living bridge that connects our earthly lives with the divine life of God. We are no longer left to wander alone on a distant, cold planet that is indifferent to our suffering and weakness. In the birth of Jesus, God does not watch his creatures from afar through a heavenly telescope, but rather he comes to us, making his home with us and embracing us in His arms of mercy.

For Pope Francis, 鈥渕ercy is the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life.鈥澛� To act mercifully is to see our brothers and sisters with a new clarity - no longer viewing them as weak, as failures or as scapegoats, or through the single lens of justice, but rather with the added lens of mercy. Mercy makes justice, binocular 鈥� we see with both eyes, full vision, recognising that all men and women are flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood.
I recently went to see an exhibition in London鈥檚 Jewish Museum called 鈥淏lood鈥�. It explored the idea of how blood, the physical substance and the symbol, has the power to bind people together and to divide them. In one room, there was a recording of voices reciting Shylock鈥檚 speech to his persecutors from Shakespeare鈥檚 The Merchant of Venice.

Pre-recorded insert:
Reading: The Merchant of Venice (Actor)
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed?

This is Shylock鈥檚 plea for mercy, his plea to be seen in a proper light and for his dignity to be recognised, a plea the Christian church has always needed to act upon, and has often lamentably failed to do. It is also a plea to awaken that fundamental law of mercy that exists frozen in the glacial hearts of his anti-Semitic persecutors. The quality of Mercy is one of the hallmarks that distinguishes humans from other animals and when we show mercy, we become more human, more alive to the fragility of our fellow human beings and to the loving kindness of God. The ability to show mercy to others 鈥� to the stranger, the enemy, the sinner, and in the case of Shylock, those who are our neighbours but quite simply different 鈥� is a sure sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It鈥檚 a sign of growing up.

鈥�
One of the great traditions of a Jubilee Year is to have a Holy Door. The door symbolises Jesus who opens wide his heart allowing us to pass through into communion with God. Crossing this threshold, symbolises our passing from sin to grace, slavery to freedom, darkness to light. St Peter鈥檚 Basilica in Rome has a very ancient and grand Holy Door, which Pope Francis will open this coming week. Our own Holy Door here at Brentwood Cathedral may be a more humble entrance, but its prophetic ambition is the same, calling people 鈥� all people with organs, dimensions, senses, passions, affections 鈥� to pass through into the presence of God.
But, of course, doors are only useful if they are open and we are welcomed in. Too many doors in the life of the Church are locked, accessible only on payment of an entrance fee or else to a handful of people who hold the secret entry code of a particular kind of life or set of beliefs or social status. It鈥檚 not surprising that so many people feel that they dare not darken our doors. It reminds me of J.K.Rowling鈥檚 description of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and The Philosopher鈥檚 Stone

Pre-recorded insert:
Reading: Harry Potter and The Philosopher鈥檚 Stone (actor)
Then there were doors that wouldn鈥檛 open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren鈥檛 really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending.

Pope Francis like some modern day Joshua is blowing his horn; and those 鈥渟olid walls just pretending鈥� are beginning to crack and crumble...leaving doors of mercy that are open to every man and woman. This is a mercy that is not abstract, opaque or general. This is a mercy that has a name: Jesus Christ. A mercy that comes to us in the reality and the concrete instances of our lives. A mercy that shines its light into the darkest cellars of the human condition and liberates men and women from all that degrades and threatens to destroy them. This is a mercy that makes us free men and women.

It is now:
Time to grow up.
Time to open wide the doors of mercy.
Time to encounter the beauty of our all merciful God.聽聽

Like Jesus, Mary, his mother is 鈥榝ull of grace,鈥� as this setting of the Ave Maria by the English composer Colin Mawby reminds us,

Music: Ave Maria 鈥� Colin Mawby

Prayers (2)

Fr Martin: Let us pray.

Reader 1: For the extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy: that we may open all that is shut and locked within us to receive God鈥檚 mercies and to share them with the men and women of our own age. And for all who believe in the God of mercy: that we may live in the awareness of God鈥檚 presence with us during this season of Advent and look to the future with childlike expectancy for the fulfilment of God鈥檚 promises.

Reader 2: For Peace, particularly in the Middle East: that God will guide all political leaders in the ways of justice and mercy and confound the actions of tyrants and terrorists alike.

Music: O Lord, hear my prayer

We pray in the words that Jesus taught us.

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. Amen.

Link to final hymn

Our final hymn is one of the earliest Christian songs of worship. It can be traced back to the fourth century. Let all mortal flesh keep silence.

Hymn: Let all mortal flesh keep silence

Blessing

May almighty God bless you,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Music (fade to continuity)聽聽Lord Jesus Christ (Taize)