My dear friends,
May I begin with a word of heartfelt thanks and appreciation to everyone who worked so hard on 22 June to make my Institution as your Rector by the Bishop of Lewes and Induction by the Archdeacon of Hastings such a very happy evening. I was especially pleased to welcome Mrs Lucinda Fraser DL, His Majesty’s Deputy-Lieutenant for East Sussex representing the Lord-Lieutenant, a large congregation from Catsfield and Crowhurst, clergy from the Deanery, staff and governors from our two Church of England Primary Schools, members of the Order of St John and the Order of Malta, and parishioners from my previous parishes. There were beautiful displays of flowers in St Laurence’s Church. Our two church choirs combined to sing Schubert’s moving anthem ‘Holy, holy, holy’ during the administration of Holy Communion, and the service was followed by a splendid array of refreshments.
I used two items during the service that were of particular personal meaning to me. The instructions were that I was to swear my oaths of Allegiance to His Majesty The King and canonical obedience to the Lord Bishop of Chichester using a New Testament. As you can probably guess, I have a shelf full of Bibles and New Testaments of various sorts, but I decided to use a Greek New Testament which Bishop Timothy Bavin of Portsmouth gave me when he ordained me a Deacon in Portsmouth Cathedral in 1988. This is significant to me for two reasons. Firstly, studying the New Testament in Greek at Cuddesdon deepened my lifelong love of Holy Scripture and helped bring the text alive. Secondly, I can say without hesitation that Bishop Timothy is the kindest and most caring diocesan bishop I have encountered in my ministry of 38 years, as well as also being a very impressive preacher. When Bishop Timothy retired as a diocesan bishop in 1995, he became an Anglican Benedictine monk at Alton Abbey. Since the Benedictine community there closed in 2024, he has lived at Chichester. I have learned much over the years from Bishop Timothy and am grateful for his ministry and teaching.
Secondly, I used a fountain pen to sign the legal documents during the service. This, too, had special meaning. It was an ordination gift when I was ordained Priest in 1989 from a friend of my mother’s, Jim. During the Second World War, Jim landed in Normandy with the British Army a few days after D-Day. In the course of the fighting to liberate France, he unfortunately trod on a German landmine and lost a leg in the ensuing explosion. Jim returned home, got used to using an artificial leg, went back to work, married and had a family. He was a stalwart of his parish church in Rutland – I think he may once have been a sidesman or churchwarden. Anyway, Jim realized that as a Priest I would have to complete and sign church registers and other documents using a fountain pen and black ink (not a biro, because ball point pen ink fades), and so he gave me a good fountain pen as an ordination present, which I have used ever since. Jim was a remarkably impressive man and an inspiration to all who knew him. His Christian faith kept him going and enabled him to help others.
The Greek New Testament from Bishop Timothy and fountain pen from Jim each served to remind me on 22 June of two of the many people who have inspired and helped me throughout my life as a Christian and a Priest. I humbly and gratefully thank God for them all.
God is invisibly active in the world, the whole time. We are each woven into a sort-of spider’s-web of Divine activity, which extends around the world, through history and into eternity. God reaches out to us in many ways, especially through Baptism, Holy Communion and the other sacraments, the Bible, prayer and worship, the lives and prayers of the saints. God also uses the other people we meet as we go through life to guide and shape us. An example, a prayer, a word, an act of kindness, even a smile, can all be used by God in His service.
I am sure that like me, you can think of all sorts of people who God has used to help and shape you in your Christian life. We need to allow God to use us in His service. Sometimes we may be aware of serving God; but for much of the time we shall be entirely unaware of some of the most important things we have done in the Lord’s service. The important thing is that we seek to be faithful Christians and sincerely pray ‘Thy will be done.’
In the words of a familiar old hymn:
Thy way, not mine, O Lord,
However dark it be;
Lead me by thine own hand,
Choose out the path for me.
Not mine, not mine, the choice
In all things great or small;
Be thou my Guide, my Strength,
My Wisdom, and my All.
[English Hymnal, 505]
With my love and prayers,
Father Robert.
Trinity 4- 28th June 2026.
Let me begin with some words from today’s Gospel:
Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.
That image stuck in my mind – even a cup of cold water. It was the great Biblical scholar St Jerome who pointed out the significance of cold water: these people were so poor they couldn’t even afford even a little fire to heat up warm water. We can’t begin to imagine such acute poverty. We here see Jesus talking to the people at the very bottom of Hebrew society and telling them that they matter to God, just like anyone else; and, just like anyone else, they too can serve God. They might not be rich or powerful, and they might not have much to offer; but it’s not what we do, Jesus tells them, it’s why we do it. Our actions stem from, and are guided by, our faith. A cup of cold water is a very small thing; but given with Christian love to someone who is thirsty, it turns into a very big thing.
All Christians must learn the lesson, as the years pass by, that God is most often to be found and worshipped in the nitty-gritty of everyday life: peeling the potatoes, going to the supermarket, looking after the family, doing our work. Someone once noted that in his Rule for Monks the great St Benedict spends more time writing about the reception of visitors to the monastery than about prayer.
St Benedict, as I say, had grasped the important insight that in the Christian life, little things matter. We wouldn’t be very impressed by a Christian who was honest in big matters, but not in little ones. Our Christianity must affect the small things of our lives as well as the big ones. After all, Christianity is not an escape from reality, but a journey into the heart of divine reality, which is supposed to affect the whole of our life.
Over the past few Sundays we have been working our way through the Gospel according to St Matthew. We have seen St Matthew’s great concern for the spread of Christianity. If I might paraphrase his message: We have Good News, St Matthew says, and we can’t keep it all to ourselves, we must share it with the men and women around us.
This is a task for all the Baptised, not just the clergy. We are all ambassadors for Christ, all the time. I recall a remark made by Bishop Lindsay Urwin at an annual Church conference held at a holiday camp at Caister. One of the ladies from the kitchen came up to the Bishop and said, “We always look forward to having your group here every year: you’re so much nicer than most of the other people we get.” Even when we doing something as mundane as carrying our trays of food through a canteen, we are still witnesses to Jesus Christ. People notice how we behave in small things. It’s not much good being a good Christian on Sunday, but being an uncaring employer or a bad employee during the week. Big things may go over people’s heads, but they notice little things – cups of cold water.
We should also recall that it is most frequently the little things of our lives that bind us closer to God and to each other, and enable us to grow as Christians. My mind goes back to a little old lady from Yorkshire I once met at Nashdom Abbey who observed to me:“Most people will help in a crisis: it’s what you’re like the rest of the time that matters.” Precisely. God wants us to be Christians on Wednesday afternoons as well as on Sunday mornings, when we’re in the pub as well as when we’re kneeling at the altar.
In all aspects of our lives, little things, done with Christian love, matter a lot.