The Balsall Heath Church Centre
St Pauls (Anglican) and Church of Christ
100, Mary Street, Balsall Heath, Birmingham B12 9JU
THE SERMON
Preached by
Revd.Dr.Philip Morgan - General Secretary of the
British Council of Churches
at
THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH CENTRE
by
The Bishop of Birmingham
Rt.Revd.Hugh Montefiore
on
SUNDAY 12th. October 1980
Few of us dream impossible dreams and see them fulfilled. But three men here today have had that experience. In Miss Fereday's kitchen, Ronald Woods, John Cooper's predecessor in this parish, first said, "what we need is an ecumenical building". Miss Fereday admits that in those days she didn't know the meaning of the word "ecumenical". We also have Alex Forsyth here, now serving the URC as a minister in the north of England, and John Cooper. They belong to the select company headed by Jeremiah, who bought a field in enemy hands in a time of disaster, in the certainty that a new day would dawn. Ministering to two very down at heel inner city congregations, they dreamed of this church centre. I suspect authorities in both churches only agreed to go ahead with the wild idea because no-one thought it could possibly succeed - but it did, with encouragement and support from many quarters some of them very unlikely.
A survey of the district convinced us there was a need to be met. Our two churches, considering the matter separately, agreed on the task to be done. Our architects produced an inspired design - almost a mediaeval abbey, with its cloistered garden with the amphitheatre for drama and worship, camp-fire site and centre of peace and calm, to be surrounded by buildings in which the disadvantaged might live in a sheltered community, with other buildings used for worship and service to the community. The officials of the diocese, people of many churches, our patrons, long-sighted city officials, trustees and administrators of funds, all showed confidence by their support. Our faithful, if at times nervous (and not without cause), finance committee encouraged us to build now and not to wait. Even a man as prophetic as Walter Hendry allowed himself just a small doubt about the scale of the operation. And our congregations, battered by plans and decisions and talk of sums of money beyond our wildest imagining, continued to give loyal service and support.
You will not think it was easy - it was not, because we were concerned with much more than a building of bricks and mortar. They had to be paid for, and grateful as we are for all the large gifts, we are particularly grateful for all the small gifts, often sacrificially made by our local people, some of it collected in large sweet jars, some through sponsored singing by Brownies in the rain, and much else. But we were being led to find how two very different congregations could come together to share in a common ministry. We have been taken by following that path into unfamiliar ways, and we have found unexpected joys.
Through it all one man devoted himself unremittingly to a thousand tasks. Without John Cooper's persistent, grinding devotion to people, to plans, to letters, to every detail we would not be here today. Persistent, grinding devotion it was, but characteristically John would growl about some mishap, a few thousand pounds short, a further delay to the building plans of several months, and then he would look up, give a snort of wry laughter and press on to the next obstacle. Our debt to him is immense, yet he and all those most closely involved and most devoted would say - it is the Lord's doing and marvellous in our eyes.
I hardly need to remind you of our purpose or who we are, though with a preacher's licence I will. Initially it was the parish church of St. Paul's and the Moseley Road Church of Christ which explored this dream, now joined by the Sparkhill Church of Christ and with the real possibility of the Moseley Road Methodists joining in more fully, for already they share in evening worship in youth work. We built this place as a place of worship for our congregations, and also for a great deal more. It is a day-care centre for the elderly, serving perhaps 500 elderly folk. This is not a new work for Elsie Jones, a Methodist deaconess, had built up this work over many years and now has moved in here to head up a larger work made possible by the centre. It is a place for work amongst young people, again not a new work, but expanding from the Guides and Brownies and the basic youth work done before with new cubs and later scouts and with Rapitse a Westhill student helping us. In due course, and with the co-operation of the Moseley and District Churches Housing Association and the city authorities, it will provide sheltered housing for the handicapped and disadvantaged; it is a facility for community use, a centre for exploring the meaning of health and wholeness in our society. It is vitally to do with people, it has attracted people; an administrator has come to us from the URC, opportunity is given here for teams of unemployed young people to work on our landscaping, and an offer has been made from a community carver, to carve from one of the old timbers of the original St.Paul's Church a figure of Christ with arms outstretched in service to the community. This is what we are about, and at the centre of the centre is our worship of God in the name of Jesus Christ.
This building, important though it is, is not simply a building - it is an incarnation. Its significance is that it makes visible in one place and at a particular time the eternal purpose of God. For this day it remembers the past; it speaks of community - it is a sign of difficult unity not fully achieved of confidence in the present and hope for the future - it contributes to the quality of life of people. For the God we serve rejects religion and embraces life, life in all its fullness. He is not to be boxed in compartments, as though the religious was one think, the political another, the social yet another. His concern is life in its wholeness. He is good news.
He created man and gave him a destiny to live life unlimited. It is obvious that man does not do so. His life is cramped and limited by circumstances which condemn four fifths of mankind to live in poverty; by forms of industry which make work something to be endured not enjoyed, when work is to be had; by styles of community which perpetuate divisions of race and colour and sex; by guilt for the past for which he has discovered no forgiveness and fear of the future in which he has no hope; by greed for possession and power, until entertainment becomes an industry to take our minds off living, and even when joy breaks through it is a bewildering contrast to what we are persuaded is normal.
But God is good news, for in Christ men and women are to be freed of all captivity, the blind are to see, the bruised to be healed, the captives to go free, the dead to be made alive again. We and our fellows are called to share in life of the quality of the life of God, in a world restored, renewed and recreated.
The Church's task is to proclaim by living that unlimited life. And we are given a singular privilege in our day, in this post-imperial society, in a society which in a very real sense is post-industrial as well, with its multi-faith, multi-racial, multi-cultural context to demonstrate as a community of believers true community, as varied as nature but a unity of care and service under God.
We are called to make visible as Christians that unity we already have in Christ, through this local ecumenical project, through the response of our churches to the challenge of the English covenant which is now before us, or in following up the excitement of the Roman Catholic Pastoral Congress both locally and more widely. We are challenged to live in the confidence of Easter Day, for we are all Easter people, with hope for tomorrow in the certainty of God's faithfulness. And all this to the end that God may be glorified in his creation, by the quality of the lives of his children. For God's glory is not some remote Byzantine splendour, magnificent in gold and jewel apart from the affairs of men. His glory is in hungry men fed; by bread of life; his glory is to be seen in the shining eyes of children, in the tired satisfaction of workers, in the accomplishment of artists and the discoveries of scientists, in the freedom of men and women to live unlimited lives in friendship, in families, in love to each other and to God. For this cause we have built this place and for this cause we dedicate it and ourselves this day, therefore to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be glory now and in all ages, world without end.
Amen.
Philip Morgan
12th October 1980
