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Please note that this script is not exactly as broadcast but is indicative of the content of the service. There may be editing notes and some spelling or grammatical errors. The interviews have not been scripted.

Song: The Passion according to St. Matthew

Artist: Purcell Consort Of Voices/Choristers Of All Saints/Ian Partridge/Christopher Keyte/Grayston Burgess

Composer: Richard Davy/Traditional

Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd.

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Welcome to the palatial and historic Auckland Castle, located in Bishop Auckland in County Durham, one of the best-preserved Bishops’ Palaces in the whole of Europe. I’m Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham. This was the primary home of the Prince Bishops of Durham, my spiritual predecessors, from the twelfth century until just a few years ago and still where my office is based. The Prince Bishops’ greater political importance than other English bishops, lay in the fact that Durham, from the Middle Ages, acted as a buffer state between England and Scotland.Ìý The Bishop being awarded secular powers, with the responsibility for protecting English interests, in return for allegiance to the English crown. They were politically unstable times in these parts...with extreme violence and threat to life being visited on communities suddenly and unexpectedly. In this service of Worship, we’re continuing to remember those communities across our world today still suffering in this way, praying especially for a just resolution across the Holy Land and protection for the innocent and vulnerable.

ÌýThese buildings span a thousand years of history. They now are part of the Auckland Project which has brought new life and much needed employment both to the town and castle area.ÌýÌý

ÌýJust across the courtyard is a magnificent new building, taking the form of a medieval tithe barn and following the line of the original perimeter wall of the castle. Conceived as a sacred storehouse, this monolithic, pitched roof building was constructed using Cop Crag sandstone, local to the North East, the same as used at Durham Cathedral. Alongside the restored Scotland wing of the castle, this wonderful building houses the recently opened Faith Museum. Its first to devote itself entirely to the history of faith in these islands, the museum traces a path through 6,000 years, beginning in the Neolithic period and ending in our own time.Ìý

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Song: Come, Holy Ghost, Our Souls Inspire (Veni Creator)

Artist: Choir of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral

Composer: Plainsong/Cosin, John [1594-1672]

Fox Music Publishing

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Bishop Paul: (LOCATION: In St Peter’s Chapel) (DOOR OPENING WALKS IN): We begin our service in prayer, here in the historic St Peter’s Chapel...created from the medieval Banqueting Hall by Bishop John Cosin in 1660 following the destruction of the medieval Chapel during the Cromwellian period.ÌýÌýÌý

In our prayers this morning we bring before GodÌý the Holy Land and all the peoples of the Middle East. We pray for an end to violence and war, for all victims of the conflict, for justice for all, great wisdom for those in authority, and help for those trying to deliver humanitarian aid.

We come to you confessing our own failings; we fall short of your glory; we place our own desires before your will; we are prone to serve ourselves rather than others. Forgive us our sins, both those committed deliberately, and those done through negligence.

Thank you in that in Jesus Christ’s death you offer us complete forgiveness.

As your forgiven people help us to walk with you closely and learn from the example of all who have gone before us, alongside those who inspire and guide us today.

We pray in the name of our living Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.Ìý

As we’ve heard, The history of Auckland Castle goes back to the 11th century and the Prince Bishops of Durham. Faith has shaped these islands as a whole throughout its history. Lets hear a flavour of how the Museum tells this important story of how faith has shaped our country through history....Ìý

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Song: Eidolon

Artist: Eleanor Westbrook

Composer: Alex Collishaw

Publisher: None

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Song: O Lord hear my prayer (Taize)

Artist: Maggi Dawn

Composer: Jacques Berthier [1923-1994]

Kingsway

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Back in Auckland Castle and a short walk upstairs from this chapel, through the Throne Room, brings us to the Long Dining Room. The story of the restoration of these buildings begins there. It’s a Jewish, Spanish and English story linked to the paintings hanging on the dining room walls, and to the passion of one art enthusiast with the means to keep these valuable pictures here in the Castle. His name is Jonathan Ruffer, the founder of the Auckland Project...

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Song: Requiem Mass, 1605: Communion, Lux aeterna

Artist: Tenebrae/Nigel Short

Composer: Tomas Luis De Victoria

Signum Records

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Song: The God Of Abraham Praise

Artist: Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh

Composer: Anon

Publisher: Public Domain

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Artist: Giullame De Machaut

Composer: Traditional

Publisher: Label Controlled

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Song: Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars

Artist: Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge

Composer: Jonathan Dove [b.1959]

Signum Classics

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A reading from Hebrews Chapter 11 (Tyndale translation)

Fayth is a sure confidence of thynges which are hoped for and a certayntie of thynges which are not sene.

By it ye elders were well reported of.

Thorow fayth we vnderstonde that the worlde was ordeyned by the worde of god: and that thynges which are sene were made of thynges which are not sene.

By fayth Abraha whe he was called obeyed to goo out into a place which he shuld afterwarde receave to inheritaunce and he wet out not knowynge whether he shuld goo.

By fayth he removed into the londe yt was promysed him as into a straunge countre and dwelt in tabernacles: and so dyd Isaac and Iacob heyres with him of the same promes.

For he loked for a citie havinge a foundacio whose bylder and maker is God.

Thorow fayth Sara also receaved stregth to be with chylde and was delivered of a chylde when she was past age because she iudged him faythfull which had promysed.

And therfore spronge therof one (and of one which was as good as deed) so many in multitude as the starres of ye skye and as the sond of the see shore which is innumerable.

And they all dyed in fayth and receaved not the promyses: but sawe them a farre of and beleved them and saluted them: and confessed that they were straungers and pilgrems on the erthe.

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If ye love me,keep my commandments/Renaissance: Music for inner peace/Track 7

Address:

Approaching the Faith Museum entrance feels like an invitation to an unknown journey. You slope down into what is a semi subterranean space. The doors are closed, yet inviting you in. The lighting is subdued. As the doors slide back ahead lies a long corridor calling you in to explore and discover. The whole experience is a journey into faith. There is the history that unfolds through the dazzling array of wonderful objects from 4000BC through to our own day. But all along as these are pondered the questions that are posed at the very beginning; ‘Am I alone?’ ‘How do I live?’ and ‘Where do I belong?’, are being explored and all visitors invited to ponder their own response.

This journey has some unexpected twists and turns but it is far less demanding than God’s call to Abram. ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you’. How Abram heard this call we are not told, but we do know that he responded saying ‘Yes’ to God’s call. So began a long journey of trusting God. It was a physically long and demanding journey where Abram and his family never settled into a permanent home. It was a lifelong journey of trusting God meant what God said and could be relied upon. Abram certainly never got the business of following God right. He made mistakes along the way. Some were costly to his family and household. But follow God’s call he did. He knew he was not alone; God was with him. He journeyed in faith with others. He knew that above all else he belonged to God.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews gives us a clear definition of this faith which we heard read so movingly in the original William Tyndale version; in a more modern translation it is ‘being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’ It rests not on our own human effort but on trusting God the Creator and Redeemer to be entirely trustworthy. It means taking risks with God. It involves letting go of our own security and safety and relying on God to uphold us, and bring us home.

The new Faith Museum stands on the route of the English Camino pilgrimage. Over the past few years here in the North East four new pilgrimage routes to Durham Cathedral have been developed; The Way of Life, The Way of Light, The Way of Learning and The Way of Love. Together they are the Northern Saints Trails. They are journeys to be enjoyed but also journeys of exploration and discovery.

Israel / Palestine, the land of the Holy One, is a land of pilgrimage for Christians, Jews and Muslims. Right now such pilgrimage is impossible because of the horrific and tragic events that have unfolded over these past days. The acts of Hamas two weeks ago were truly awful and evil. The news on Tuesday evening of an airstrike hitting the Anglican run hospital, Al Ahli, in northern Gaza, with the death of hundreds of innocent people must also be seen as truly awful and evil. Whoever was responsible, the bombing of hospitals is simply wrong. Our hearts must grieve and weep over this appalling tragedy.

Living with the stark realities of our human capacity to do so much damage to others is one of the realities of being pilgrims. Pilgrims do not hold easy answers but they hold on to God, and trust God will hold on to us. Pilgrimage is an invitation to walk in the steps of Abraham as people of faith. We are invited to walk with the living Jesus who still calls us saying, ‘Follow me’.

Jesus invited people to follow him personally, but also to do so together. He called the brothers Peter and Andrew, James and John, together. Matthew he called alone. Yet they then followed Jesus together.

The journey of faith is always deeply personal. Each one of us responds to God’s call. But this call is never meant to be alone. Followers of Jesus travel together as the household, the family of God.

Right towards the close of the tremendous Faith Museum there is a sculptural piece in glass by Rachael Woodman called Gathering: Joyful Assembly. Her own description of this is that, ‘Joyful Gathering is about worship. Each glass element is unique… it expresses my sense of wonder and joy as a human being born to worship the divineÌý It is a response to the questions posed at the beginning of the journey. What Rachael says in response to ‘Am I alone.’ Is, ‘When I began my faith journey 35 years ago, the sense of being known and loved was overwhelming. It was as if I had come home. …The joy of that first homecoming has matured into an assurance that I’m not alone and a longing to know more of the one who knows me.’

Faith is an invitation from the God who made us, knows us and loves us; it is a lifetime journey of exploration. It is always full of times of joy, and deep sadness. It has questions, some answered, some not. It is one in which we are all called to join, both personally and together. Since God invites us to it in Jesus, and because of the Cross and resurrection it is one where we can hold on to God’s faithfulness.

As the writer to the Hebrews declares, ‘Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, …Ìý let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith …’

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Living God thank you that you call us to walk with Jesus as the people you have made us to be, and as pilgrims together. Help us to live lives filled with faith, trusting you who hold our lives and eternity in your hands. Amen.

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Song: For all the saints

Artist: Liverpool Cathedral Choir

Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams [1872-1958]

Cantoris Records

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