In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Heritage

'I saw three men in green'. It was an outrage; whatever was going on? Such preposterous activity, so extreme, nothing short of popery! But the facts had to be verified, and so it was that, in the summer of 1866, Bishop Tate, then Bishop of London, sent the Dean of Westminster, Dr Stanley to visit S. Alban Holborn, that most notorious of high Churches, so that he could find out for himself whether the rumours and the reports were true. When he returned to Fulham Palace, his Lordship asked him what he had seen? He replied. 'I saw three men in green' - but wisely added and we might say, with hindsight, somewhat prophetically - 'and you will find it hard to put them down!'

And here we all are, 150 Years later, enjoying the full privileges of the catholic faith. We have not been put down and, what's more brothers and sisters, we are not going to be put down! Here we are and here we will remain, taking our rightful place in our beloved Church of England. Yes, today we gather as Anglican, Catholic Christians to Stand up for Jesus, affirming Catholicism in the fullest sense.

So what were they doing that was so dreadful, those three men in green? What was worth fighting for? What was the point they were making? Why did they bother to go to such extraordinary lengths and at such personal risk, even to be sent to prison?

The answer of course is very simple... they were seeking to express the Christian faith in a way which would both capture and transform the hearts and minds of those they were seeking to serve. They were trying to embody the faith in ways that would speak of the Glory of God! Everything they did was for the sake of Mission, to bring the Good news of Jesus Christ to the communities in which they ministered. The Icon of our Society remains to this day that of Fr. Charles Lowder. When all other professional people had fled from the area around London Docks he carried that sick child in his arms to the London Hospital.

These men ministered in some of the poorest areas of our land. They believed that Christ was to be found in the fragile brokenness of human lives, that he was there in the mess as well as in the Mass. The Mass was that point of meeting where everything was transformed and the vision of glory was realized, and still today it is true. All of us who dare to call ourselves Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England continue this incarnational ministry, recognising the presence of Christ in each other as well as in the awesome mystery of the Mass.

Pope John Paul

We meet today at a very special moment in the Church's history as one of the greatest pontificates has just come to an end and we take our leave of one who has embodied the life of the church on earth in his dynamic person: Pope John Paul II.

Do you remember that great day, during his visit to these islands, when he went to Canterbury? I watched it on television. Bishop Richard was there carrying the cross of Canterbury in front of Archbishop Runcie. Those incredible scenes when he entered the cathedral with the huge burst of applause that greeted him will always live in our memories. The challenge he presented to us was Christ's own challenge - that the church might be one, even as the Son and the Father are one. But what has happened to that vision for unity? Can you imagine that scene happening again?

It must be our vocation as Anglican Catholic Christians to rekindle that vision for unity that the late Pope bequeathed to us and recall the church to the Rock from which it was hewn, that in the 21st Century there will indeed come about a unity of all Christian people which today seems such a far-distant dream. To resist anything and everything that would stifle that dream or destroy that task, this is our calling. To remind the Church that its vocation to be one is its first Credal hallmark. The Church's unity gives it its identity and fosters its credibility in a broken and divided world. Ours is the job to make that dream come true. It is indeed a mighty task!

So how do we do it? We do it by saying what those three men in green were saying. It is not just the people at 'Stand up for Jesus' who are Catholics. It's the clergy in grey suits from that large charismatic evangelical parish who are catholic priests, if they did but know it! It's the low church village parson, at matins in his scarf and hood who is a catholic priest, if he did but know it. It is every single Anglican man, woman and child who are catholic Christians, if they did but know it.

I am dissatisfied that we who know we are Catholics are content to settle to be merely a party within the Church of England. This is a shabby second-best. The claim of the Oxford Movement was that the whole Church of England is catholic by its very nature and they started to behave like it.

We are not a national protestant church. The Church of England - the Anglican Communion throughout the world - is part of the one holy, catholic and apostolic church. That is what we stand for - the Church of Jesus Christ - the Universal Church that He has called us to serve for the sake of His kingdom, so that His will may be done on earth, as in heaven.

The Task in hand

Our task as SSC, as Anglo Catholics, is to stop being a party in the Church of England and to proclaim in love to each and every brother and sister Anglican that they are brother and sister Catholics too. And our task is to proclaim to the Church of England and to the Anglican Communion the truth, that it is but a part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and that we must live, and so 'order' our lives, in ways that are true to who we are. When the Anglican Communion opts to behave in any way that is contrary to its catholic identity, it is being untrue to its very self.

Our anxieties mustn't make us introspective

But our identity as the Church, our selfhood, is Christ's selfhood. We are the Body of Christ. And, of course, we most fully become Christ's Body when we receive Christ's Body. And this draws our attention not inwards, but out to the world in which we live. Because, whatever else the New Testament might teach us about the Eucharist, it is clear that it is an act of gospel proclamation: we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is not an activity for a chosen few, a holy huddle. As our Archbishop reminded us on Thursday when he spoke to the clergy immediately before flying to Rome: 'Worship and mission are the two motors of the Church.' The bread which we break and which is the very presence of Christ, has come down from heaven, to give life to the world, not just to the Church. And it is for the World that we are called to break bread. Not just for ourselves. We fail in this vocation, if all we do is to talk amongst ourselves. We can be good at putting up the barriers and defining the boundaries, trying to create a 'safe' space for ourselves and our like. Christ did not die to save the church. No. He died to save the WORLD. It is the Eucharist which makes the Church, for everyone to be saved through him for ever.

Strangers

In that wonderful Gospel story that we have heard again today the world and the Eucharist are inextricably intertwined. The Risen Christ is only recognized after the disciples have found space in their minds and in their homes for a supposed stranger. This hospitality to people who are unfamiliar or strange to us will need to be part of our Catholic, Eucharistic life too. Not for nothing did St Benedict instruct his monks to receive every guest, every stranger, as if it were Christ himself. No. We mustn't be clubby and introspective. My prayer for you today is that your parishes and chaplaincies will be Eucharistic communities where strangers are welcome and in them Christ will be recognized. Those strangers might be people from different parts of the world; they might be asylum seekers; they might be people who are much richer or much poorer, much cleverer or much less intelligent than you are; those strangers might be people who live a different lifestyle to yours. The Emmaus story is one of our most treasured portrayals of the Eucharistic life. It is only when the bread is broken with the stranger that Christ is recognized. Let it be our Catholic care to recognize Christ in the stranger as readily and joyfully as we recognize him the Blessed Sacrament.

The Supper at Emmaus

When that bread is broken at Emmaus, Christ is recognized and strangers become friends. You may remember that great painting by Caravaggio called "The Supper at Emmaus", indeed you may have seen it recently in the National Gallery in the special exhibition now showing. Here it is. It captures perfectly the scene at the supper table: the light floods down onto the table and reflects the youthful face of the Risen Christ now transformed. The two disciples are totally awe struck; their gestures are not ones which would suggest they are recoiling from the presence of the stranger in the midst. Rather they know who it is and they embrace his presence before them. The innkeeper looks on quite clearly out of it and not understanding the significance of what is happening. The way the table is set draws us in as if we were supposed to be taking that spare place. The good food is almost falling into our laps. Jesus Christ, that stranger, is our Great High Priest and he invites us to his supper table. He is our Host and the place is set for us, it's where we belong.

Good Food

Having good food on the table is, of course, quite a current theme. Wasn't it shocking to hear from Jamie Oliver recently that the government spent on average the grand sum of 37p on school dinners (I spend a bit more than that on my dinner, as you might imagine). And the school children were shocked to learn from Jamie Oliver just what junk went into their favourite fast food and just how unnutritious it was.

In the Caravaggio picture, the man on the right is wearing the badge of a pilgrim. Like us, he is on the road, making his way through life. He and we need good food to sustain us on that pilgrimage of life. Christ gives us that food. It costs more than 37p. It costs no less than the life of the one who gives it. The food that Christ gives is no junk food. It is treasure, which makes friends out of strangers by drawing each to Jesus. It is Christ's very self and in it he gives us his strength and his grace to journey through life. And more than that: he feeds us with his Body so that we may become his Body, so that his work of reconciling the whole world to the Father might continue even in us, his Church, so our hearts, too, must burn within us.

Today

Today we look back with gratitude and, yes, with some pride at the life and witness of our Catholic forebears in the Society of the Holy Cross, who knew that the Church becomes the Body of Christ when it receives the Body of Christ. Those Fathers knew too that it was in the stranger that they would meet Jesus, and their sacrificial ministry in tough parishes made the strangers to whom they ministered into friends in whom they met the Lord. Those Fathers knew that the Body of Christ was called to be one unity, not a fractured multiplicity. 'And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England's mountains green?' No they did not! But how lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. The good news of Jesus Christ was brought to us on England's mountains green by others and it was brought to us from Rome, from Augustine, from Gregory, from Peter. Those early Fathers in SSC knew that and we know it too.

Forward

Today we bear witness to all that we have received in the heritage of our Catholic movement in the Church of England. Today we restate our determination to remain true to the ideals that have formed us. How often do we fail to Stand up for Jesus? The light of faith can be all too easily extinguished, and our hears cease to burn within us. Today we commit ourselves to embrace the future with courage and determination. Whatever the future may hold - Christ is our Future. May we recognize him in the good food he gives us, in the breaking of bread. May we recognize him in the hospitality we show to one another and in our engagement with the stranger. May we hasten the day when we, as the Body of Christ, reflect his glorious Body better, when we stop turning away from our fellow Catholic Christians but come to full communion with them.

And we are called above all to love the Church and to love her Lord - the eternal high priest, who lives and reigns at the Father's right hand. He asks us to be faithful to the vision he has given us. Keeping our eyes fixed on the rock from which we are hewn, we look once again for a new dawn for our Catholic movement.

A new universal primacy is about to begin. We live at a seminal moment. This is a crucial time for invigorating our Catholic future. With the Cross of Jesus going before us, and with him at our side, we go forward in faith, in hope and in love. Our heats are on fire, yes, they do burn within us. We will continue to dig that pit for the Cross, to stand firm and prepare to stand out. Under God, in the power of the Cross all things are possible! In this sign we will conquer, and together - together - we will Stand up for Jesus.