Texts: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Gospel: Matthew 13.44-52
I used to think that St Ethelfleada was a local saint whose fame had not spread very far from Hampshire, but recently I changed my mind! One of the tasks I have in my new job is to attend national gatherings of Fresh Expressions Associates at Swanwick conference centre in Derbyshire three times a year. At one of these gatherings I was queueing up for the bar (as you do!) and overheard a couple of snatches of conversation from the person in front of me. “Ethelfleada...Romsey”. And so I asked. “I hope you don’t mind me butting in. But I’m fascinated to hear that you just mentioned Ethelflaeda. I’m preaching at the Saint Ethelflaeda festival this year in Romsey.”
To make this incident all the more interesting the lady concerned was actually from Wales (even further from Hampshire) and was a Quaker. “Oh yes, she said. “I enjoy wild swimming, and I was just saying that because Saint Ethelflaeda used to immerse herself in ponds and sing psalms at night, she should be the patron saint of wild swimming!”
It seems to me to be entirely understandable that history would focus upon the more spectacular tales of Saint Ethelflaeda; the light streaming from her fingers after her candle was extinguished at Matins, the Queen discovering her praying in the fountain at night ....yet it seems to me that the message most pertinent for our times here in Romsey Abbey, is the fact that Saint Ethelflaeda was an Abbess and a good abbess, who built up and cared for those within her community and those in need outside it - an inspiration to us all to care for others.
When this Abbey was founded in Saxon times it was placed under the rule of Saint Benedict and this is what the rule says about the election of an Abbess.
“In choosing an Abbess the guiding principle should always be that the woman placed in office be the one selected by the whole community acting unanimously in the fear of God, or by some smaller part of the community....Goodness of life and wisdom in teaching must be the criteria for the one to be made Abbess, even if she is the last in community rank.”
"Goodness of life" and "Wisdom in teaching". A wise teacher would be sufficiently knowledgeable that they could make sensible decisions about the future direction of a community, and one who led a good life would be resistant to the temptation of corruption that power can sometimes present, and who would also be generous to those in need. What gleanings we get from the historical records testify that Ethelfleada was both these things.
On this occasion, and at this particular point in the life of Romsey Abbey, it seems to me that it would be good to consider the subject of community further and what makes good and healthy community. We are at the point in time where new communities are about to be birthed, and yet older, more established communities need to be nurtured and cared for too, “Like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old,” as the gospel reading for today's feast reminds us.
At times we are all called to be community leaders, like abbots or abbesses of our own communities - in small ways or larger ones, temporarily or for a long period of time, for one project or event, or for something more longstanding.
For eighteen years I functioned as an Abbess of sorts, to what would now be called a new monastic or small missional community called Visions in York, although I was originally employed as a musician before I trained for ordination. We met for worship in another Saxon building, St Cuthbert’s in York, and started a number of new services and events, including Transcendence, a multimedia High Mass which took place in York Minster. Visions taught me a great deal about living and working in very close proximity with people. We didn’t all live in the same house, but we did pool some of our resources. Visions also taught me about the power of creating something together, and the power of “we” rather than me. I learned about healthy community relationships and what healthy disagreement might look like too. Sadly in the mid 1990s I also saw was bad community looked like. Friends of ours in Sheffield were part of a community called NOS which went bad, where power and people were manipulated by one arrogant authoritarian leader, and a number of close friends lost their faith because they were so badly wounded by the experience of having their self-worth shredded. We were so worried by witnessing this that we brought in a church colleague who was a spiritual director and group dynamics counsellor to work with us to check that our community relationships were healthy. She reassured us that we were in no danger of going in a similar direction, but also taught us how to become even healthier. She taught us that it was easy for loud voices to monopolize any conversation, but it was important to create ways for the quieter voices of the deep thinkers to be heard; through creating opportunities for written feedback, but also by the simple process of noticing when someone is sitting quietly in a meeting and inviting them to speak.
Whatever we lead and whoever we lead, one of our greatest inspirations should be the text of our epistle this morning from St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and I am certain that it has inspired many abbesses over the years, including St Ethelflaeda.
“For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body”.
We all belong.
We all have a part to play.
Some of us are ears - the listeners, those who offer pastoral care.
Some of us are eyes, the artists the visionaries, the dreamers.
Some of us are the practical hands, those who arrange the chairs and make the coffee, those who clean and clear up.
Some of us are like sweat glands. We may not feel visible but that does not mean that we aren’t included. Maybe, like sweat glands, we stop everything from overheating and turning into a terrible argument.
Some of us are the knees, quietly praying for those in pain, essential, supporting and undergirding everything else, for as the psalm says “unless the Lord builds the house the builders labour in vain”.
In fact Paul assures us that some of us who feel they are unimportant or invisible are in fact indispensable. We simply couldn’t manage without them. A good and wise Abbess, like Ethelfleada would understand how to empower and release those unseen and invisible ones into their giftings, knowing that they need to learn before their gifts will be fully realised, but they will learn in a supportive and loving community environment. The Abbey’s work in more recent times with young choristers is a marvellous example of this but I also look forward to seeing some of the new ways that this will happen in the new services and communities of the future.
So finally, let us all be inspired today by the stories of Saint Ethelflaeda, but rather than letting it rest there and letting her light fade, let us use her example to be abbesses and abbots in our lives too, spotting and nurturing the talents of those we know, building community amongst our friends and neighbours and enjoying the diversity of the wide net that is the Kingdom of God where there is a welcome and a place for everyone. Amen.
