Vicar’s Address, St Martin-in-the-Fields Annual Parochial Church Meeting, June 2, 2024
Revd Dr Sam Wells
Three weeks ago, at an exuberant and rousing Ascension Day live broadcast from St Martin’s, we and BBC Radio 4 celebrated 100 years of broadcast worship. It says a lot about our life that it was both a great honour and not a big deal. It was a great honour to host the event, because the Director General came and it was a very significant moment; but it wasn’t a big deal because we’ve hosted almost all the Ascension Day live broadcasts for the last 30 years and we work with the BBC on average around once a week and our team is accustomed to high-profile events.
But what I want to talk about was what struck me as I popped across Church Path for a break between the rehearsal and the service. There I saw two lines, respectively adhering to the two sets of railings on either side of the path. One was the queue for getting into the church to get a good seat. How wonderful after having no service in May 2020, a closed-door service in 2021 and 2022 and a subdued service last year to be back to filling the balconies again this year. The other was the queue for food provided by one of the pop-up providers outside the door to number 6.
I want to reflect with you on the significance of those two queues. One says, this is a church, which isn’t just a church, but is also a city on a hill to inspire people across the UK, a broadcasting venue, with magnificent music – on this occasion an exhilarating fusion of our own choral ensemble and a visiting gospel choir – and a perfect blend of cherishing tradition and modelling a promising future. The other says, even at its most prestigious and stylish moments, St Martin’s is always a place that welcomes those in such straits that they need to queue for food, who face humiliation and destitution and have no one else to turn to, and here they can find respect, dignity, encouragement and hope.
In his induction sermon on November 14, 1914, Dick Sheppard said these celebrated words. ‘I saw a great and splendid church standing in the greatest square of the greatest city in the world. … I saw it full of people, dropping in at all hours of the day and night. It was never dark, it was lighted all night and day, and often and often tired bits of humanity swept in. And I said to them as they passed: “Where are you going?” And they said only one thing: “This is our home. This is where we are going to learn of the love of Jesus Christ. This is the Altar of our Lord, where all our peace lies. This is St Martin’s.’ I recalled those words on Ascension Day as I beheld those two queues of people streaming in. And I thought Dick Sheppard might be smiling that his words of 110 years ago were still as true today as they were when he uttered them.
But those two queues also said something else to me. They told me about another dimension of our current reality at St Martin’s. On the one hand we’re like the queue at number 6. Our financial statements that you see before you today aren’t great reading. We’re overjoyed that, although not yet profitable, St Martin-in-the-Fields Ltd is back on its feet and fulfilling many of the dreams that Geoffrey Brown had for it when he established it in 1987. We’re hugely grateful for the Trust team and its donors for enabling the company and the PCC to function, as well as to make ambitions plans for the future. But our financial shape is not yet where we want it to be, and I commend the patience and perseverance of the Trust trustees, the SMITFL board and the PCC for steering us gradually toward stability.
Yet on the other hand we’re like the queue for the broadcast. Our congregational life is as vibrant as any of us have ever experienced. In all the ways you imagine a congregation flourishing – the energy of our worship, the depth of our devotional practice and discipleship journeys, the take-up for and quality of our formation and reflection programmes, the extent and significance of our social outreach, our partnerships near and far, our music for adults and children – and so much else, this is a congregation on fire. Of course there are areas that could catch up and of course there are parts of our life that could be better, but I think all of us must be feeling there are moments when you get to be part of a congregation that feels like Pentecost every day and this is one of those moments and we need to make the most of it.
Let me now thank just some of the people who’ve made this such an exceptional year despite it also being such a challenging year. We have an exceptional clergy team and those of us who attended Angela’s wedding felt a special kind of love that only happens when a person has found a true belonging in serving a community. We have been served by outstanding churchwardens who’ve combined vision for the future with love for the present and exceptional attention to the details of heart and mind and we’re all grateful to them. I want to pause at this point and say a particular word about Ros, whose last annual meeting as treasurer this is. Ros has been insightful, assertive, dedicated, relentless, thorough, committed and always a step ahead the rest of us. We’ve basically had a high-level consultant working more than office hours for three years for free. It’s been an incredible and largely invisible act of service to God and this community, and I don’t dare contemplate where we’d be without her. Thank you doesn’t do it justice but so long as we go on saying it for a long time it’s the best we have.
Chris Denton has brought us visionary leadership and I admire his patience as much as his creativity as CEO of SMITFL. I want to thank him and his team for making SMITFL a company we can be truly proud of. Lucy Littlewood brings a Pentecostal wind and fire of energy and empowerment and has galvanised the Trust such that a £30m Campaign doesn’t seem outrageously ambitious. Her personal investment in our community through participating in the International Group and Being With course is remarkable and inspiring.
I think it’s fair to say our music has never been stronger. From a congregational perspective, what Jenny is doing with the Choir is like the part of the iceberg that’s most visible. What Andrew is doing nationally and internationally with the Voices and our other ensembles is phenomenal and his team including Olivia, Polina, Alicia and Phoebe is doing remarkable things every day. Joy is building up our children’s and youth work steadily. We should also be excited by what James is building with the Being With initiative and the backing he’s getting from international enthusiasts. It’s been a transitional season for HeartEdge. We said goodbye to Heather Cracknell and we’re starting to put together a new team. We’re hopeful for a new more focused vision to emerge from a challenging few months.
It’s been great to have Sherry among us to coordinate our life together and I continue to be moved and grateful for Sian’s ministry shaping our worship and much besides. Our Vergers continue to serve us with selflessness and dedication. Nothing could happen here without Ryan and his Estates team and we don’t thank them enough. I’m grateful to those who’ve stepped in to help with our archives in a transitional period. Kristine, Steve and our stewards continue to provide a warm welcome and many other vital roles; Anne and our flower-arrangers greatly enrich our life; and our online stewards welcome newcomers and enhance our fellowship. We’re grateful to Bron and our hospitality team and also our café team for close cooperation and helpfulness. Our Autumn Lectures, with an average combined online and on-site audience growing beyond a thousand per lecture, again achieved fantastic success, and our Education Group also gave us an excellent Lent Course and Parish Awayday. Our justice and peace group and eco church and Global Neighbours are among a host of leaders of and participants in our many activities.
I want to celebrate the wonderful way the Chinese lay leadership team has taken on the responsibility and opportunity of transforming the way our Chinese-speaking congregation works. It’s been a real inspiration. We shall be celebrating together 60 years of the Chinese-speaking congregation in September and at our Patronal Festival in November. I also want to thank Alice and Fung for their dedicated work at the Bishop Ho Ming Wah Association.
International Group remains the flagship of our outreach ministry: we’ve dropped ‘Sunday’ out of the title because it’s no longer simply a one-day operation. The Nazareth Community is I believe the fastest growing intentional community in the Anglican Communion and a wonder to behold, and the Companions of Nazareth deepens and grows under Cath’s leadership. Our online community is still expanding and enriches our life in countless ways. Online Morning Prayer and Saturday walks are wonders to behold, and Sermon Workshop still thrives. Our disability work led by Fiona, including the 13th theology and disability conference, continues to transform perceptions of disability, church and God. Chair Bob Demming and the Friends Committee continue to enrich our wider ministry. Our two partner schools in Lambeth, Archbishop Tenison’s and St Martin’s High School, continue to discern their future after more than 300 years. I’m grateful to Steve Adams’ service as a governor at Tenison’s.
We said goodbye to Tim Bissett after a remarkable 11 years leading the Charity, whose Christmas Appeal again raised over £5m, and we look forward to welcoming Duncan Shrubsole later this month to become the Charity’s new CEO. Pam Orchard continues to lead The Connection and it’s especially gratifying to see how the with-not-for philosophy permeates our whole community. Among our many dedicated and talented non-executives I want particularly to recognise the four chairs, Mark Bromley at the company, Malcolm Butler at the Trust, Mark Devlin at the Charity and Tim Jones at The Connection.
The annual meeting is more than anything about good governance, and in that spirit, I want to thank our PCC members who give so many hours to the work of strategy, scrutiny and culture-setting. A particular word of thanks for Ivan Yuen for six stellar years of service.
I want to finish by returning to that Ascension Day vision of those two queues on Church Path. I both hope and expect we’ll always identify with those two queues. I hope we’ll always be offering profound and thrilling experiences of faith. And I hope we’ll always be walking with those experiencing significant disadvantage and facing crisis. But I also imagine that, however successful our campaign is, there’ll always be part of St Martin’s that’s on the edge. We’ll never arrive, nor perhaps should we – but I hope we’ll always inspire others to join the journey we’re making in those two queues. May we never lose sight of either of them.
