In last month’s newsletter reference was made of a Service of Reconciliation between the Church of England and The United Reformed Church in Westminster Abbey. It was a truly inspiring service. It was attended by Tom Birch, who was there as a guest of Fr Paul Benfield, vicar, St Nicholas’ church.
Order of Service
THE INTROIT: Delight thou in the Lord: and he shall give thee thy heart’s desire. (Music: Humphrey Clucas. Words: Psalm 37:4.)
THE REFORMED PASTOR (Richard Baxter) read by Geoffrey Streatfield
HYMN: Ye holy angels bright (Music: John Darwall. Words: Richard Baxter.)
THE BIDDING: The Very Revd Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster & Mrs Val Morrison, Moderator, General Assembly, the United Reformed Church.
- A FAREWELL SERMON (John Oldfield, Presbyterian, ejected from his living in Carsington, Derbyshire) read by the Revd Dr Michael Jagessar, Moderator-Elect, General Assembly, the United Reformed Church 2012-2014.
ANTHEM: Drop, drop, slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet (Music: Orlando Gibbons. Words: Phineas Fletcher.)
AN HISTORICAL TESTIMONY (The Rt Revd Brian Duppa, Bishop of Salisbury 1641-60 & Bishop of Winchester 1660-62) read by the Ven George Howe, Chaplain & Chief of Staff ton the Bishop of Carlise, & Diocesan Director of Ordinands)
THE ACT OF PENITENCE led by the Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, Primate of England and Metropolitan, and the Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe,. Moderator, General Assembly, the United Reformed Church.
HYMN: Give me the wings of faith to rise within the veil (Music: Adapted from Thomas Haweis. Words: Isaac Watts.)
- READING: Ephesians 4:1-16 by Mrs Margaret Swinson, Vice-Chair, Church of England Council for Christian Unity
THE ADDRESS: The Most Revd & Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan
THE ANTHEM: O be joyful in the Lord (Music: William Walton. Words: Psalm 100.)
TESTIMONIES by The Revd Keith Hitchman, Pioneer Minister for River in the City, Diocese of Liverpool; the Revd Timothy Meadows, Liverpool City Centre United Reformed Church; the Revd Ruth Whitehead, minister, Whittlesford and Pampisford Local Ecumenical Partnership and Duxford United Reformed Church
SONG: Send me, Jesus, send me (Music & Words: South African traditional)
THE ACT OF RECOMMITMENT led by the Rt Revd James Newcome, Bishop of Carlisle; the Revd Elizabeth Welch, Co-Chair, United Reformed Church/Church of England Study Group; the Ven Dr Joy Tetley, Co-Chair, United Reformed Church/Church of England Study Group; the Revd Robertha Rominger, General Secretary, United Reformed Church.
- THE PEACE led by the Revd Kirsty Thorp and the Archbishop of York.
- HYMN: For the healing of the nations (Music: Rhuddlan. Words: Fred Kaan.)
- READING: St John 17:20-23 by the Revd Dr David Cornick, General Secretary, Churches Together in England
THE BLESSING
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Why such a service, which was also one of healing memories and mutual commitment for The Church of England and The United Reformed Church? To quote from the order of service:
“The significance of this service for both our churches is rooted in history – in the turbulent events of the mid-seventeenth century. Historians still argue over the relative importance of constitutional, religious, and social elements in the English Civil War, What is clear is that the Parliament summoned in 1640 to provide finance for King Charles I’s policy in Scotland was originally united in rejecting what they regarded as the King’s unconstitutional actions in the eleven years since Parliament had last met. However, when those who thought that the Reformation of 1559 had not gone far enough tried to press their views, that original unity disappeared. With Scottish assistance, the Puritans within the Church of England pressed their demands and a civil war followed.
The Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643-49), appointed by Parliament, produced a new Confession of Faith (never adopted by Parliament) and a Directory of Worship to replace the Prayer Book. The Christian Year disappeared with its feasts and fasts. Episcopacy was abolished and the bishops went abroad or lay low. Cathedral foundations were dissolved. The archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, and later the king, Charles I, fell to the executioner’s axe. Large numbers of traditional Anglican clergy suffered deprivation and hardship, and ministers of Presbyterian and Independent views took their places in the parish churches, cathedrals, and universities. Many ordinary people were bewildered by what was happening.
Charles II’s promise of liberty to tender consciences in the Declaration of Breda encouraged Parliament to invite him to return, and the monarchy was restored in 1660. But the new Parliament elected in that year was less willing to compromise; and after the failure of churchmen to agree at the Savoy Conference, the Act of Uniformity was approved in 1662. The Prayer Book, and with it Episcopal ordination and jurisdiction, was reimposed in its definitive forms. Charles I was commemorated liturgically as a martyr.
Those ministers who, on theological grounds, could not accept the requirements of the Act of Uniformity were forced to leave and many hundreds did. Many suffered hardship in what became known as The Great Ejection. The Church of England suffered too, by the loss of approximately one-fifth of its clergy, many of them ministers of the highest calibre, while the ejected ministers (some of whom later conformed) increasingly threw their lot in with those Baptists and Congregationalists who had not accepted the livings during the Cromwellian period.
After a lengthy period of doctrinal flux and social disadvantage, in the early decades of the nineteenth century the Baptists and Congregationalists became organised as denominations of the kind with which we are familiar. In 1893 the Church of Scotland permitted the establishment of a Synod of English Presbyterians who, in 1849, constituted the ‘Presbyterian Church in England’, comprising Scots and the remnant of English Trinitarian Presbyterians of Old Dissent. In 1863 the English Synod of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed. These two bodies united in 1876 as the ‘Presbyterian Church of England’. This Church and the Congregational Church in England and Wales came together to form the United Reformed Church in 1972.
Thanks to the gradual removal of those civil disabilities to which Dissenters had been subject, and to the work of the ecumenical movement during the past century, feelings have changed. We are now able to acknowledge those events with sadness, without seeking to apportion blame. However, feelings of hurt and bitterness remain lodged in the folk memory of both churches. There is still a need for reconciliation and the healing of memories so that we can move ahead together in closer visible unity in obedience to our Lord’s will and prayer. We rejoice that in the present climate we are better placed than ever before to address and, with God’s help, to resolve the theological impediments that continue to divide us.
This year bring the 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection, but also sees the 40th anniversary of the inauguration of the United Reformed Church, which took place in Westminster Abbey, when Archbishop Michael Ramsey was among the guests of honour.
This service contains some echoes of the liturgy of forty years ago. Above all else, we will join together in the worship of God. At the beginning of the service some words from Richard Baxter, a moderate and reconciling scholar of this period, whom both our traditions honour, will be spoken. In special litanies we will express penitence for our part in perpetuating Christian disunity and offer prayers for the healing of memories and for grace to work more closely together, in study, prayer and mission, in the future.”
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For Tom the whole occasion was made complete when as a guest of the Bishop of Blackburn, and together with Fr Paul Benfield, he had dinner in the Peers’ Dining Room of the Houses of Parliament. He saw part of the parliament buildings which are not usually seen and are astounding. The bishop was a delightful host and he and the other guests made this ‘Dissenter’ amongst them very welcome. Tom records his thanks for and appreciation of Fr Paul’s company enabling an occasion which will stay in Tom’s memory for ever.