On Sunday we all go to church. In fact we all go to York Minster and that is always a treat. This morning ++Sentamu was presiding and ++Justin was preaching. The Minster was full and it was all very lovely. The Archbishop preached about the state of the nation and the need for reconciliation and the role that we, as the Church of England, have in helping with that. I am sure he is right, the question we were asking each other as we walked back from the Minster to the University was ‘How?’.
The Eucharist at the Minster always ends in the same way. The organ plays as the altar party leaves and the choir follows and then as they reach a certain place in the nave they take over singing a setting of Psalm 150, unaccompanied and to a chant by ‘George Surtees Talbot (1875-1918) sometime Vicar Choral of York Minister’ as it says in the order of service. The treble voices soar at the end of each verse and as the choir moves out of the nave and into the choir aisle the sound becomes more distant and more ethereal. Even Google seems to know little more about Talbot apart from that he published one book. There is no picture available online, nothing but these beautiful notes which much captivate thousands of people each year as the Eucharist ends and they prepare to leave the Minster ‘To love and serve the Lord’. Leaving with the ‘beauty of holiness’ ringing in our ears must be part of the response we need to make to the nation, witnessing to the reality of our reconciling God, being salt and light, being bridge-builders, truth-tellers, peace-makers.
So we are back at the University and after lunch back to an afternoon of business. Sunday afternoons should be about sleeping off a big roast lunch (with Yorkshire Pudding) and a bottle of claret with your feet on the sofa and a Doris Day film on the tele. Not for us. We will begin with Safeguarding Questions followed by a presentation on Safeguarding. As the IICSA (Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse) continues and members of the Church of England are being called to give evidence and we are hearing the voices of survivors, these will be important pieces of business.
Then we will move on to a debate that has been ongoing for years and years and years, the discussions between the Methodist Church and the Church of England. This debate is called ‘Mission and Ministry in Covenant’ and will call on the church to move forward. I will be chairing this debate so I will say no more, only what a delight it was to sing one of the great hymns by Charles Wesley, ‘And can it be’. That final verse should be ringing in our ears as much as the lovely Psalm 150.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Then this Session will finish with a debate on a motion from the Diocese of Southwark on ‘Refugee Professionals’. It will encourage us to see refugees as a gift and not an ‘issue’, not a ‘problem’, arriving as so many do with the most amazing skills and professional backgrounds, which are so often ignored, so often wasted.
So, a busy and very serious afternoon. So if you are watching Doris Day with your feet up, enjoy, and spare a thought for us.
Holy Spirit,
guide our thoughts,
our words,
our actions,
that filled with the beauty of your holiness
we may serve the world.
Amen.
Andrew Nunn's reflections from General Synod 
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