大象传媒

Sunday Worship marking Guy Fawkes and the State Opening of Parliament

0810-0850 5 November, 大象传媒 Radio 4

The Parliament Choir

Members of the St Alban鈥檚 Bach Choir

Chorus master: Nicholas O'Neill MA FRCO

Organist: Gerard Brooks MA FRCO

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Leaders: The Revd Tony Miles (Superintendent Minister)

The Revd Dr Joyce Popoola

Preachers: The Reverend Dr Jamie Hawkey; the Revd Dr Leslie Griffiths, Lord Griffiths of Bury Port.

Readers: Simon Over MA FRCO (Director, Parliament Choir)

Dame Caroline Spelman (Former Chair, Parliament Choir)

Prayers: Mary Macleod (Trustee, Parliament Choir)

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Producer: Philip Billson

NB The script may not be exactly as broadcast. It may contain mistakes or production notes.

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TONY MILES:

Good morning from Methodist Central Hall Westminster, just opposite the Houses of Parliament. I鈥檓 Tony Miles the superintendent minister. It鈥檚 good to welcome you to this Sunday Worship, alongside the Parliament Choir, who, provide our music, readings and prayers this morning. They are joined by a number of members of St Alban鈥檚 Bach Choir. This service will look back to past times as we mark Gunpowder Treason and Plot this fifth of November, but also forward with thankfulness that out of those times of turmoil grew the stable democratic traditions of the mother of Parliaments - with the pomp and ceremony of the State Opening in just two days' time. As we come to worship, our hearts and minds can hardly forget the fractured world we are part of, the tragic and distressing images we have seen from the Middle East and also Ukraine. 听These are of particular and constant concern for 听politicians and others working in the Palace of Westminster, as they are for the rest of us. Our first hymn connects loyalty to and service of our own country with Christian faith 鈥� I vow to thee my Country.

HYMN: I vow to thee my Country (Thaxted)

TONY MILES: 听You鈥檒l hear the voices of choir members who have been MPs or are members of the House of Lords, as well as staff who work on the Parliamentary Estate in our service this morning. We are also honoured to have in our small but select congregation members of the group representing Christians in Parliament, including serving MPs and members of the Lords.听 But first my colleague the Revd Dr Joyce Popoola leads us in prayer.

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JOYCE POPOOLA: 听

A prayer of confession from the Methodist Church:

Amen

HYMN:听 O God of earth and altar (Kings Lynn)

SIMON OVER:

I鈥檓 Simon Over Founding Music Director of the Parliament Choir.

听In the year 2000, Lord Filkin and I -on a walk from Fulham to Pimlico- discussed the frustrations of parliamentarians denied the opportunity of singing in a choir, due to the necessity of being within Parliament during the evenings.听听 This led to the formation of the Parliament Choir, which is a Choral Society, usually numbering around 120 members, most of whom working within the Palace of Westminster as Members of both the Commons and the Lords together with their researchers and office staff as well as officers and officials, employed in every aspect of the work and life of Parliament.听 The Choir meets weekly within the Palace when Parliament is in session to rehearse in the chapel of St Mary Undercroft, just of 听听f Westminster Hall.

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The Parliament Choir - now approaching 25 years of Political Harmony -听 is one of the few institutions in the Palace of Westminster where party allegiance or political status don鈥檛 matter: A听 ll join together with one voice.听 It鈥檚 a great opportunity for fellowship and friendship, where differences can be put aside, as people make music together.听

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Verses from Psalm 72 (vv1-7)

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听TONY MILES:

Joining us now is The Reverend Dr Jamie Hawkey, Chaplain to His Majesty the King, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, and Chair of the Westminster Abbey Institute.

JAMIE HAWKEY:

In a couple of days鈥� time, at the State Opening, we will see the Crown in Parliament. Whilst this phrase is frequently used to describe the collective constitutional and legal entity of the Monarch and both houses of Parliament acting together to make law, at the State Opening of Parliament, theory becomes theatre, and concept becomes community, as the King gives his speech from the Throne surrounded by Lords Spiritual and Temporal, setting out the agenda of the government of the day. We will see the Crown in Parliament.

One of the most moving moments during the burial rites of Queen Elizabeth II was when the Crown was removed from her coffin in St George鈥檚 Chapel Windsor, and placed on the Altar. The next time we all saw this crown, it was there on another Altar, this time in Westminster Abbey, at the Coronation, as our new King sat enthroned, bare-headed, after his anointing, awaiting the moment when the crown would be placed on his head. From the Monarch to the Altar, from the Altar to the Monarch. In the Christian tradition, power is only ever borrowed, not owned. The Crown that the King wears is a symbol of his anointing, a commissioning for leadership and service which itself rests on promises he has made to God and his people.

On Coronation Day, the King was welcomed to Westminster by a child, in the name of Christ, the King of Kings. The King replied, 鈥業n his name and after his example I come not to be served but to serve.鈥� We have become so accustomed to thinking about monarchy as public service that we could easily underestimate the power of such a commitment. This was a theme which developed in particular ways, and profoundly in the public consciousness, during the reign of Elizabeth II. It was a theme the King focused in on during his first address to the Nation. Servant leadership in the world today is one of the answers to the danger of despotism: the three-way-covenant between God, monarch and people, in which the monarch rules by consent, shows how the monarch is accountable to the people as much as to God. This kind of language has the potential to interrogate and contextualise other forms of leadership in our own times, and its theological origins are rooted in Jesus鈥檚 own ministry, as the one who created the world hands over his life for the world.

A reign is principally a relationship 鈥� and as British society becomes more and more wonderfully diverse, and welcomes to its shores people who flee conflict and oppression 鈥� it is to this person that we all somehow relate. Through the image on our stamps and coinage, the Coat of Arms on our passports, the promises made by those in many forms of public office. A concept can鈥檛 really hold us together, you can鈥檛 really love a concept. But a person can hold us together, we can love a person. And the most powerful person in the land has told us, in the form of solemn promises, that following the example of Jesus, he is with us to serve, rather than to be served.

There are times when all this might seem rather counterintuitive, in the midst of so much pageantry and pomp. But the ceremony which surrounds monarchy is a kind of cluster of images and signs which show us in ritualised form what can鈥檛 quite be said 鈥榓 pact made for life鈥�. Simon Armitage鈥檚 beautiful poem An Unexpected Guest, written for Coronation Day, explores some of this through the eyes of someone who has travelled to London for the day:

POEM: An Unexpected Guest (Simon Armitage)

听This pact is a pact for life. It is not subject to re-election or to campaigning. The pact operates formally on all sorts of occasions, and at a State Opening we see it taking shape. But in order for this pact to really connect, it has to take flesh. In a coronation year, and in a year where there is so much vulnerability in our own country and bloodshed across the world, we should recall that this symbol of a nation鈥檚 togetherness is a human person, with a life, a personality, a character, a heart. The coronation service, at its centre, was a celebration of the Eucharist 鈥� the ultimate sign of a God who gives himself to us that we may live, that we may love, and that we, too, may serve one another.

In the oracle contained in Psalm 72, one of the Royal Psalms, there is a verse which is a sincere prayer both for our King and for our troubled world: 鈥榠n his days may righteousness flourish, and peace abound, until the moon is no more.鈥�

CHOIR: Upon thy Right Hand did stand the Queen in vesture of gold 鈥� Handel

TONY MILES:

Our second speaker is a former Superintendent of Wesley鈥檚 Chapel in the City of London, the Revd Dr Leslie Griffiths, Lord Griffiths of Bury Port. Leslie is a dear friend and colleague and is no stranger to Methodist Central Hall. Next year marks his 20th year in the House of Lords. Leslie鈥檚 preaching on the Council of Jerusalem described in the book of Acts. This is an extended dialogue describing what almost certainly was the first major disagreement between two wings of the early church.听 But for our reading from the New Testament, we take verses from Paul鈥檚 letter to the Philippians Chapter 2, which speak of the lengths Christians should go to in order to agree with one another. They are read by the former Chair of the Choir, and former Second Church Estates Commissioner Dame Caroline Spelman.

CAROLINE SPELMAN (Reads Philippians 2: vv1-11)

HYMN: Rejoice O land in God thy might (Wareham)

LESLIE GRIFFITHS:

鈥淩emember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot.鈥� I learned that little jingle during my boyhood. Every year we burned an effigy of Guy Fawkes and, blissfully unaware of their dangers, set off our fireworks crackerjacks for boys who wanted to scare the girls, rockets for boys who wanted to impress them, and Catherine wheels for those wanting to charm them.

We enjoyed the fun in those days of innocence where we had no idea of the issues or the passions that had led to the action of Guy Fawkes and his companions. Nor of the fierce wars of religion that ensued. Roman Catholics had to wait centuries to enjoy legal status as citizens of England. Protestants often became paranoid about the possible survival of the Catholic cause. November 5th 1605 gave a foretaste of all the civil and religious strife that would engulf the whole country in the years that followed.

Nor was that all. The uncovering of the plot led to the cancellation of a constitutional debate, a matter of high political importance, that had been planned for that very day. A Commission had been set up to explore a proposal of King James to bring his two kingdoms together, to unite the thrones of England and Scotland, to create the very idea of 鈥淕reat Britain鈥�. He had to deal with passionate objections on the part of English parliamentarians, including and perhaps especially the fear that their beloved England might be swamped by the arrival of hordes of Scots. Quelle id茅e! Be that as it may, the meeting of the听 Commission to discuss all this was sidelined by the action of Guy Fawkes and the King鈥檚 desired union had to wait over a hundred years to take place. I must at this point thank David Olusoga for bringing this to our attention in the first episode of his remarkable series of television programmes broadcast on 大象传媒2 last month.

So, on this fateful date, 418 years ago, rational debate was displaced by a terrorist act, the considered exchange of ideas by a resort to violence. That wasn鈥檛 the first time, of course; and it would definitely not be the last. Indeed, I鈥檇 suggest that these conflicting approaches to resolving disputes illustrate one of the most important issues facing us in our own day.

In the New Testament, the same tensions have to be managed. Followers of Christ were multiplying fast. The new arrivals tended to be Gentiles who soon outnumbered the Jewish originals. And this led to all kinds of trouble. Should the Gentile believers be expected to follow Jewish rites of initiation? Or not? The Christian message was breaking out of its Semitic beginnings and proving very attractive in the Hellenic world. But how to manage such a radical transition 鈥� that was the question? Was it nobler in the mind to tolerate the slings and arrows generated by these outrageous happenings or, by opposing them through direct action, just to get rid of them? Paul and Barnabas entered into furious debate, 鈥渘o small dissention鈥� is how the Book of Acts describes it (surely a euphemism), as they sought to resolve this matter. And, in the end, they opted to bring everyone together in Jerusalem to a Council 鈥� an assembly that might find more profit in talking than shouting, in negotiation than in threatening behaviour, in finding an agreement rather than undermining the fabric of society at large.

Well, the outcome is well known and faithfully recorded in the scripture. Both Jewish Christians and Gentile believers would have to make compromises with their established views if they were to have a chance of remaining in the same body.

In recent times, Roman Catholics and Protestants have in large part learned to live together, to learn from each other and even to enjoy each other鈥檚 company. And the rapidly developing inter-faith dialogue is teaching us the importance of treating each other with respect as we commit ourselves to building a better future together. People of faith, of all people, having endured (or even caused) so much mutual hostility and bitter rivalry, must put their shoulders to the wheel and show that they鈥檝e learned from the experience of their past and work their socks off to ensure that societies at large are no more in thrall to the methodologies of the gunpowder group but committed to the path of peaceful co-existence and well-being. That surely must always lie at the heart of our own model of parliamentary democracy.

A near-contemporary of Guy Fawkes, a man devoted to building peace, was once described as someone 鈥渨hose singular praise it is to have done the best things in the worst times and hoped them in the most calamitous.鈥�

Would that those words could be said of every one of us in these calamitous times. God help us to be instruments of his peace.

Now and always. Amen.

CHOIR: Surely he hath borne our griefs 鈥� Handel

TONY MILES:

In our prayers we bring before God all who suffer especially in the Middle East and also in Ukraine, those taken hostage or prisoner, the injured, the maimed, the fearful, all who have lost their homes - seeking God鈥檚 will for justice and peaceful resolution.

Our prayers are led by Mary Macleod, a Trustee of the Parliament Choir, former MP and CEO of Business in the Community, where His Majesty The King has been the founding Patron for 40 years.

CUE 12: MARY MACLEOD A prayer from the Methodist Covenant Service:

I am no longer my own but yours...

ALL: AMEN

A Collect for the King from the Book of Common Prayer:

ALL: Amen

Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us

All听听 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.

TONY MILES: The blessing:

CHOIR: Dona Nobis Pacem 鈥� Bach

ORGAN: Music from the Royal Fireworks (Handel)