June 11, 2006

Jane Knowles

Trinity Sunday     
Isa 6:1-13     
John 3:1-13

The following sermon was preached by Jane Knowles upon return to her benefice of Ramsden, Finstock, Leafield and Wilcote, Oxfordshire, England after a three month stay as Visiting Vicar at St Matthew-in-the-City, Auckland

We are back, and true to the old adage, travel certainly broadens the mind. We have had a wonderful time in both church and country. New Zealand is a really fabulous place to visit, bright and clear and with beautiful skies and seas and mountains and all the rest of it, but more than that the people are beautiful too; they really try hard to be outgoing and friendly and loving, The efforts that are being made to bring the three historical cultures together in worship are to be marvelled at; Maori, Pacific ad now what I have learnt to call white people, Pakeha. There is a huge Chinese population in Auckland too and everyone seems to be tolerant and keen to get on with each other and life. It is safe to say that Auckland is truly multi cultural, and over a quarter of the country's entire population live there.

St Matthews as its name implies is right in the city centre and next door to the city mission and so included in the congregation are street people; the homeless and waiting for me every day was Caroline, a streetie from Gisborne who had come years ago seeking working and now lives on the streets. Although I was a bit frightened of her at first, she became quite a friend. (I have brought my liturgical photograph album with me, and she features in that.)

I'd like to tell you just a little about St Matthews.

It is probably the most prominent church in Auckland, if not also on the North Island and is often mistaken for the cathedral. It is a progressive and inclusive church and many different styles of worship take place there, not least a meditation service for all faiths, somewhere in the bowels of the building whilst the BCP early morning Eucharist is taking place. It is a remarkable building, not particularly old, by British standards, but is big enough in all senses of the word to host many different styles of service as well as functions. It has a Peace chapel where visitors often light candles and a wonderful chancel and very holy space, but it has movable pews too and these are moved to the side whenever there is a function or a dinner, or indeed the preview reception for the Da Vinci Code which was held quite recently, and made the headlined of the newspapers. This is just a flavour of the place.

I have written a journal and hope to put it in some sort of readable form before long, because for me this has been the trip of a lifetime, both spiritually and physically. I know that you too have had a stimulating and enjoyable time with Glynn and the family and I'm sure you have been really refreshed and challenged in your worship and conversation. I have been challenged theologically and have enjoyed many interesting debates and new concepts and most of all my understanding of the presence of the Holy Spirit has grown.

Today is Trinity Sunday and today we celebrate three parts of the Godhead. . All through history God's name has been changed; Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord, etc; and the historical Jesus the man has been argued about for 2000 years, but the Holy Spirit, the one which seems the most illusive is the one part of the Trinity that has probably changed the least. I don't know how you celebrated Ascension Day; we had a special Ascension Day service (which incidentally they had not had before in St Matthews|) and in the holy space of that occasion we celebrated Jesus' last appearance on earth in human form ...and so he returned to his father.

At Pentecost, 10 days later, we had a wonderful day; that was the day when we projected your photograph on to a screen and wished you and the whole church “Happy Birthday”. We had balloons and cake and we burst a balloon to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit can indeed be everywhere; here and in Auckland and right around the world. The Holy Spirit is that mysterious something that joins you to me and to our creator. On Pentecost Sunday I was aware of it as never before, and the result was an outpouring of love and a joining together to make a strong and complete whole.

As part of the offertory, I was presented with this, a Maori Te Manaia. It is a symbol of the guardian spirit, another name for the Holy Spirit. Waiora, a remarkable, courageous, strong, Maori lady with a deep traditional Christian faith, and with whom I have had many interesting discussions, gave it to me and explained that it had been held by everyone in the church, and so it was truly a gift from the whole church.

She spoke to me for the congregation, in Maori and whilst I did not understand the words, I for sure knew the meaning; Pentecost writ large. In some way they had all been empowered by the Holy Spirit to love me and I them. As I said on the day, if that's not the Holy Spirit in action I don't know what is... and then spontaneously and led by Waiora the whole church sang a Maori Hymn of blessing, even though the vast majority of them are Pakeha, as you know from the photograph.

An unforgettable eternal moment in time.

You see the concept of it all is this; each individual is special and precious, but woven together we all become one strong rope; individual strands, but one strong rope. I have had had both photographs incorporated into one frame ; our benefice and St Matthews church and if you look carefully you will see surrounding the photographs is a rope. This benefice and St Matthews are now joined; we cannot be unjoined; we are part of each other's history. St Matthews now has this combined picture and each of our parishes will have one too; the Holy Spirit joining us all together; all nations, all colours and with all spectrums of Christian belief.

We have come home and we are delighted to be here. It's so lovely to see you all again, and we have missed you very much, but I have a tale to tell, and I have plans; things we can do together and things we can do separately. The church is an exciting place; by comparison everything else pales into insignificance. It is a family; we do belong; it is our home wherever we are and it is the place from which we can go out and face whatever we have to. Jesus left his disciples, and his leaving empowered them through the Holy Spirit.

Today I thank God so much for all of that, and for the created world and particularly for the people and country of NZ, and I pray for the energy and courage to share with you the things that I have found; but today I also thank God for your generosity and love and for the way in which you enabled me to leave and to go to the other side of the world, and I thank God for the way in which you have made Glynn and the family so welcome.

We have all learnt a lot and we can go on learning with enquiring minds and excited hearts. We are born again through the Holy Spirit. Alleluia.