Thursday, May 12, 2011

The Royal Wedding: Analysis of the Bishop of London's Sermon


The Royal Wedding: Analysis of the Bishop of London's Sermon

Ms Ruth Gledhill1 hour ago

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The day after the Royal Wedding, the coverage of The Times was exemplary. Many people have asked me to publish an online version of my analysis of the Bishop of London's sermon, pictured here from our souvenir edition of Saturday April 30. So I do so now! On the right of the photograph, note the boys of the Chapel Royal, St James' Palace, in their distinctive uniform. Our son has just become a chorister with the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace. All the boys watched the wedding avidly, studying not the clothes, nor the hats, but the musculature of the boys from St James'. The reason? On 22 May there is a shared Evensong followed by a football match at St James' Palace when the two choirs take each other on. Our boys are the littlest because they start from the age of seven, while the St James' boys are all at the City of London school and much bigger and older. Last year we won a rare victory so this year we are Defenders of the Trophy. Wish them luck!

After that little digression, which I can justify because of the additional link that the Dean of the Chapels Royal is Richard Chartres, here's my analysis.

The Bishop of London's Address, with notes.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.
Opens with a quote from a 14th-century nun who achieved power over the men who sought to control her life and marry her off by fasting. St Catherine wrote of her own 'mystical marriage' with Jesus. She died at 33, the same age as Christ.
Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.  
In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.
William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
In Christian theology, God's relationship with humanity through the gift of his son is the model for marriage between a man and a woman. The last book of the Bible, Revelation, has a glorious description of the 'marriage of the lamb'. The Bishop, who confirmed the new Duchess shortly before the wedding, is telling the world that this is a committed Christian couple taking on a Chrisitan commitment.
And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another.
A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.
It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. And people can dream of doing such a thing but the hope should be fulfilled it is necessary a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.
Here he is being pastor to the couple but using it as an opportunity to be pastor to the watching world. Commitment, he makes clear, means having the capacity to forgive. That means not just embracing some vague concept not to be selfish. It means making a firm, positive decision to be unselfish in love.
You have both made your decision today – “I will” – and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.
We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.
Knowledge can never be a bad thing but it alone, unaccompanied by love, will be fruitless. This wedding was the first big royal wedding of the internet age. The Church has been among the most eager to embrace the opportunities, but has also been careful to examine the spiritual implications. What the bishop says here can be summed up in one word: 'Respect'.
Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:
“Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon,
Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon.”
The Franklin's Tale is a story of temptation, debt and equality with nothing at all of the fairytale in it, but which is honest about the potential for betrayal and redemption within the complexity of love. If anyone wonders how the couple can make things work against all the pressures, Chaucer has the secret: gentillesse, a French word for which it is, notably, hard to find a true English translation.

As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.
Christians in Britain have been bewailing the advance of secularism, sometimes referred to as aggressive secularism. The Bishop gently spells out the cost of the West's retreat from God. No person, he says, can meet the entirety of another's needs. Only God can do that.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practise and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.
I pray that all of us present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today, will do everything in our power to support and uphold you in your new life. And I pray that God will bless you in the way of life that you have chosen, that way which is expressed in the prayer that you have composed together in preparation for this day:
God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The sermon ends with the couple's personally written prayer, a testament to the genuine Christian commitment that they have made. It was not in the order of service yet was possibly the most significant part. The Church is now offering it as a wedding prayer for all to use.


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I actually 'went' to the wedding, after a fashion. I was among the few journalists assigned to St Margaret's Church next to Westminster Abbey where we watched everything on a fabulous feed from Clarence House on a huge screen, and heard the cheers from the crowds outside as the bride said: 'I will.' This is me and an old colleague at The Times, Boris Johnson, at the back of the Abbey. I am wearing Caroline Charles, Armani, Jimmy Choo shoes and my great aunt Lady Warr's old rose diamond brooch. I've decided not to regret the shoes, even though I ended the day with my feet literally dripping with blood after massive blisters meant I was forced to remove them. I spent the rest of the morning after the wedding walking the streets of London, barefoot.

Here links to some of my other Royal Wedding stories in The Times:

The ceremony: a message of love and hope


Traditional yet modern, formal yet relaxed, uxorious yet innocent, grand yet humble. From the flourish with which the Archbishop of Canterbury donned his gold and red mitre to solemnise the marriage, to the statesmanlike gravity with which the Bishop of London expounded on marriage, the


Cartwheeling verger set for stardom


An exuberant verger cartwheeled along the red carpet-lined aisle of Westminster Abbey as he celebrated the royal wedding. The clergyman waited until some 1,900 guests had left the abbey before seizing his chance to cartwheel down the carpet William and Kate had just walked along for the

Couple’s prayer to ‘serve and comfort the suffering’


The newly married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today published a special prayer written for their ceremony in which they asked God to help them “serve and comfort those who suffer”. They also asked for spiritual guidance to maintain focus on the things that mattered, and that they


Kate will not promise to ‘obey' Prince William



Kate Middleton will not promise to “obey” Prince William when the Archbishop of Canterbury solemnises their marriage at Westminster Abbey. Instead, like the Prince’s mother before her, she will pledge “to love and to cherish” her husband “till death us do part”. The choice of service

Royal couple choose traditional service


Prince William and Kate Middleton have chosen a traditional-language version for their marriage service, a decision taken partly to honour the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible this year. The Prince of Wales is patron of the King James Bible Trust, set up to celebrate the



Courage and clarity - Archbishop's wish for royal couple



The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for Prince William and Catherine Middleton to have “courage” and “clarity” as they embark on their public life together at Westminster Abbey next week. Dr Williams, who will officiate as the couple say “I do” and vow to love and cherish each

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