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OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT:ÌýIt’s ten past eight, and time now on Radio 4 and Ö÷²¥´óÐã Sounds for Sunday Worship, which was recorded in the Chapel of Royal Holloway, University of London. In this The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity the service begins with the anthem ‘Unite us’ by Tim Garland.

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CHOIR: Introit: Unite us (Tim Garland)

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FR JOHN:

O Lord, open our lips

ALL: and our mouth shall proclaim your praise

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FR ORION:

Your light springs up for the righteous

ALL: and all the peoples have seen your glory.

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FR JOHN:

A very warm welcome to the Chapel of Royal Holloway University, for this service of Sunday Worship on the Second Sunday of Epiphany, during the week of Prayer for Christian Unity. I’m Father John Dickson, Rector of the Salesian Community in Chertsey and formerly Catholic Chaplain here. And I’m joined by Katie Cattell who will help us lead our service today.

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Royal Holloway was opened by Queen Victoria in 1886 as one of the first colleges for women’s higher education. In 1985 it merged with Bedford College, the very first women’s college in Britain, to become Royal Holloway, University of London, inaugurated here in the neoclassical Chapel of the Founder’s Building, near Egham in Surrey.

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Though ornately decorated, the chapel is not consecrated to any particular creed or church. As we celebrate the week of prayer for Christian Unity, we stand in the long non-denominational tradition of this place, drawing Christians together from across our various communities, and in hospitality to those of other faiths and none, as we pray and work for reconciliation between Christians and peace for the whole human family.

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So with joy let us worship him in Spirit and in truth, as we sing: ‘Songs of thankfulness and praise’

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HYMN: Songs of thankfulness and praise (St Edmund)

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FR JOHN:

The extraordinary bas-reliefs on the high ceiling of the chapel above the choir stalls depict Christ’s baptism by John, and the creation scene in the apse, above the altar, shows the rising light of a golden star like that which guided the wise men to worship the infant Christ at Bethlehem.

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In today’s service we recall the third great mystery of this season of Epiphany: Jesus’ transformation of water into wine at the great wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. As we remember Christ's prayer that we may be one, as He is one with the Father; so let us pray:

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Grant to your people, good Lord,

that spirit of unity,

that they may dwell together in your love,

and so bear to the world

the ointment of your healing and the

dew of your blessing;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

ALL: Amen.

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KATIE:

In our first reading Abram (who will later be given the new and familiar name ‘Abraham’) is honoured with bread and wine: a foreshadowing of Christ’s command to bless bread and wine, saying ‘do this in remembrance of me.’

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READING 1 (Genesis 14.17–20):

A reading from the book Genesis.

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After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, ÌýÌýÌýmaker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, ÌýÌýÌýwho has delivered your enemies into your hand!’ And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything.

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Here ends the first reading.

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KATIE:

Our canticle from the book of revelation is sung in a setting by the Catholic Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook Abbey. St John envisions the rejoicing of the ‘Marriage Feast of the Lamb’ — a picture of God united to his people through Christ Jesus — before the final cosmic triumph of good over evil.

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CHOIR: Alleluia Canticle: A Song of the Lamb (Benedictine Nuns of Stanbrook Abbey)

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KATIE:

In our gospel reading, the third mystery of the Epiphany is manifested in what the gospel writer John calls Jesus’ first ‘sign’: announcing Jesus’ divine identity to those around him, and to us who now hear his story.

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READING 2 (John 2.1-11):

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John.

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On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

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Here ends the second reading.

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KATIE:

In a moment we’ll hear from Father Orion Edgar, the Anglican Chaplain here at Royal Holloway. But first, we hear a setting of a British folk song associated with Pembrokeshire, where children would sprinkle passersby with water taken from a well to bless them for the new year: Ben Parry’s ‘A new Year Carol.’

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CHOIR: A New Year Carol (Ben Parry)

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FR ORION:

To pray for Christian Unity, as we do every time we gather in this chapel, and especially in this week in January, is to do something very simple. But it’s an act which, on a bit of reflection, draws us into a profoundly complex reality.

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The unity of Christians is a gift we receive from God. To be drawn to Jesus is to be drawn to those who love him, to feel some connection to all those who take for themselves this name which originated as an insult: ‘Christians’ are ‘little Christs,’ people who think so highly of an executed Palestinian criminal that they would identify themselves with him and want to be like him.

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Of course, there is more to Jesus than that and there is more to being a Christian than that. But the notion remains that those who call themselves Christians are united by our love for the person of Jesus and by the faith that we share in him.

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In this story of the wedding at Cana in Galilee, Jesus gives us what John calls ‘the first of his signs’: the first in a series of events that gradually reveal Jesus’ identity. The ancient world abounds in stories of miracle workers. But this is more than a magic trick.

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Jesus resists his Mother’s prompt, because he’s not interested in acquiring influence by a display of power. He’s not in the business of forcing anyone’s hand when it comes to faith. But he is in the business of dispensing with shame. And in this miracle, a family’s great shame — not being able to provide for the celebration of a wedding for sons and daughters — this great shame is healed.

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He, Jesus, is one with the maker of all things. He has no need to show off his power. The whole of creation already does so. And, like that great wedding feast in ancient Israel; like the great marriage feast of the Lamb which John sees in his vision of a world re-made, which we heard sung in our canticle from the Book of Revelation: Jesus invites us to be united with divinity in and through himself.

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Our unity with God, our unity with one another, is a gift. And yet when we pray for unity, we are confronted with the stark reality that we are divided.

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From the very first, people who call themselves Christians have disagreed on what that means for their lives, for their communities, and for society.

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I often take weddings for students, staff and alumni of Royal Holloway in this chapel, and I sometimes stand here and say to them that what they are doing — getting married — is completely irrational. When you make the vows of marriage, you don’t know what is going to happen to you. You don’t know what opportunities life will throw up. You don’t know what beautiful and interesting people you will meet, or what unexpected problems might come your way. It’s a risky business.

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But that risk is also at the heart of its power. Because that commitment, that ‘no’ to any way that doesn’t include this one person as an equal partner: that commitment makes a whole new set of things possible, that aren’t possible otherwise. That ‘no’ is also a far greater ‘yes.’

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Our unity with Christ is built on a commitment like that. First of all, on God’s commitment to us. It is built on God’s great ‘no’ to retribution and violence on the cross. It is an invitation to say ‘no’ to everything that would compete for our loyalty, that would stake a claim on the place of God in our lives, to say ‘no’ to our sense of entitlement to what we have.

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And in our different ways of praying and speaking and acting, in our different ways of living out the invitation to be united with God, we find ourselves saying ‘no’ at different points. It’s good and right that we give ourselves to lives of worship that don’t all look the same; indeed, it is a great gift that the church’s worship is so diverse.

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And yet, we need that ‘no’ — for the sake of a greater ‘yes.’ For ultimately our commitment is not to this or that way of being Christian, but to Christ himself.

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Until we find ourselves at that great marriage feast of the lamb, we need the integrity of our own traditions, of our different ways of being Christian. And none of these is able to include everyone; they’re always partial approximations of a reality — the reality of God, the reality of love — which no creed, no denomination, no tradition can contain. Until the kingdom of God comes in its fulness, we live with this brokenness.

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But we also watch and hope for a unity which is being given to us through Christ. It has been said that Jesus did not seek to ‘include’ people in his community, in his mission. Rather, he stepped over the boundary, outside the domain of those who are ‘included,’ and identified himself with the excluded.

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I want to invite you to consider how you might do the same. Perhaps you know Christians from whose churches you feel excluded — too noisy or too cerebral; too posh or too demonstratively emotional? Is there anyone in your life who you can’t quite include — because of their political beliefs or because of their lifestyle?

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In the spirit of the week of prayer for Christian unity, I’m asking you to reach out across that barrier. Could you send a message to someone this week with whom you do not feel united — invite them for a coffee or a chat on the phone? Ask them about their faith, about how they came to worship in the way that they do, about what matters to them. You may disagree with them, but that doesn’t need to stop you loving them.

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For in the plain water of our ordinary interactions, God is working a miracle — transforming our limited ‘no’ into the great infinite ‘yes’ of the unity which he is offering us — into the wine of eternal life in the great marriage feast of heaven.

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CHOIR: The church’s one foundation (Aurelia)

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FR JOHN:

Father, Jesus prayed that we all may be one as you and he are one. We pray for the remaking of that unity which we have torn asunder. Listen as we say: make us one.

Lord, in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer.

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INTERCESSOR 1:

Lord, through the urging of your Holy Spirit, give us a life of peace and unity rooted in faith and mutual love. Make us one.

Lord, in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer.

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INTERCESSOR 2:

Open the minds and hearts of all Christians to what is strong and good in Church traditions differing from their own. Make us one.

Lord, in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer.

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INTERCESSOR 1:

Lead all the churches to a deeper faith in Jesus Christ; stir them to renewal and reform in the spirit of the gospel. Make us one.

Lord, in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer.

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INTERCESSOR 2:

Give favour to those working for the unity of your Church; guide their study, dialogue and decisions. Make us one.

Lord, in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer.

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INTERCESSOR 1:

Strengthen the bonds of union already achieved among the churches. Make us one.

Lord, in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer.

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INTERCESSOR 2:

Uphold the co-operation of Christian Churches to relieve suffering caused by ignorance, poverty, hunger and war. Make us one.

Lord, in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer.

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FR JOHN:

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy catholic Church. Fill it with all truth and peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in need, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord. Amen.

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Believing the promises of God, let us pray with confidence as our saviour has taught us:

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ALL:

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, for ever and ever. Amen.

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KATIE:

Our final hymn was written by Charles Wesley, who with his brother John founded the Methodist movement in England, cultivating lively faith through a tradition of hymn-singing which became a great gift to the wider church. ‘Love divine, all loves excelling.’

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HYMN: Love divine, all loves excelling (Blaenwern)

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FR JOHN:

There is one body and one spirit.

ALL: There is one hope to which we were called;

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FR ORION:

one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

ALL: one God and Father of all.

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FR JOHN:

May God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God, inspire you to live as one, that you may witness to the perfect unity of his love;

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FR JOHN AND FR ORION:

and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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FR ORION:

United in heart and one in mind, and empowered by the Spirit, let us bless the lord.

ALL: Thanks be to God.

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ORGAN VOLUNTARY: Epiphanie (Litaize)

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CLOSING ANNOUNCEMENT:

‘Epiphanie’ by Gaston Litaize, bringing to a close Sunday Worship which was recorded in the Chapel of Royal Holloway, University of London. The service was led by Fr John Dickson and Katie Cattell, and the preacher was Fr Orion Edgar. The Director of Music was Rupert Gough, the organ scholars Luke Cherry and Andrej Ivanović, and the producer was Ben Collingwood. Next week’s Sunday Worship marks the 80th anniversary of the ordination of Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first woman to be ordained in the Anglican communion. And that’s at ten past eight, here on Radio 4 and on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Sounds.

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