Sermon: Installation Sermon | Dean Bob Cooper

Preacher:

Bob Cooper

Date:

Sunday 26th January 2025

Venue:

Guildford Cathedral

Service:

Installation Evensong

May I speak in the name of the living God, Father,  Son and Holy Spirit.

As I begin may I start with a couple of comments – firstly, may I assure all of my new southern friends and colleagues, don’t worry if you can’t quite understand the new northern Dean, I am assured that there are subtitles and simultaneous  translation on the live feed.

And secondly, and more seriously, I wish to take this opportunity to make public my sincere thanks to all of the staff, lay and ordained who have worked tirelessly since Dean Dianna retired, but most particularly to the interim Dean Stuart Beake who came out of retirement, for a second time, to step into the breach. Stuart your gifts to us all at the cathedral have been beyond measure and you enter into a third retirement with our most sincere love and gratitude – Stuart,  thank you.

And finally, to my Tanzanian brother Arthur Mauya who wished to be here today but was unable to obtain a visa but is watching and praying online with his family in Musoma today, may I say Mungu awabariki familia yangu mpendwa - May God bless you my beloved family.

From Genesis 28 v 17 - How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

What a beautiful image on the day when we are gathered together in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Guildford. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

The first time Kate and I visited Guildford Cathedral was for an anonymous recky when I was thinking of applying for the role. Allow me briefly to set the scene. It was shortly after Easter and we had been on an overnight flight back from New York and landed at Heathrow at 07:00 and Kate said, I have looked at the map and Heathrow isn’t so far from Guildford, lets go and have a peek as it is nearer than coming down from Sunderland.

We picked up the car at 07:45 and we set off. The good news is that we arrived for a secret look, the bad news was, it was just in time for lunch at noon! No one told us about the Junction 10 roadworks!

Bearing in mind we were incognito, we walked in and one of the welcomers on the desk greeted us with a smile and said, Good Morning Bob, nice to see you, what are you doing down here! The cover was blown, the connection made, the Rubicon was crossed and the rest is history.

When it was announced that I was to become Dean of Guildford the comms team had me make a video to introduce myself. I went five minutes up the road from our house near Sunderland to St Paul’s Jarrow to do it.

This is the church where The Venerable Bede himself worshipped when it was part of the Monkwearmouth – Jarrow monastery. It dates back to the eighth century and has been a place of worship, prayer and teaching for twelve centuries.

As I stood there doing my vox-pop, I was very conscious of the situation that I was standing in the cradle of English Christianity speaking to the newest of the English cathedrals and as such was reminded of the continuity of faith we have enjoyed in England, what Shakespeare described as “This sceptred Isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden, Demi-paradise, this fortress built by nature for herself”.

In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede wrote an account from the court of King Edwin when Edwin was asking his chief advisors whether or not the court should convert to Christianity. Bede describes one courtier’s speech which said that the present life on earth was like a sparrow in a storm, who was buffeted around in the wind and rain and then who flew momentarily into the Kings Hall and then straight out again through another door. For the briefest of moments the sparrow was afforded relief from the winter tempest and then carried on to face the storm.

How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

Guildford cathedral is set in a world where too many do not live in conditions which could be described as a “sceptred isle” or `”Eden” or a” Demi paradise” but because of the incarnate love of Jesus, a love which speaks to the whole of life, all sparrows are welcome here.

In a world which so needs to hear the hope of the Christian faith and where a world needs to hear truth spoken to power, all sparrows are welcome in Guildford cathedral. In a world where too many are buffeted by the tempests of life – all sparrows are welcome. And in case any of us don’t see ourselves as sparrows, then eagles, cranes, birds of paradise and finches are all welcome too.

Guildford Cathedral is and will be your home. It is and will be a place where all are welcome and all are valued. It is and will be the seat of our Bishop and the mother church of the diocese, part of the beating heart of the vision for Guildford Diocese, a part of Transforming Church, Transforming Lives. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

But more than that, Guildford cathedral has to be a place of worship and prayer, a place where the worship of God is for all and behalf of all; a place of deep spirituality which links all who visit with Jesus, a walk into the cathedral is to encounter the divine. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

Throughout the millennia, Cathedrals have been places of pilgrimage, proclamation and preaching, places of welcome, witness and worship and places of enabling, enriching and encounter. As England’s newest cathedral, we stand and will stand in that lineage.

Bede wrote these words, 'Christ is the Morning Star, who, when the night of this world is past, gives to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting day.

What better words could we muse upon as Guildford Cathedral moves into a new phase together?   Bede understood the Christian life to be a pilgrimage, a journey toward the heavenly city of God. This is reflected in his focus on the Church as a foretaste of heaven and a guide for the faithful.

His eschatology, his understanding of the end of time, emphasised hope in the resurrection and the ultimate union with God. This is the vision for Guildford Cathedral. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

We heard in our Genesis reading the verse, And Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it leading to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

In our reading from the Book of Revelation to St John the Divine, we read that the myriads of angels worshipped God by saying, to the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honour and glory and might, for ever and ever

When you leave the cathedral today, raise your eyes towards heaven, and observe Allan Collins’ beautiful Golden Angel, situated on the tower and watching over the Diocese of Guildford. In Christian theology angels are messengers of God, angels offer divine protection and guidance to believers, angels are worshippers, eternally praising God in his heavenly realm. Angels remind believers of God’s sovereignty and care, emphasizing His nearness while pointing to the divine mystery of the unseen spiritual realm. Their presence reinforces the themes of protection, guidance, and God’s active role in human history.

May all who come to this cathedral of The Holy Spirit, be surrounded by angels, be enfolded in the prayers of Bede and all the saints, be welcomed whoever they are and may they leave having encountered the divine.

How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.