Sermon: Baptism and Launch of the Patrons
The Very Revd Victor Stock is Dean of Guildford
- Preacher:
- Victor Stock
- Date:
- Sunday 8th May 2011
- Service:
- Eucharist
Fifty years ago, to everyone’s amazement, and I use the words advisedly, Guildford Cathedral was consecrated in the presence of HMQ. As Dean Wedderspoon told us on Easter Day, it had seriously been suggested that the unfinished Cathedral be pulled down, but a combination of faith and energy in Walter Bolton, Provost of the Pro-Cathedral at Holy Trinity, and his friendship with the unquenchable Miss Eleanora Iredale, routed the opposition, and welcomed the Queen to witness Bishop George Reindorp consecrating with Holy Oil the walls of this marvellous place. All this, the result of friendship, and how much friendship there is to be thankful for today, though Miss Iredale was a friend you probably wanted to avoid if you were the managing director of a Surrey firm when she asked you to get out your chequebook. Eleanora Iredale was never slow in coming forward.
So, the Cathedral Friends, those of us who give regularly and sacrificially through our stewardship, and all who have supported us through generous gifts, legacies and donations, form a marvellous band of friends who today welcome the establishment of the Patrons of Guildford Cathedral. What we need from you, all of you, are introductions, names, suggestions and people we can approach to secure the development of this Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit as we begin our second fifty years of service to the Diocese and the counties that look to this place as their Mother Church.
How fitting then that at this Cathedral Eucharist we should not only officially launch the Patrons, but baptise Samuel, because in the deepest sense Sam’s parents, grandparents, godparents and friends are launching him on the ocean of the Christian life and on the back of their own faith they, and the whole congregation, are Sam’s patrons.
What happens in Baptism? The candidate, adult or child, comes before God asking for that which nature cannot provide – baptismal regeneration, the gift that not even the most loving parents, grandparents, godparents, friends and patrons can provide, the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. The water is blessed with a prayer of thanksgiving that makes it powerful for good. Sam will be signed with the Cross, an extraordinary thing to do to a baby, to put upon that little head the mark of Christ’s sacrifice, the mark of a self-giving death, with oil made holy by the Bishop here in this Cathedral on Maundy Thursday. Powerful water, holy oil and the giving of a light, a baptismal candle, lit from the Easter candle, that candle from which all other light spread in the Cathedral on Holy Saturday, cared for this morning, because Sam’s little hands are not yet entirely sure of their grasp, by his patrons, his godparents, parents, grandparents and friends.
Building this Cathedral was an act of faith, an astonishing story setting out in the Great Depression when many wise people thought the venture fool-hardy. Then, the resistance to pulling down the uncompleted quire, but forging ahead with Walter Bolton and Eleanora Iredale and their friendship.
Samuel, we welcome you into the household of faith. We’re just as uncertain and sinful, ignorant and needy as all other human beings, but we know that we need God’s patronage. For patrons in the ancient Roman world, that is the context of the birth of Christianity, were the powerful friends at court, those who could plead the client’s case and put in a good word in the right quarters.
The Deans of the Church of England have just been meeting for their annual conference. We’ve had a lovely three days in Exeter and Truro, and our consensus would be that the most important things cathedrals should strive for are hospitality and friendship. Today, here, the launch of the Patrons is an invitation to experience the hospitality of this place, its beauties and its mission to a needy world, and our welcome to Sam is an invitation by all of us, his friends, to acknowledge, like the rest of us, that we can’t manage on our own, but that we need the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.
Baptising a child, like baptising an adult, is a solemn, serious and amazing event. Water of power, oil of grace, a light to be carried; the recognition that we can’t manage on our own, but that if we’re humble enough to ask for help from our friends, we will receive it.