Dear friends,

Welcome to my latest update, including a copy of my homily from yesterday, Remembrance Sunday. Just a short email this week. I’m in the midst of a series of four parochial church council meetings and my time is a little more stretched than usual!

Please note that details of all our events and services are on the website: middleESKmoor.org.

With all good wishes,

Anthony

The Collect - Our Gathering Prayer for Remembrance Sunday

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Bible Reading - Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 

Homily at St Hilda’s, Egton

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and redeemer. Amen.

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

Those were the central part of Jesus’ words that formed his Sermon on the Mount that we’ve just heard. Our task, all of us here, as the children of God, is to be the peacemakers: to strive for peace in our world; to strive for justice and mercy. Peace, justice and mercy are at the heart of the message we hear from Jesus, resounding down the centuries. They are characteristics we can aim to put at the centre of our individual lives. But these are characteristics for society as a whole; for the world as a whole. And we need to play our part collectively if we are going to bring peace, mercy and justice to all peoples. That collective purpose, of course, is not an easy one. Far from it. We will hear the names shortly of a number of brave people who died in pursuit of that collective purpose. Sadly, many people from many countries are still dying in the pursuit of that collective purpose: the calling to bring peace, justice and mercy to all the nations.

I wonder, in what ways are each of us the peacemakers?

In my job I tend to find myself trying to resolve lots of little conflicts between people. And I have the honour and the privilege of being able to stand here in front of you talking about peace, justice and mercy: opening the pages of the Bible and hopefully retelling the story of Jesus for us, today, in this place, in 2023.

I’m sure that each of you, in a myriad of different ways, are acting out our collective calling to be the peacemakers.

Other clergy, ordained priests like me, serve in many different ways. The majority serve in parishes like me, but a significant number work as prison, hospital, workplace and military chaplains. As part of my ordination training, I served as a prison chaplain. I’ll tell you more about that another day.

A friend from back in Oxenhope, where I lived before moving over here six months ago, has been researching the role of military chaplains in the First World War.

He’s been working on a PhD thesis for a number of years. He says that, by the end of the First World War, there were about 4000 British military chaplains serving on or near the front lines, fully embedded with the troops. And, he also says that it was commonplace for small holy communion services to take place just before soldiers were sent into action: assuring those about to sacrifice their earthly lives, that the body and blood of Jesus sustains them in this world and the next: the place where there is no more war, no more suffering, no more pain. Those military chaplains, those peacemakers, ensured that the peace, justice and mercy of our Lord Jesus was with those who lost their lives.

There are currently just under 200 fulltime chaplains serving in the British Army. I’d like to read you now a short piece that the Reverend Canon Grant Ashton wrote, one of those chaplains, following his experience on active service. Grant used to be the Assistant Chaplain General, and he was Honorary Chaplain to the late Queen Elizabeth the Second. He currently serves as a parish priest and assistant Archdeacon in Blackburn Diocese.

“I can tell you what it was like to go to the Gulf War in one word: horrible. You say goodbye to your family and you don’t know when, or if, you’ll be back. You arrive in an environment like nowhere you’ve ever been before. You get up well before dawn and you go to bed well after dark. If you’re lucky, the siren doesn’t go off in the night to tell you that you’re under attack. Sometimes you don’t need the siren because you can hear the explosions nearby. And then, of course, there are people who want to kill you. And when the fighting starts there are the dead, the dying and the wounded to deal with. And as an Army Chaplain, which I was for 25 years, you carry no weapon.

“Time and again soldiers would express their disbelief that anyone would be in that situation without the means to defend themselves, especially during my two years in Northern Ireland. But the unarmed thing is important. The Army Chaplain has a ministry in war: to be a messenger of hope in the chaos, to be an agent of God’s love in the tragedy, to be a light in the darkest of places, to point towards peace, justice and mercy.

“He or she does that by acts of love, by praying, by preaching, by all the normal tasks of Christian ministry. But the lack of a weapon is key because it points to a time when swords will be beaten into ploughshares and, as such, he or she is a sign of the kingdom. Vulnerability gives credibility.

“Being the church during the current conflicts around the world is not easy. We are as vulnerable as anyone else. But we are still the church, we are still God’s people called to love him and our neighbour, we still have a gospel to proclaim. And Jesus is still Lord. The fact that we feel weak and helpless means that God’s strength can be at work; the fact that we feel that there are cracks in the jar means that God’s light can shine through.”

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

May the Lord bless each of us as we strive to continue to be the peacemakers in this, our troubled world.

Amen.

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The Reverend Anthony Bennett

Interim Minister – the Benefice of Middle ESK Moor
middleESKmoor.org

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Quote from the Revd Canon Grant Ashton, formerly Assistant Chaplain General, QHC, Assistant Archdeacon in Blackburn Diocese (adapted in places).

These two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:

Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.

Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.