Patronal Festival 2008

Let me take you back 125 years to July 18^th 1883.

Franz Kafta is a few days old, and Benito Mussolini is about to emerge into a world that just might not thank him.

John Maynard Keynes, is six weeks old.

On the other hand Richard Wagner and Eduoard Manet are being mourned, and the funeral of the famous circus midget, Tom Thumb, is imminent.

As an adult he was only 2 feet 9 inches tall, which explains how easily he got a job with the famous Barnum’s Circus.

Yet his funeral was no small scale affair, some ten thousand people attended it.

But of course, the most significant event of a century and a quarter ago, for us here, was the consecration and dedication of this very building.

John Jackson, Bishop of London, came here with Georgiana Twells, local visionary and provider of funds, and this splendid Butterfield building entered use as a house of God and beacon of faith to all around.

William MacGlagan, Bishop of Lichfield at the time, preached the sermon that day, and probably said as much.

He later became Archbishop of York, while Georgiana lived another fifteen years before being buried in Lavender Hill Cemetery just down the road.

Since that day, the folk who have admired our spire, or worshipped in its shadow, have seen the end of Victoria’s long reign, two world wars, the creation of the NHS two wars in the Gulf and the rise of Islamic terrorism.

We can only wonder what Georgiana Twells would have made of it all, and of course what she might think about women priests and bishops and the current distractions in the wider Anglican Communion about homosexuality.

Her cause, of course, was for the people of the burgeoning community around here, a community enabled by the arrival of the railway at Enfield Chase Station.

And her cause is, still very much our own.

We are very much here for those around us, and while we attract and are delighted to welcome those from outside our parish boundaries, our geography is one of our greatest assets.

The miller of the windmill that used to be opposite the church, is on record as having complained that the building of the church on top of the hill named after his windmill, ‘took the wind out of his sails’, but it was clear that Georgiana Twells and William Butterfield knew exactly what they were doing, in terms of visibility and location.

That windmill, of course, went in 1907, while we are very much still here.

Indeed we are, 125 years later, celebrating our quartocentenary.

Yes – there is a word for it – quartocentenary.

And we celebrate it with an orchestra and the music of Schubert.

Schubert died 55 years before this church was built, in 1828 – another anniversary this year – the 180^th since his death.

And music is a good way to celebrate our place in the community, because music is fundamentally a community activity, that locates us both in history and the present moment.

For here, as the offertory hymn pts it:

“Here, as in the world around us,

all our varied skills and arts

wait the coming of His spirit

into open minds and hearts”

And as that first verse of Hymn 301 begins:

“God is here, as we his people

meet to offer praise and prayer

may we find in fuller measure

what it is in Christ we share.”

And music, which we especially share today, is a participatory, communal activity.

Immersion in the music, by listening or performing can open the way for inspiration, communion or even communication.

This very possibility frightened early church leaders who believed music to be highly dangerous.

Practiced by sorcerers and dancers and other pagans, they feared its power to entrance and enable the mind to be corrupted if emptied of Godly thoughts!

Nowadays we know that music has the power to bring us closer to God in prayer and praise, but it was not always the case.

For hymn singing and sports game chanting have as their main strength communality of feeling and common purpose, whether it be in search of divine blessing or another run or goal.

Some people suggest that singing at football matches has displaced hymn-singing, but hymn-singing has by no means died out, and we are live testimony to that!

Yet the two activities have something in common: the unificatory, celebratory ability of song, and the emotional stimulation of shared music.

St Augustine of Hippo said that anyone who sings, prays twice.

Anyone who sings is bound to agree with him, sixteen centuries later, and he was surely right that music is a force to be reckoned with.

Yet Augustine did not know about piano duets, string quartets, nor most importantly of all, church choirs and orchestras.

Anyone who plays or sings chamber music will know first hand the deep delight which the blend of work and pleasure that a small ensemble creates within itself.

Chamber music needs no audience and many get together simply to play or sing, to enjoy each other’s company at the musical level, and those who have played together over many years form a kind of musical family unit which is both intimate and understanding.

The individual members of a quartet, for example, need not be best friends, but when they take up their bows they become different people, tied by the strings of their instruments.

Music at the orchestral and choral level is slightly different, because it is bigger and more complex, there is less scope for the kind of democracy of interpretation that chamber music affords.

The American composer John Cage (1912-92) once deplored the fact that in orchestral music the conductor is like a policeman, standing on the platform waving his arms about, as though directing traffic!

But the alternative, as Cage himself demonstrated in various of his zany compositions, is far worse.

Orchestras and choirs do need keeping together and someone has to make the decisions.

I sometimes think that churches are a bit like orchestras, the minister in charge has to take charge, to stand at the front and wave their arms about, but ultimately nothing happens if the members of the community don’t take up their instruments and blow, scrape or bang!

And what a racket it would be if there was no-one to marshall them, encourage, teach and point them to the realm where the music is made by angels.

In a world wary of authority, orchestral music and churchgoing are not so popular, but many still value the immense practical and spiritual value of teamwork that orchestras and choirs, and of course parish communities engender.

And here today we celebrate that, metaphorically and literally at this, our, musical patronal festival.

If solo performance is like hitting a ball against a wall, and chamber music is like mixed doubles, then orchestral playing is like the big match.

While music is not generally competitive, it shares with sport the challenge, joy and benefit of teamwork.

A football team that cannot work together will just lose.

An orchestra that cannot will fall apart.

Musicians must listen to one another as they play, just as sportsmen and women must watch one another and the ball, and these are not only skills of awareness, they are skills of relationship, and they are needed and cherished in churches too.

As we sit here in church, look around at those with you: are they OK?

Is some part of the liturgy, the music or the Word, touching them?

Who has had a bad week?

The measure of a welcoming church community is ‘do they care about each other?’

Do they even know each other well enough to know who might need looking out for?

I think that with some pride, but also humility we can say that we do, and that is the tradition of fellowship in which we stand, sing and pray.

Spiritual teamwork is not often mentioned, but I believe that corporate music making enables us to team up, not only with each other, but with the Holy Spirit, who enables and joins our praise.

Not only this, but there is true fellowship in musical teamwork that is devoted to God.

Members of choirs and orchestras know that there is something very special about making music together, and something extra-special about doing it for God, who while he demands perfection also welcomes our best efforts.

So as we celebrate today, the foundation of this building, the generosity of Georgiana Twells and the example of Mary Magdalene, who served and saw the Lord, let us focus mainly on the fellowship we share and the teamwork we engage in as we seek to be the community of Christ here on top of this hill in Enfield.

Today is designated a gift day: and only partly because today is the day we invite you to help us wipe out the financial hangover from the restoration work of nearly a decade ago, but today is a gift day because we celebrate and give thanks today for the gifts we have received here over 125 years.

And that helps us to sing with heart and voice the final lines of our offertory hymn:

“Here in this day’s dedication,

all we have to give, receive:

we who cannot live without you,

we adore you. We believe!”

Amen to that!

The Reverend Gordon Giles, St Mary Magdalene, Enfield, 20/7/08