Readings:
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-end; Luke 6:20-31

Collect:
God of holiness,
your glory is proclaimed in every age:
as we rejoice in the faith of your saints,
inspire us to follow their example
with boldness and joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Reflection:
Last week an extraordinary event happened in the Sistine Chapel. In an extremely formal event, with all sorts of dignitaries in all sorts of formal dress, Pope Leo and the Archbishop of York lead a service of midday prayer with the King and Queen in attendance.

 This short formal service held an historic event for the Church of England and the Catholic Church, in that the head of both Churches prayed together. A significant moment of unity in the worldwide Church and in the important work of the Ecumenical movement.

Of course, this moment has been part of a now decades long endeavour between those two churches for unity. When the Pope came to the UK in 1982 there was huge controversy. It was the first visit of any pope to this country and was recognised as highly significant. On the second day of that visit, Pope John Paul II went to Canterbury Cathedral and, after renewing his baptismal vows alongside the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, they went to the site where Thomas Becket was martyred in a terrible act of violence in 1170, and knelt next to each other at the Martyrdom Chapel, and prayed silently together. An informal moment of stillness, in a formal act of worship.

Because silence was all that was appropriate at that time. Disunity finds its roots, one way or another, in violence. Sometimes it was physical violence, and there were terrible things that were done to Christians of different churches throughout history. Or there was emotional violence, from open exclusion to executions in the name of ‘right’ religion, and sadly, in some parts of the world, these forms of violence are still not a thing of the past.

However, many more of us see more clearly now that there is something more fundamental that stretches across our churches. Our love for Jesus.

The priest and poet Malcolm Guite from his book, Sounding and the Seasons, expresses this beautifully in his poem The Gathered Glories:

A Sonnet for All Saints Day | Malcolm Guite 

Despite our disparate views, our complex relationships, we are all from that glass that Guite describes, and despite the wounds that we have caused each other, that fracturing, that shattering, we still shine Christ’s reflected light out into the world.

Our reading from Ephesians is joyful. Despite the often-turbulent lives of the early church, Paul is rejoicing in the fact that all the saints, the new Christians, are offered the joys and blessings of the inheritance of Christ. There’s no disparity, no one is blessed more than the other. These new Christians, whether Jew of Gentile, are loved in equal abundance by God. A message of radical, intentional unity. And that with the eyes of our heart, that deep wisdom from the Spirit within us, that we are to know the hope that he called us.

All Christians are called to this hope of inheritance, whoever they are.

Unity, especially unity in the church is a complex and difficult process that requires work and dedication .  It requires humility and grace, to rebuild our shattered relationships from human failings. And there needs to be respect that some will hold different views and give our fellow saints the dignity of that respect. This has proven to be particularly difficult, and yet if we seek to build the church of God, then this is as much of a requirement as any other.

It is in these acts of dignity and respect, humility and grace that Christ is working in the background, as Guite expresses it, weaves us with the web of being, until all are reclaimed, we are all once again those gathered glories, the Saints of God in unity, to the glory of our great and wonderful God.

Revd Kath Long.