17th January, 2021.
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My dear friends,

As I type these words, Great Bardfield is covered with a fresh blanket of snow. A small deer has just been enjoying a delicious lunch from the leaves of a bush in my garden that I have never particularly cared for. Despite the snow, some of the trees have begun to develop new buds and some daffodils have bravely poked their heads out of the flower beds. Spring is some way off, but at least there are definite signs that it is on its way.

​I hope that you are all surviving the present Wintery cold weather and the strange experience of another lock-down. One is pleased to hear of more and more people being vaccinated against Covid-19. Just as the buds on the trees are signs of new life, let us hope the spread of the vaccine is a sign of our return to more normal life.

My sermon below is about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and you will gather that it is a subject that is very dear to me. This is one of the reasons why I am keen to promote friendship and sharing between us in the Venerable Order of St John and our friends in the Roman Catholic Order of Malta and the Protestant Johanniterorden in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. I am also very proud that from the start, St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem has made a point of treating Christians, Muslims and Jews, irrespective of faith, ethnicity or ability to pay.

As I mentioned last week, we have been asked temporarily to suspend public worship to try to slow the spread of Covid-19. I continue to celebrate the Eucharist privately on Sundays in St Mary’s, Great Bardfield. One of our churchwardens has filmed some of these simple services and they can be found at YouTube under ‘The Benefice of Great and Little Bardfield.’ Several people have telephoned me with requests for prayer, and I am always pleased to receive such calls and to have a little talk. My telephone number is 01371 810267: please do not hesitate to be in touch if I can be of service.

​​With my prayers and all good and warm wishes,

The Rev. Dr ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
EPIPHANY 2 – 17 JANUARY 2021
I should like to begin with some words from St John’s Gospel:
 
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.     St John, chapter 17, verses 20-22.
 
St John writes of Jesus saying these words on Maundy Thursday night, just before his betrayal and arrest. Jesus knew that he was soon going to die, and in the time left to him he reflected on what mattered most. In this highly significant moment, Jesus fervently prayed that all his followers may be one, just as he and God the Father are one.
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We should remind ourselves that Jesus Christ founded and willed one Church, not a lot of different Churches. For the first thousand years of Christianity there was only one Church. You could receive Holy Communion in Greenland or Egypt, Portugal or Byzantium, and still be in the same Church. This doesn’t mean everyone was exactly the same. There was a wide diversity: different forms of service, different forms of spirituality, a wide variety of schools of theology, but it was all within one Church. Everyone was in full communion with one another.

In the second Christian millennium it all started to go wrong. In 1054 there was the Great Schism, when the one Church separated into the Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe, and the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe. In the sixteenth century came the Reformation in Western Europe, when various Churches broke away from Roman Catholicism. In England, the Church of England emerged: a sort of reformed-Catholicism as opposed to a full-blown Protestantism – a subtle but highly significant difference. On the Continent, there was more of a move by Calvinist and other Protestants to try to re-start Christianity from scratch. Needless to say, there were lots of further schisms and splits.

To speak in plain and unambiguous words: whatever the justification or motives, and however corrupt or misguided groups or individuals may have been at times in the Church’s history, this break-up of the one Church of Jesus Christ was not the will of God and was sinful.
Tomorrow, Monday 18th January, we begin the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which lasts until the feast of the Conversion of St Paul on 25th January. The message is plain: just as St Paul was converted on the road to Damascus and had a complete change of heart, so must we Christians similarly change our hearts and our direction of travel.

During the coming week we are all asked to pray that Christians may find ways to undo the damage of the past thousand years and in the years ahead to bring about the unity that is the will of Christ.

There are two main reasons. The first is theological. Jesus Christ only wants one Church. There can be no doubt about that. Indeed, when we get to Heaven, we shall find no Great Schism, no Reformation, no Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans and Free Churches. Instead, there will just be one Church, joyously worshipping God the Holy Trinity. While we have time, we have got to try to make the Church on earth more like the Church in Heaven.

Secondly, there is a practical reason. Christianity in Northern Europe and other parts of the world is in trouble. There is a clash of cultures and Christianity is being marginalised. Attitudes which would have seemed incredible a generation ago are now commonplace. I find myself recalling G.K. Chesterton’s famous observation that when people stop believing in God, they don’t stop believing: there instead start believing in many other things. Some people – not knowing much about religion, and not being especially bothered by their lack of knowledge – have concluded that just because some aspects of religions can cause trouble (not a conclusion I would challenge in the slightest), therefore all religions must be troublesome, and in consequence all religions are best kept at arm’s length. Not a very happy or convincing philosophical approach. Freedom of religion is becoming freedom to worship quietly in your church building, so long as you don’t come outside and speak of alternative world-views and sets of values. There is no way a lot of disparate little Christian denominations, all safely doing their own thing, can do much about that. The witness of a single, united Church to the transforming love of Jesus Christ would be an entirely different thing.

How can we bring this unity about? The answer is two-fold. Firstly, we must pray for Christ to bring about the unity of his Church on earth, and ourselves be willing to be used by him.
Secondly, we need to change our attitudes. Most of us, I regret to say, define ourselves by what we are not: we belong to the Church of England because we are not a member of a Free Church, a Scottish Presbyterian, a Roman Catholic, or a member of the Orthodox Church. We would do better to forget all that, and say: I am a member of the Church of England simply because of my faith in Jesus Christ and for no other reason.

I personally have always found that I get on well with Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians: I find it easy to talk to them about God and the things of the Spirit, and we have much in common. However, in Great Britain, we must recognize that there will be no worthwhile Christian Unity that does not involve full unity with the Roman Catholic Church. We need to face up to centuries of misunderstanding, mistrust, and, I am ashamed to say, persecution. We need to find ways to meet our fellow Christians from the Catholic Church, and indeed from all Christian denominations, and to pray, share, and enjoy each other’s company. We must consciously strive to open our eyes to see good things in their Churches, spirituality and theology, and see what we may learn from them. We all worship the same Lord Jesus Christ, after all.

I once went for a walk in an obscure town in the south of Italy. Turning a corner, I came across a religious bookshop presided over by a tiny nun at the cash register. As I walked around, looking at the books on the shelves, I thought: “Wow, what wonderful resources for work with children, teenagers, and Christians at all stages of their pilgrimage.” It wasn’t at all what I had expected. Just as a couple come together in marriage and their union is richer than their two separate lives, so, just imagine what one, united Church would be like, if we could share all our resources and insights. Think how much better we might serve Jesus Christ.

Well, the reality of one Church on earth is still some way off, I am afraid. But the task that confronts us is to work in lots of small ways for Christian Unity. Could I ask you all to pray a little each day between 18 – 25 January 2021 for Christian Unity. Like St Paul, we need – with the help of God’s grace – to change our hearts, and to keep alive the exciting vision of one, united Church of Jesus Christ, faithfully and joyfully bringing the Gospel to the world.
 
A prayer for the 2021 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity  
from the World Council of Churches:
 
Jesus Christ,
you seek us,
you wish to offer us your friendship
and to lead us to a life that is ever more complete.
Grant us the confidence to answer your call
so that we may be transformed
and become witnesses
of your tenderness for the world. Amen.