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Please note:

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

Radio 4 Opening Announcement:
It鈥檚 ten past eight. This morning鈥檚 Sunday Worship comes from Battle Abbey School. The preacher is the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, and the service is introduced by The Revd George Pitcher. It begins now as the school鈥檚 chamber choir sings the plainsong, Vexilla Regis, The Royal banners forward go.

MUSIC: Plainsong 鈥� Vexilla Regis VERSE ONE (3 verses)

WELCOME 鈥� George (outside, overlooking battlefield)

Good morning. I'm standing at the brow of the hill that King Harold tried to defend in the Battle of Hastings, which took place in the fields below me 950 years ago this week.

It was one of the most momentous and influential events in our nation's history. By all accounts it was a bloody battle, the culmination of William鈥檚 conquest and with a decisive result in the death of Harold. The high altar of the now ruined Abbey church near here is reputedly the exact spot where Harold died. The battle changed the course of England鈥檚 story and that of the British people. It remains the last time that our island was successfully invaded by a hostile enemy. The culture and technology of the Normans 鈥� they came with archers and cavalry against Harold鈥檚 already tired and battle hardened infantry - brought profound change which resonates to this day.听

VEXILLA REGIS VERSE 2

鈥�
George
This year, we have also been commemorating the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, a battle that had a deep impact in almost every town and village of Britain. Tragically, today we are still witnessing the听 carnage of war 鈥� in Syria, South Sudan听 and other parts of the world.

So we come together this morning, with young people from Battle Abbey School, and members of the local community joining our congregation, to re-affirm that there is another way, the road down听 which our God of peace and reconciliation leads us.

VEXILLA REGIS VERSE 3

George (prayer)
Our God, in Christ you send us out of the darkness of conflict and war and into the light of your Kingdom. Help us to trust that, in that place of perfect understanding and perfect love, death and crying and pain will be no more.
We make this prayer in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
ALL: Amen
Our first hymn affirms that promise - O God Our Help In Ages Past, our hope for years to come...

HYMN: O God our help in ages past
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

READING (LAUREN)
"Courage!" cries the voice of Harold, "hold but till nightfall, and ye are saved. Courage, and freedom."

"Harold and Holy Crosse!" is the answer.

"Forward," cries William, and he gallops towards the breach. On rush the Norman knights. But Harold is already in the breach, rallying around him hearts eager to replace the shattered breastworks. "Close shields! Hold fast!" shouts his kingly voice.

"Look up, look up, and guard thy head," cries the fatal voice of Haco to the King. At that cry the King raises his flashing eyes. Why halts his stride ? Why drops the axe from his hand ? As he raised his head, down came the hissing death shaft. It smote the lifted face; it crushed into the dauntless eyeball.

''Fight on," gasped the King, "conceal my death! Holy Crosse! England to the rescue! woe woe!"

GEORGE
Words of the Victorian biographer of Harold, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The Battle of Hastings was squalid and horrific. Some 2,000 Normans and 4,000 Englishmen died that day... the English dead left on the hillside by the triumphant Duke William of Normandy to rot, as a warning to the population right across the English countryside of what resistance would mean. Yet our Christian Church, then as now, sought to play its role in reconciliation and the making of a new peace...
鈥�
READING (PUPIL)
The sun had set, the first star was in heaven, the "Fighting Man" was laid low, and on that spot where now, all forlorn and shattered, amidst
stagnant water, stands the altar-stone of Battle Abbey, rose the glittering dragon that surmounted the consecrated banner of the Norman victor.

Close by his banner, amidst the piles of the dead, "William the Conqueror pitched his pavilion, and sate at meat. And as he sate, and talked, and laughed, there entered the tent two humble monks: their lowly mien, their dejected faces, their homely serge, in mournful contrast to the joy and the splendour of the Victory-Feast.

They came to the Conqueror, and knelt. "Rise up, sons of the Church," said William, mildly, "for sons of the Church are we! Deem not that we shall invade the rights of the religion which we have come to avenge. Nay, on this spot we have already sworn to build an abbey that shall be the proudest in the land.鈥�

At the east end of the choir in the Abbey of听 Waltham, was long shown the tomb of the last Saxon king, inscribed with the touching words
"Harold Infelix." But not under that stone, according to the chronicler who should best know the truth,* mouldered the dust of him in
whose grave was buried an epoch in human annals.
"Let his corpse," said William the Norman, "let his corpse guard the coasts, which his life madly defended. Let the seas wail his dirge,
and girdle his grave; and his spirit protect the land which hath passed to the Norman's sway."

CHOIR: L鈥檋omme arme 鈥� French Song

READER
A reading from Psalm 35.

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me;
听听 fight against those who fight against me!听
Take hold of shield and buckler,
听听 and rise up to help me!听
Draw the spear and javelin
听听 against my pursuers;
say to my soul,
听听 鈥業 am your salvation.鈥�
听
Let them be put to shame and dishonour
听听 who seek after my life.
Let them be turned back and confounded
听听 who devise evil against me.听
Let them be like chaff before the wind,
听听 with the angel of the Lord driving them on.听
Let their way be dark and slippery,
听听 with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
听
Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord,
听听 exulting in his deliverance.听
All my bones shall say,
听听 鈥極 Lord, who is like you?
You deliver the weak
听听 from those too strong for them,
听听 the weak and needy from those who despoil them.鈥�

听
GEORGE:

The Battle of Hastings is a staple of English childhood, perhaps the most readily recognisable date in school history 鈥� 1066 and All That. The Bayeaux Tapestry, created just a few years after the battle, records the legend 鈥� how Harold was slain with a Norman arrow to the eye. But it鈥檚 neither a tapestry nor French 鈥� it鈥檚 embroidery and it is Anglo-Saxon art鈥� a symbol, perhaps, of the early integration of Norman culture. 950 years on, a new generation reflects on what makes us the people we are today...

PUPIL REFLECTION 1 - JOSHUA
1066 - the most recognised date in English history, and it all happened in the fields right outside my school. Imagine the noise, - arrows flying like poisoned darts high in the air. Pikes 鈥� wood on wood, wood on metal, cries of victory and cries of anguish. Absolute frenzy. The stench and silence of death.

No boy of my age and living at the time of these events, could have imagined the transformation that would result

鈥�
PUPIL REFLECTION 2 鈥� HERMIONE
I don鈥檛 think people realise how terrifying it was to find out that there was an army coming to invade the country and that men were being sent away on foot to fight, and never knew if they were going to come home or not. Imagine you鈥檙e a soldier鈥檚 child and you鈥檙e hoping and praying to God to protect him and let him come home again. You also hope that no enemy turns up in your village!听听 Imagine working later on the Bayeux tapestry 鈥� perhaps you鈥檇 be a girl living in Kent where it might have been stitched鈥� depending on which side you鈥檙e on you鈥檙e embroidering a story of the victory or defeat of your people. The story unfolds as you sew it into place in beautiful embroidery鈥�the death of the old King Edward. Harold's crowning in Westminster Abbey, the news being carried across the channel to William, Duke of Normandy. William is furious - he claims that the throne of England should be his and sees Harold as a usurper. William decides to attack England and organises a fleet of warships. All this and more is recorded in the tapestry.听 The rest 鈥� as they say 鈥� is history鈥�.

CHOIR: Song of England - Louise Denny

There are no fields like those that lie under an English heav鈥檔;
Russet and brown, golden and green, from oxford to the Severn.
There are no hills like those that roll barebacked down to the sea.
Cradling the Sussex Villages from Firle to Chanctonbury.
There are no trees like those that stand firmly in Norman shires;
Oak, elm and ash, and beach below, the tallest poplar spires.
There were no men like those that died for freedom and her sons.
Edmund and Harold and Hereward, the story of England runs.
There are the fields and hills they knew who fell before the foe;
Gave to the countryside its peace a thousand years ago.
There were no men like those that died for freedom and her sons.
Edmund and Harold and Hereward, the story of England runs and runs. There are the fields and hills they knew, who fell before the foe; gave to the countryside its peace a thousand years ago.

鈥�
GEORGE
The Song of England, composed by Louise Denny with words by Randle Manwaring and sung by Battle Abbey School Choir, directed by John Langridge and accompanied by Julius Weeks. In a few moments we鈥檒l hear from听 our preacher today the Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Revd Dr Martin Warner. But first we hear words from the second Chapter of the Book of Isaiah.

BIBLE READING: ISAIAH 2.1-5 (HEADMASTER)

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the Lord鈥檚 house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, 鈥淐ome, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.鈥� For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

SERMON: Bishop of Chichester (PRE-RECORDED INSERT)

鈥淲hat have the Normans ever done for us?鈥澨� It鈥檚 a question that the Monty Python team famously almost asked in the satirical film, The Life of Brian.听 But it鈥檚 a serious question for us today, as we review the impact of the Norman conquest, following the Battle of Hastings 950 years ago.听

For us, in Sussex, there is a lot at stake here, because this was home to Harold, son of Godwin, who is charmingly depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry riding to Bosham, near Chichester, and going to church there.
That church still stands today, at the heart of a lively community on the edge of Chichester Harbour.听 Whenever I visit it, absorbing the centuries of prayer and worship that seep from its ancient stones, the question 鈥淲hat have the Normans ever done for us?鈥� begins to find an answer.

With the benefit of hindsight we can see that the years after 1066 were not about the euphoria of winning the battle of Hastings.听 They were about the much longer, costlier, and lasting achievement of building peace, establishing justice, providing education, nurturing the arts, and creating a safe and industrious society.听 And the Christian church played a significant part in that achievement.

Vast areas of England were re-organised into ecclesiastical districts or dioceses; in Sussex the听 diocese moved its centre to Chichester, where its bishop is still based.听 In other cities, the cathedral was rebuilt and retains today much of the form that the Normans gave it 鈥� most spectacularly in Durham.听听

Some of these centres were monastic, but all of them were served by a community in which education was an integral part of life.听 They were the schools of art in sculpture, calligraphy and the painted word, architecture and engineering, song and sacred music.听

Reading back into time, it would be wrong to view the 11th century through the best achievements of the high medieval age.听 The Battle of Hastings was just one of the birth pangs of that amazingly creative era.听 And like any birth, it involved pain and struggle.听

The value that we place today on what the Normans did for us ought not to mask the struggle to assimilate them into an existing culture.听 The legends of Robin Hood, who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, are also part of the resistance folklore of Saxon nobles who felt dispossessed by powerful, immigrant Normans.

These legends begin to ask moral questions about the quality of life in a society that is experiencing change and the growth of cultural diversity.听 They are questions that had surfaced many centuries earlier in the writing of the prophet Isaiah.听 Here we find an image that draws a sharp distinction between the destructive nature of the human desire for power, and the domestic context of the home.

The Lord, the God of Jacob, is a God of hospitality.听 鈥淐ome let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob鈥�.听 On the mountain of the Lord鈥檚 house, the nations of the earth find space to be at home.听

鈥�
Here is a forum, but not a law court or a bureaucracy, in which to learn how to live together.听 And their response to being there is that they refashion the weapons of war into the instruments of husbanding the earth 鈥� plowshares and pruning hooks 鈥� that will sustain life, not destroy it.

As we survey Europe 950 years after the birth pangs of its high medieval renaissance, the lessons on how to be at home with each other are urgent priorities for our international agenda.听

It is clear that we have put massive economic resources into how to destroy each other, and in many cases have done so to the detriment of the wellbeing of the earth itself, let alone her people.听

More specifically, and in recent weeks more harrowingly, in our news bulletins we have seen, in Syria, but not only there, a truly shocking disregard for the sanctity of the home, and the vulnerability of children, the men and women who care for them, and the sick and suffering who cannot care for themselves.听

In marked contrast to the vision of Isaiah, weapons have been turned upon the home, the symbolic and sacred place where we learn to live together.听 We have devastated, not cultivated the earth, ignoring the warnings it gives of our threat to the sustainability of life for future generations.

Today in Britain, I believe that the Christian Church has an indispensable contribution to make to learning how we live together.听 Our Church of England schools, educating over a million pupils are part of this, as is the army of 80,000 church-going Anglican volunteers, who enrich the lives of young people and their families, irrespective of faith, or any other human condition and status.听 But there is more.

As Christians, we also believe that every person of faith and religious conviction, Christian or otherwise, has a particular contribution to make towards the culture of being at home with each other.听

In the sweep of world politics it is evident that we are now in a post-secular era that has to take into account the power of faith.听 As Christians who proclaim that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, we also find within our inherited scriptures words of peace and hope that shape a vision for all nations on the earth.听

Looking back to the battle of Hastings in the dawn of the last millennium, we see what the Normans did then, we have to do together today.听 We have to win the peace, not a battle. Their vast churches 鈥� major feats of engineering at the time 鈥� show huge vision. Can we be as ambitious in our hopes and aspirations today? So let us nurture justice, education, the arts, a safe and industrious society, one that is tolerant, pluralist and free.听

May the lessons of history inspire and sustain us in this work, to the glory of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.听 Amen.

HYMN: O God of earth and altar
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

PRAYERS (GEORGE)
Our prayers were recorded earlier by pupils of the school outside, overlooking a windy battlefield. Let us pray.

PRAYERS (PRE-RECORDED INSERT)

1.听听听 God of Peace, in the stillness and tranquility of this place, we recall in our hearts and minds the day so long ago when it was filled with violence and brutality. We hold up to you all those who died here, nameless to us but known to you. As we survey this historic battleground, may we resolve to be vigilant in the keeping of your peace.

[violin solo]

2.听听听 We offer thanks for the peace of this place, and we pray for those who know no peace this day, for the lives ravaged by war in Syria, for the lives and homes destroyed and for all those families and those without family who flee the conflict there. In this historic place of battle, we pray that you shed and spread abroad your spirit, that all peoples may be gathered together under the one banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one God.

[violin solo]

3.听听听 We pray for our leaders in their work for peace...grant them courage to draw no sword but the sword of righteousness, to fight only for your justice and to know no strength but the strength of love. May they know what it means to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. And, Lord, teach each of us the same, as we stand in this place that has known the horrors of war.

[CHOIR: God be in my head 鈥� Walford Davies]

GEORGE
We gather all our prayers together in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples some two thousand years ago, as we say

Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy Name.
thy Kingdom come.
thy will be done
on earth, as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory.
Forever and ever. Amen.

GEORGE
What has shaped us in the past, prepares us for our future. Whether we triumph or we fail, we know we are loved and forgiven in our Lord Jesus Christ. we offer thanks in our final hymn for a love that never changes.
鈥淟ord for the Years your love has kept and guided.鈥�

HYMN: Lord for the years

BLESSING (GEORGE)

Now the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge of God and his son, Jesus Christ our Lord...and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, Son and Hold Spirit be with you and all whom you love and pray for, this commemoration day and for evermore. Amen.

ORGAN VOLUNTARY