This is the last time I shall stand here and speak to you as your Vicar.
It could give me chance to say what I really think and tell you how terrible you all are and how much I have hated my time here. I have heard of some Vicars doing that!
But I can’t do it because it is not true; you are all quite wonderful, and I love you all dearly – warts and all, as they say!
This place has been home to Deacon Gill and me for nearly 38 years now. Our children have grown up here. This community is our community, and as your Vicar I have come to regard the current and previous generations of the Church here as my extended family, and the previous clergy as my direct ancestors. Thank you for being part of my life and allowing me to be part of yours in one way or another.
In the catholic tradition of the Church of England, the parish priest is called “Father”, which emphasises that the local Church community is a family and part of an even bigger family. He has a spiritual fatherhood derived from the Bishop who is our “Father in God”, and ultimately from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and Father of us all.
In a few days time, I shall officially cease to be your Father and disappear from the local community, which will take some getting used to, for me at least. Perhaps you might allow me to think of myself as your honorary grandfather who has moved into a smaller house a few miles away.
The first Vicar of Outwood (I’m the ninth) was the Reverend James Stewart Gammell, 156 years ago. You can still see his initials on the lower gable of the old vicarage next door. He was here 20 years, married a local girl from Wrenthorpe, began his family here, sorrowed over the death of his little girl, and baptised, married and buried the forebears of many of the present day residents of this parish.
When he left, it wasn’t to go into complete retirement, but to move first to Bristol so his children could finish their education at Clifton College and be near some of Mrs Gammell’s family who now lived in Bath, and then to a castle in Scotland on the estate he had inherited from a rich uncle.
But although he became a “laird”, he was still very much a priest and built his own church just outside the castle gates and a little church hall that bears exactly the same monogram of his initials as you can see on the side of the “Kirklands”. Nor did he forget the Church here in Outwood; he paid for the building of our Lady Chapel, which for some years to seems have been known as the “Gammell Memorial Chapel”, even though he built it while he was still alive as a thank-offering for his time in Outwood. According to his family history, “He also considered the members of his old congregation at Outwood in their sickness, and colliers from Yorkshire could frequently be seen enjoying the pure air in the Glen of Drumtochty”.
(I’m sorry but I have no rich uncles and will not be moving to a castle nor will I be able to pay for work on the church.)
When he eventually died, a real memorial to him was erected in this church – the second pair of stained glass windows in the north aisle. I always thought it strange that both windows should have a picture of the same person. Jesus is the only figure in each of them, whereas in all the other paired windows down that side we see two different figures: here the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint John the Apostle, next the Archers, David and Ruth, and at the back, a Roman soldier who could be anybody from Longinus to Saint Martin of Tours and a woman I have always thought might be Saint Anne since the window was presented in memory of a woman called Anna.
But why two Jesus’ on the first Vicar’s memorial? I suggest you might like to have a close look at them and a good think about them.
One is a representation of Christ similar to Holman Hunt’s painting “The Light of the World”, based on our Lord’s words in Revelation chapter 3: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.”
And the other window depicts Christ the Good Shepherd, complete with shepherd’s crook, a lamb in his arms, and a ewe by his leg.
Both widows portray different aspects of the work of a priest, based on the work of Christ himself.
The priest is the evangelist who proclaims the good news of God’s love in Christ and shares the Bread of Life with those who respond. And he is the shepherd, the pastor who gets alongside his people and lives among them, looking after them from birth to death, sharing their lives to such an extent that, as Pope Francis has said, “The shepherd starts to smell like the sheep”. Being a good shepherd involves stability and commitment to the job in hand. This is all part of the work of the priest, and work that I have been privileged to share in among you for nearly 40 years.
Part of the work of the priest is to be a Father in the local Church, but he is also himself a child of the same Heavenly Father. Part of the work of the priest is to be an evangelist, a proclaimer of good news and a sharer of the Bread of Life, but he needs to hear and respond more fully to that news for himself and himself be fed and nourished by the sacraments. Part of the work of the priest is to be a good shepherd, but he himself is also one of Christ’s flock. The recognition of these facts helps the priest to keep his feet on the ground and not to get too big an idea of his own personal importance, even though his work is vital.
In the same way the flock should realise that they are not just there to be sheep, to be looked after, preached to, prayed for, fed and entertained. The flock have a responsibility towards each other, to be shepherds to each other, to support, encourage and care for each other. Some church congregations can be a bit reticent about this. Whilst there is a lot that goes on under the surface here, over the next few months while there is no Vicar you will get plenty more practice.
Some parishes can be without a priest for a very long time, which might not be as bad as it sounds. Hopefully it would allow the flock to take more responsibility for each other and for the pastoral work of the local Church, remembering that the archetypal Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, is also the Lamb of God who fulfils his own particular vocation to take a way the sins of the world and reconcile us with God and each other.
In today’s gospel reading Jesus says: “I know my sheep, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will ever snatch them from my hand..”
So what are you frightened of ? Just get on with it!
Iron is taken out of the earth,
And copper is smelted from the ore.
Men put an end to darkness, and search out to the farthest bound
The ore in gloom and darkness.
They open shafts in a valley away from where men live;
They are forgotten by travellers,
They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro…….
…..Man puts his hand to the flinty rock,
And overturns the mountains by the roots.
He cuts out channels in the rocks,
and his eye sees every precious thing.
He binds up the streams so that they do not trickle,
and the thing that is hid he brings forth to light.
But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?….
………………………………………………
…Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil is understanding.”
As we dedicate this heritage trail, let us pray for all who will visit here today and in the future, and for ourselves, that we may all grow in true wisdom and understanding, and as our Saviour taught us, so we pray and say together….
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever .Amen.
We sing the hymn….”The old rugged cross” (accompanied by Kippax Brass Band)
The Blessing……..
“The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of GOD and of his Son Jesus Christ Our Lord, and the blessing of God almighty, the Father , the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon you and remain with you always,” Amen