This year will see
a number of significant anniversaries.
They will all be marked in the Cathedral in a variety of ways. On 15th June our attention will be
directed to a meadow at Runnymede where King John was forced by the barons to
issue the Great Charter, which became known as Magna Carta. We will observe this as part of the Heritage
Festival weekend (19-21 June), as well as it having been the theme for the
Rutland Service back in March. In
September we will jump nearly 700 years to 1940 and this year being the 75th
anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
This is a significant occasion for the RAF and there will be a regional
service to remember this. That service
usually takes place each year in St John’s Church, where I am also vicar, but
this year the Cathedral will host a larger scale commemoration. The following month we will mark local student,
Edith Cavell, who as a nurse was shot by the Germans in 1915 for aiding Allied
servicemen to escape. Again the
Cathedral will host special commemorations.
The challenge in
all events in the Cathedral is to relate the story of the commemoration to the
Christian story. We are not just here to
paint a holy gloss over whatever anniversary anyone might bring to us to mark. That would be to capitulate the faith that
challenges and inspires us. It always
offers something of blessing to honour but also a yardstick to measure against
the events to see where we can learn and rededicate ourselves to live
differently. The standards of justice
and righteousness always bring a call to repentance and acknowledgement of our
frailty and fallible nature.
Magna Carta has become a banner of democracy and the 800th
anniversary of it being sealed at Runnymede, near Windsor, has captured the
imagination. It has inspired charters of
rights and good government around the world.
It is seen as the great standard for our own government to aspire
to. It was forced on a reluctant king,
who ditched it within months. It came
back though, and version four is the one that has stood the test of time,
sealed in 1225.
Influential in the framing of Magna Carta was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, and he based his contributions on the biblical principles of just kings who rule for the benefit and flourishing of their people, not their oppression. He also wanted to protect the church from the king’s medaling and interference. The first principle that the English Church should be free was a late entry in the charter, not in earlier drafts. The version in the cartulary of Peterborough abbey, held by the Society of Antiquaries in London, seems to reflect an earlier version. It should be noted that Magna Carta was sealed just 40 years after King John’s father, Henry II, had been responsible for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 and Canterbury Cathedral was being rebuilt at the time of Magna Carta following a fire, the climactic focus of the building being Thomas’ shrine. Stephen Langton was instrumental in the design of Becket’s tomb. Revenge really is a dish best served cold and decisively: the clear message is don’t mess with the church’, and Langton seems to have kept his powder dry making his move when the time was right. The church had already been granted its freedoms but there was in Magna Carta a cementing of ancient understandings of what it meant to be a good king.
Incidentally I still get a thrill out of the thought that the painted ceiling in the nave of Peterborough is probably how the ceiling of Canterbury would have looked prior to the fire there in 1174 and not only did we have a reliquary and chapel for Becket, but the building forms a link too. Benedict, the Abbot of Peterborough at the time the ceiling was constructed, had been a monk at Canterbury and this may have inspired the décor[1].
Influential in the framing of Magna Carta was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, and he based his contributions on the biblical principles of just kings who rule for the benefit and flourishing of their people, not their oppression. He also wanted to protect the church from the king’s medaling and interference. The first principle that the English Church should be free was a late entry in the charter, not in earlier drafts. The version in the cartulary of Peterborough abbey, held by the Society of Antiquaries in London, seems to reflect an earlier version. It should be noted that Magna Carta was sealed just 40 years after King John’s father, Henry II, had been responsible for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 and Canterbury Cathedral was being rebuilt at the time of Magna Carta following a fire, the climactic focus of the building being Thomas’ shrine. Stephen Langton was instrumental in the design of Becket’s tomb. Revenge really is a dish best served cold and decisively: the clear message is don’t mess with the church’, and Langton seems to have kept his powder dry making his move when the time was right. The church had already been granted its freedoms but there was in Magna Carta a cementing of ancient understandings of what it meant to be a good king.
Incidentally I still get a thrill out of the thought that the painted ceiling in the nave of Peterborough is probably how the ceiling of Canterbury would have looked prior to the fire there in 1174 and not only did we have a reliquary and chapel for Becket, but the building forms a link too. Benedict, the Abbot of Peterborough at the time the ceiling was constructed, had been a monk at Canterbury and this may have inspired the décor[1].
Magna Carta was
not quite the bill of rights at the time it was issued that it is assumed to be,
though its scope has been expanded over the centuries as freedoms have become
more universal. The 1215 version protects the free,
which did not include serfs and others in feudal bondage. But as the freedoms we now take for granted increased
over the centuries, the protections for ‘freemen’ have been expanded, and also
extended to include women in the 20th century as emancipation
increased. The 1225 version is addressed to everyone. That justice will be free of
corruption, and not denied or delayed, is a foundational principle found in
clause 40.
“To
no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice”[2]
There are provisions
for inheritance and for widows, taxes will only be imposed by the agreement of
parliament, liberties of certain cities are set out, goods are to be paid for
and not extracted by menaces, weights and measures are to be standardized so
that people are not cheated, trial by jury is enshrined in law and there is something
strange about fishing on the rivers Thames and Medway. If we read the Old Testament books of Amos
and Hosea we can find the justice behind these clauses set out and their
infringements castigated. Magna Carta
enshrines some foundational biblical notions of ‘doing justly, loving mercy and
walking humbly with God’ (Micah 6:8).
We have travelled
a considerable distance since 1215 and the later versions of Magna Carta. We
have gone from a notion of the Divine Right of Kings to a constitutional
monarchy with governments being elected.
Magna Carta was a landmark in the journey setting out that even the king
was subject to his laws, though that has not always been obvious, and that taxes are only to be levied with the agreement of Parliament. This year is also an election year where the
sovereignty of the people is demonstrated.
We have chosen to remove monarchs in the past (Charles I, James II,
Edward VIII) and even decided to appoint others overriding direct succession
(Victoria), so our Queen occupies the throne by consent. Once we pick at the threads of absolute
monarchy and dictatorship, democracy is inevitable. Magna Carta sets out some key principles for
democratic and just government. Even the strange references to fish weirs are about the protection of free movement of trade.
The Battle of Britain in 1940 was a defining moment in the RAF’s history,
even though it didn’t exist as such then.
Their 100th birthday will coincide with our 900th
anniversary celebrations of the rebuilding of the present Cathedral structure
in 2018. Battle of Britain Sunday is for
the RAF a significant date that stands alongside 11th November. It is sometimes said that the first duty of
government is defence. From the Bible,
the first duty of government is justice, which is why Magna Carta matters so
much to us. But justice requires
security for it to be maintained, so defence from aggression is linked. As a child, my mother-in-law recalled seeing
dog fights overhead in Kent and watching the planes setting off and some
returning to airfields nearby. It was a
memory that stayed with her for the rest of her life. The airborne battle was touch and go, and the
outcome could easily have been different.
War brings courageous sacrifice, the putting of lives on the line in the
hope of achieving liberation and the defence of freedom. The cost is all. It is never to be celebrated, always marked
with a somber reflection on what has been required, even though we acknowledge
the bravery and self-sacrifice of those who rose to the hour. That it came to this is a moment best marked
by silence.
Remembrance
Services in the Cathedral, as in all churches, are moments when the struggles
and conflicts of now are placed under the searing judgment of the eternal. In the centre of the Cathedral hangs George
Pace and Frank Roper’s crucifix with the Latin motto of the Carthusian order
underneath, ‘Stat Crux Dum Volvitur Orbis’.
This translates as ‘The cross stands while the world turns’. Our faith is a still point around which so
much moves and rushes, clamours and struggles.
We crucify so many in the process and the Christ there catches the
broken, twisted lives that are destroyed.
It brings them to redemption and shines out a hope of a new tomorrow
where peace and justice reign so that all can flourish.
Edith Cavell attended a school in Laurel Court, the large house
on the western side of the cloisters.
Her lamp hangs on a pillar in the south aisle of the nave, above a
memorial to her. Although she is buried
in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral, formative years were spent in the shadow
and shelter of Peterborough when she attended the school briefly in the 1880s. She is remembered for treating the wounded of
both sides of the First World War.
Humanity displayed amidst the hatred and violence of warfare. One of the drives for Just War Theory is to
bring restraint and limitations to the horrors of war. It too finds its roots in the Bible. Edith Cavell was the daughter of an Anglican
clergyman from Norfolk.
She was arrested
on 3rd August 1915 and charged with harbouring Allied soldiers. At 7am on 12th October she was
executed by firing squad at Tir national shooting range in Schaerbeek, Belgium. The night before her death her words to the
chaplain who took her communion have become inspirational and are recorded on
her memorial near St Martin-in-the-Fields in London:
“Patriotism
is not enough. I must have no hatred or
bitterness towards anyone.”
This is a counter
to the ‘my country right or wrong’ patriotism that drives divisions and builds
conflict. It holds out the hope of
reconciliation when the guns fall silent and the prospect of building a new
peace where justice has space to flourish.
The central theme
holding these major commemorations together through this year is that of the
real primary purpose of government: the upholding and pursuit of justice. Keeping these anniversaries is a moment to
recall what sustains this and the cost when it is threatened or attacked.
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