Sermon on 3rd Sunday of Epiphany, Sunday 23rd January 2022

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

 A few years ago a close friend of mine died. He was Roman Catholic and a funeral mass was held. Sadly, because our church is “not in communion” with the Church of Rome, I could not receive the Eucharist.

I was reminded of this hurt during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which is set during Epiphany, a time of people from different traditions (the so called wise men from the East) coming to worship the Christ child.

Now some of you will know that last Sunday I was not here because I was in Liverpool watching beloved Brentford - and before you ask, Brentford lost 3-0.

What has Liverpool to do with a sermon on Christian Unity?

The answer is quite a lot, because while in Liverpool, as I walked along the aptly named Hope Street which connects the massive Anglican cathedral and the Metropolitan Roman Catholic cathedral, I was reminded that this city is the scene of some of the most remarkable ecumenical initiatives that have taken place in the UK in recent years and continues to be so.

The deep partnership between David Sheppard and Derek Worlock, the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool and the Roman Catholic Archbishop, which built on work by their predecessors. Worlock joined Sheppard in Liverpool in 1976 and their close bond broadened out to include other churches and in particular with Dr John Newton, the local Methodist District Chair.

If we look back on the progress in relations between the different churches, we are reminded of how far we have come. There is of course still much to do. But the Liverpool example has much to teach us about what can be done.

So this morning I would like to us to recall this genuine partnership in the Gospel.

I hope it can inspire us at an individual level to foster Christian Unity.

We recall that the mid 1970s was a time of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and Liverpool had a staunch Irish population. When Worlock went to Liverpool, the Pope told him to make sure “it didn’t become another Belfast.” This was a city where in the late 1960s the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, advised it would not be wise for the Queen at attend the consecration of the new Roman Catholic cathedral.

Both Worlock and Sheppard were determined that these two branches of the Christian faith should develop a deeper understanding and closeness.

The recent biographer of Sheppard (Andrew Bradstock) puts it like this:

Christian reconciliation was not about ignoring points of conflict between different churches or wanting to water them down; instead, it was about getting to know one another in order to argue “without slamming the door and living apart in our denominations.”

“At the root of the partnership we experience“, Sheppard later wrote, “is not some social and political alliance which ignores theological differences, but the bond of baptism, the recognition that we are indeed brothers in Christ.” He acknowledged there were differences they had to negotiate including over abortion and the ordination of women.

Progress was such that when, in 1978, the Queen came to the service to give thanks for the completion of the Anglican Cathedral, Sheppard wanted her to visit other churches in the city in less affluent surroundings. One of these was the Roman Catholic St. Mary’s, Highfield Street, He learnt later that this was the first visit by a reigning monarch to a Roman Catholic parish church since the Reformation.

Four years later an even bigger event took place. The Pope, many of you will remember this, visited the UK. A million people lined the streets from Liverpool Airport to the city centre. Where the Pope entered the Anglican Cathedral to spontaneous applause, joined the Pentecost service, before proceeding down Hope Street to the Metropolitan Cathedral to conduct Mass.

How different to the advice given by Harold Wilson to the Queen less than 15 years before.

There is not time today to cover the Liverpool church leaders’ work following the Toxteth riots, the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies or the successful initiative of creating a joint Church of England and Catholic primary school in Knowsley.

Or the continuing work of Merseyside Churches together.

Today, let us give thanks to God for all who work and pray for closer unity between Christians.

And for the legacy of Bishop David Sheppard, Archbishop Derek Worlock and John Newton

We give thanks for those who walk along the equivalent of Hope Street, and for the progress that has been made in fostering dialogue, and opening our eyes to what is valuable in other church traditions.

It is my hope that one day, Anglicans will be able to participate in the Eucharist celebrated by Roman Catholic priests.

Let me close with verses in St. John’s Gospel, from Jesus’s prayer at the time of the Last Supper:

John 17:20-23

“I ask not only on behalf of these (my disciples), but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Fr. Peter Wolton

23 January 2022