Sermon: Looking in, Looking out!

From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

Wellington Cathedral; Looking inwards, looking outwards: 9th May 2010: pm: The Very Revd Frank Nelson

• Psalm 126
• Zephaniah 3: 14 - 20
• Matthew 28: 1 – 10, 16 - 20

Last Thursday night members of the Southern Ordained Training Group gathered in the Brian Davis Room. As the name suggests the group consists of people either preparing to be ordained, or recently ordained, and was here to discover something about the life and mission of the Cathedral – their Cathedral. Yesterday members of the Cathedral Vestry gathered to spend a few hours together, getting to know each other, and teasing out responsibilities given them by members of the congregation who elected them to serve their Cathedral for a one year term of office. Readers of the Letters to the Editor column in yesterday’s Dominion Post will have seen an angry letter by someone who attended the ANZAC Day service here, suggesting the Cathedral should no longer be the venue of choice for services of civic and national importance.

I mention these three topics because they indicate very clearly the three distinct constituencies that the Cathedral touches in its mission and ministry. Among the responsibilities of the Dean is that of holding the big picture of what happens here, and promoting and encouraging the mission and ministry of the Cathedral. The Companions of Wellington Cathedral, gathered here tonight for their AGM and annual dinner, undertake to support and pray for the Bishop, the Diocese and the Cathedral. It seems appropriate then to offer some thoughts on the Cathedral in relation to those three constituencies of parish, diocese, city and nation.

It is a surprise to many people to realize that Wellington Cathedral is the parish church of Thorndon, with tightly defined parish boundaries. Members of Vestry, as with any parish vestry, are charged with responsibility for ensuring the worship of God happens, that the church (in our case Cathedral) buildings are kept in good order, and that the first call on money coming into the parish is to be used to pay the stipends of the vicar and assisting clergy. Of course many people who choose to worship here live well outside the Cathedral’s geographic parish boundaries, but we function as a parish with all the groups and activities one expects to find in any parish. So we offer a variety of Sunday and weekday services, education opportunities for young and old, and pastoral care given both by clergy and lay members of the parish. Opportunities abound for involvement in the life of the gathered community – singing in one of several choirs, serving at the altar, decorating the building with flowers, serving morning tea and handing out books, to name a few. Through the year we gather to mark the liturgical cycle of the Church’s Calendar – moving from Advent to Christmas, from Lent to Easter, from Pentecost through to Advent again. Infants are baptized and adults confirmed, couples are married and the dead are buried as the stages of life are celebrated before God.

Wellington Cathedral is not only a parish church, it is a Cathedral: it holds the ‘cathedra’, the seat of the bishop of the Diocese. As such it is the mother church of the Diocese of Wellington and has a Diocesan role and function. For many in the Diocese this means coming here for big and special occasions – the ordination of a deacon or priest, the renewal of ordination vows during Holy Week, a special occasion such as the annual AAW service, or the collation of an Archdeacon or Canon. In recent years we have been working hard to encourage people in the Diocese to see the Cathedral as their Cathedral – and I always welcome people in those terms. One small way in which this happens is the list of intercessions that is emailed weekly to more than a thousand people across the Diocese. It is widely used and much appreciated. Just last week the Archdeacon of Wanganui said how much the inclusion of the names of those killed in the ANZAC Day helicopter crash had meant to the RNZAF Chaplain at Ohakia Air Base. To know that people in the Cathedral, and throughout the Diocese, were praying for them by name had brought a sense of belonging and comfort in an unexpected way at a very difficult time.

While there is no formal arrangement, Wellington Cathedral has a distinct ministry to the city and to the nation. ANZAC Day is one of the most obvious and visible occasions where this happens with Cathedral choirs and clergy involved in two quite distinct services on the same morning. We hosted and ran the Wellington Citizens Commemorative service here, and Dean and Choir were involved in the service at the National War Memorial, relayed live to the nation on television. Three weeks ago two of our choirs recorded for Praise Be and we expect our Christmas Service of Nine Lessons and Carols to be broadcast around the country again this year. Other ‘special’ services make their way to the Cathedral on a regular basis – the annual inter-faith Observance of Commonwealth Day, Remembrance Sunday services each November, services for a number of schools; and the very special service to be held here next Sunday which brings together people involved in organ transplants – both donor families and recipients. I have long since ceased to be thrown by having a microphone-clutching reporter, with camera in tow, looking for a comment ten minutes before Christmas and Easter services. Since the beginning of this year the Cathedral has recaptured something of the role of medieval cathedrals in being the venue for a weekly Farmers’ Market.

These three quite different constituencies of parish, diocese and city/nation expect the Cathedral to be here for them. We are a seven day a week operation which opens its doors daily for the formal services, and the informal encounters by people of the sacred space known as the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul. It is seldom that there is not someone who has come in off the street to light a candle, spend a few moments in quiet reflection before an exam or court hearing, or simply wander around awed by the sheer size of the building and beauty of the windows. Guide books in several languages help people discover something of what a cathedral is about and introduce them to some of the unique features of the stained glass windows, the memorials, the dossal curtain, the mellow warmth of the Lady Chapel, the thousands of pipes that make up the organ, the bells that ring out over the city each week. If you‘ve not yet done the e-tour do go on to the Cathedral website and see some of the hidden places of the Cathedral pictured there.

The heart-beat of any Cathedral is the offering of worship to God. Sunday by Sunday, and weekday by weekday, whether there are a thousand, a hundred, ten or only two people present, the Eucharist is celebrated – recalling the saving love of God. Many is the time when someone in need – perhaps facing surgery, or struggling with the death of a loved one, or needing a job – has found comfort, solace and inspiration in the familiar words of the liturgy and the open doors of the Cathedral. This is as it should be. Day by day we pray through a number of different prayer cycles – for the world-wide church, projects supported through Anglican Missions, chaplains to seafarers, prisons and the military, mission units throughout the Diocese of Wellington and our own people who call this place home. Without prayer and worship - the quiet weekday service, the sparsely attended beautiful and calming choral evensong on Thursday evening, the grand occasions of celebration which see the Cathedral filled - the heart beat would stop; this place would become simply another large building.

This, and much more, is Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, a place of mission and ministry to parish, diocese, city and nation; a sacred space of worship, hospitality and education. This is your Cathedral.