St George's Patronal Festival
St George's Day: 24th April, 2005
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Patronal festival sermon, St George's Goodwood, Adelaide
I bring you greetings from your sister church in Melbourne – St Peter's Eastern Hill. Together we share some of those responsibilities – both joys and burdens – which come from being considered shrine churches of the Anglo Catholic tradition. Our communities of faith have over the generations been shining beacons of our particular faith and liturgical traditions, served by fine clergy and people. There is a rich heritage which we acknowledge with great respect. There have been good times and there have been times of sadness and division. And there is a current challenge and a continuing call in difficult times for St George's and St Peter's to be places where the fullness of catholic worship is offered, where service and care for others is honoured, and where a creative and sustaining relationship with God in Jesus Christ is at life's centre. In short, the challenge is for us to be places where people who are exploring and celebrating catholic Christianity as we Anglicans have received it, will want to be
Having been born and bred a South Australian and gone to university here, I left Adelaide 35 years ago. But of course St George's Goodwood was very much part of the Anglican geography of Adelaide. There is much that has changed, much that has remained the same. I personally remember St George's from occasional visits in Fr Sweatenham's time and knew of many who had been shaped by this parish. A patronal festival is a very appropriate occasion both to give thanks for all that this place has stood for and represented in the past and to pray for guidance and encouragement and joy in the present and future life of this community and place.
I do of course have many noble images in mind of your patron. I have one of the well-known icons in my library. I know the stories and could tell them well. It has though as a person who for so long has lived east of here been a matter of continuing surprise that either in the Sydney rugby team or in the Bank, St George may well have the name but it is the dragon who gets all the visuals and images, and who would seem to me to be coming out the very contented winner every time. I have no immediate idea what that little observation may mean, but maybe there is something in there worth exploring.
Our lessons this morning remind us that we are not alone in our experience of conflict. 'And a war broke out in Heaven' [Rev 12:7] for goodness sake! But the battle ground is no longer there: 'But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows his time is short.'[Rev 12:12] Our epistle spoke of hardship and doing what the situation demands – as soldier, athlete, farmer, whatever. The goal is salvation, life in Christ. The Eastertide promise is clear:
'If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with himà' [2Tim 2:11,12a] The gospel from John is part of that wonderful section relating to the developing patterns of Christian discipleship. Jesus has just spoken to his disciples of love and of vocation. He now reminds them of some hard truths that are likely to face them: 'If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.' [Jn15:18] In contemporary secular Australia indifference or distaste is more likely than active hatred, though the abuse cases may have sorely tested that hypothesis. Perhaps the strongest antipathies are likely to be reserved for the disputes within the so-called family of the Church. And they can be sadly bitter indeed.
Obviously then our context for reflection is the theme of battle, of the taking of sides, of spiritual warfare, of coming to the aid of the weak and defenceless in the name of God and of all that is good. There is the theme of taking up responsibility, when it is within you to make a difference for good. There is the theme of entering into controversy, when you know it is not avoidable, even when the outcome is by no means to be taken for granted. And I suppose, since your patron is a knight and a soldier, there is the preparation and training and equipment and support staff all that need to be in place before any such quest is undertaken. And there needs to be a good strong heart.
I am on Long service Leave at the moment, thoroughly enjoying the break in routine. So I am in this time especially looking to 'the good strong heart' of this particular knight-errant. It is clear to me that if we are not in good heart, either as individuals or as communities, then we will not be able to carry on and we will certainly not be in the position of encouraging others to join us. I am very happy to share some of this continuing search with you.
The area of preparation, training, equipment and support is in fact something we can all work at, according to our circumstances and needs. These two months are bringing together a number of significant and continuing strands for me that will, I hope, help me serve my parish and people better – and simply help me keep going as a priest of the Church at a time like this. I am in between a special and immensely encouraging gathering in London relating to 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Society of the Holy Cross which I have been a member of since the early 80s and a 17 day pilgrimage to Assisi with a group from the parish and some other friends, soaking in the spirituality and the peace of the home of Francis and Clare. As someone who is trying out the graces of the Third Order Franciscans, this will be a great gift as well.
Picture though a coming together of up to 700 priests and 20 or 30 bishops, including one extravaganza lasting all one Saturday at the Royal Albert Hall for 5,500 people. Picture highlights such as an outstanding address from the Archbishop of Canterbury on the priesthood of Christ, all in the end coming down to the absolute centrality of worship in intimacy of relationship with God in Jesus Christ. And that being delivered on the morning that he went to Rome for the papal funeral. Picture the very first act of worship of that international synod being the offering of Benediction in a packed very large St Alban's Holborn, wonderful music, dense smoke, shafts of light, the overwhelming experience of so many in one heart, one voice, one action, one reverence; so very conscious of the greats of the catholic revival who had served and suffered there. There could not have been any who were not in tears at the end. Picture hundreds of vested priests processing through the main street in Walsingham from Parish Church to Shrine, singing the pilgrims' hymn, watching for the odd snowflake. This is indeed equipping for what may lie ahead. This is encouragement, even if the experience is not directly transferable to the Australian situation. This is equipping, even if the context and the challenges are different for participants going home to somewhere in the UK or the USA or Sweden or wherever. I am convinced that the people of God do need the experience of grand occasions. Such mountaintop experiences can sustain for years, even as the plain is returned to.
But I have also returned to a regular working retreat shared with 10 priests. This is a group that has been meeting monthly for 4 years and which meets twice a year for more intensive retreat time. It has been of incalculable value to us all, vocationally, spiritually, personally. It is if you like, a spiritual support group that has become an intentional small community. We have actively encouraged the formation of other such small groups. I am therefore also convinced that the people of God need the experience of such simple but intensive small scale occasions, to be better equipped for what confronts us today. This does not just happen. It has to be worked at, hard.
There is a real challenge out there about the whole point of a place like St George's Goodwood even existing, let alone flourishing as a lively centre of catholic Anglican life. That challenge does not only come from an indifferent secular society, but also, as we will explore in more depth at Vespers this evening, the challenge comes from within the Church itself. There is a battle going on right now for the very soul of Anglicanism, in Australia and around the world. Because of where we find ourselves, this is our battle too.
So if the secular iconography of the story of your patron saint has the dragon looking very pleased with himself and St George nowhere to be seen, can that not stand as a nice little parable to take away with us? That can be how it is. Or maybe, and let us hope and pray that this is indeed so, that is not the end of the story after all.
The Lord be with you.
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