The Bishop of Beverley

Centenary of the Institution of Conrad Noel to Thaxted

She whom people called barren is now in her sixth month,

for nothing is impossible to God.

Luke 1, v36

Somewhere within the Communion of Saints Conrad Noel must be both bemused and amused that we should be celebrating the centenary of his institution to this great parish of Thaxted within a week of Pope Benedict’s visit to England and of the beatification of Cardinal Newman. Neither, one suspects, would have been at the top of his particular list of exemplary Christians. Conrad Noel once uncompromisingly observed that the claims of the papacy placed the Pope of Rome in the position of a single dictator…overlording the flock of Christ and, he added, as a result Roman Catholicism becomes a sort of perverted Protestantism. Noel was rarely a man to understate his case.

Noel would, though, have been delighted that we are marking today with a Mass of

Our Lady. When Bishop Ditchfield of Chelmsford tried to restrain Noel from observing the festival of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Noel’s ultimate response was to put a card near the statue of the Virgin on which was printed for the conversion of the Bishop of Chelmsford to the Catholic Faith. More importantly Noel saw in Our Lady, as she sang her Magnificat, the one who trusted in her Son’s capacity to turn this world upside down. Blessed Mary had faithfully heeded the Angel Gabriel’s words concerning Elizabeth: nothing is impossible to God.

Conrad Noel seems to have personified this apparent turning of things upside down in his own life. The son of an aristocrat, Noel’s very first visit to Thaxted was in a chauffeur-driven car provided by the Countess of Warwick. On the day of his institution, almost one hundred years ago to the day, Noel travelled in similar style, this time sharing the diocesan bishop’s car. The then Bishop of S Albans, who was to institute him, just happened to be his cousin. Yes, Noel might well be bemused by being linked both to a papal visit and to Cardinal Newman. He would, though, easily handle the seeming contradictions in so far as they could be used as instruments for pointing to the Kingdom of God. The great theme of Pope Benedict’s recent visit has been that of affirming both the duty and the freedom of Christians to engage in the public forum that shapes society’s self-understanding and values. Cardinal Newman, of course, was clear that religion was no private matter. Conrad Noel’s great legacy to us is the re-emphasising in his day that Christianity is not about some kind of ‘pie in the sky religion’. Christianity is about establishing the standards of the Kingdom of God throughout creation. The Catholic Faith is exactly that, catholic; not only because it embraces the whole truth. It is the faith that is all-inclusive in its concern. The Catholic Faith is for everyone, for the whole of God’s creation. George Chambers, Noel’s first curate at Thaxted, tells of how he was tremendously excited by first hearing Noel explaining familiar Gospel passages. Jesus’ life and teachings were set against what Noel’s great biographer, Reg Groves, described as an oppressed, exploited countryside, and a people yearning for social justice. Here was a faith strikingly relevant to the Britain of the early Twentieth Century. Once the Church Socialist League was not interested in being an active participant in the Socialist movement but only wanted to talk to the Church, then it was of little interest to Noel and his followers. Noel could happily write on Why Catholics should be Socialists and on Why Socialists should be Catholics. Either one, without the other, was heresy. Noel was determined to put his case and would not back off, no matter how increasingly discomforted by his views parts of the Labour movement might be.

Noel was not just interested in what today we call ambulance work. It is no good just treating the folk who suffer from the filthy smoke of a neighbouring factory or who are injured in ghastly working conditions. Justice demands that the very system that allows these things to happen in the first place be reformed. Noel was steeped in the doctrine of God the Holy Trinity. Those of us who can remember reciting the Athanasian Creed from the Book of Common Prayer might be somewhat surprised to see it used by Conrad Noel as the theological basis for his social theology. God is a community of persons in which none is superior to the other. God is a commonwealth. His very nature is justice. God’s Incarnate Son comes to enable each of us share fully in that commonwealth, the Kingdom of God. So Noel continues to remind us not only to take our full place in the political forum of our day but also to be thoroughly grounded in the values we bring to that forum and as to why we bring them.

If this all sounds somewhat theoretical and highbrow, another of Conrad Noel’s gifts to us, especially to be treasured on this anniversary, is the way that he earthed all these concerns in the life of the community here at Thaxted. Noel was especially concerned that the liturgy of the Church should clearly and dramatically set out the true meaning of this meal where we have a foretaste of the complete harmony of God’s kingdom. There was to be no strange ceremonial to hide the meaning of the Liturgy from the people or to make worship more mysterious in the sense that no one could ever be more deeply drawn into its true meaning. Liturgy for Noel was about ceremony that made clearer the meaning of the Divine mystery in which you and I are caught up every time we share in the Eucharist. There must be no priestly caste for its own sake. During the evening office Noel would sit among the congregation. Lay folk were involved to the full. Processions vividly portrayed the People of God as on the move together. The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament was to illustrate Christ at the heart of His people, strengthening them as He was lifted up against all that stood in opposition to His kingdom. The flag of oppressed Ireland, the Red Flag, the banner of Blessed John Ball were all included to demonstrate the wide concerns of God’s people. Youngsters always led the Midsummer procession dressed in the garb of this Church’s Patron Saints. Yet there was to be no what we sometimes refer to as dumbing down. There was plainsong. There were often an orchestra, choir and great musical settings at festival masses. There was no room for what Noel referred to as hand-me-downs and curtains for church vestments. These should be the high quality work of craftsmen, exemplifying a liturgy in which we seek to give the very best to God. We need to think, in our day and age, very carefully about what is happening to our liturgical life with its conflicting pressures both from popularists and from antiquarians. Father Ken Leech warned us years ago of the need for a proper ecology in matters of our devotional life just as in regard to preserving other aspects of our planet. We have neglected this to our great cost.

Communicants, here at Thaxted, were encouraged to be involved in political life and trade unionism, both local and national. At the same time all church teaching should reflect the corporate nature of the community. Sin should be understood as the weakening of its life. There is no doubt that Noel saw his coming to this place as the opportunity to promote and put into practice his deepest convictions. Subsequently a whole army of folk, touched by the Thaxted experience, were to echo his approach to ministry across the country. There is a tendency in some parts of our church for parish churches to become gatherings of the like-minded, overwhelmingly pre-occupied in matters ecclesiastical and in the misplaced quest for private spiritual fulfilment. Noel still challenges us to reflect Christ who challenges the oppression of His day and invites all into a participative citizenship of the Kingdom of God.

Noel, insisting this world is God’s concern; Noel, demanding that we work with Our Lord in building that Kingdom that reflects the essential justice of God’s nature; Noel, who embodied these things in his parish ministry; but, let us not lose one final gift that Noel offers to us. Let us above all, today, thank God for Conrad Noel the prophet. Perhaps there will always be a tension in the church between the priest and the prophet, even if Jesus, our Master, supremely embodies both. A sinful church always needs those who ask the awkward questions. Noel delighted to refer to Our Lord as Jesus the heretic. Today we celebrate someone who, after a good row with his diocesan bishop, would decline the offer of lunch saying he could not possibly share a meal with a heretic. Those with great power in the Church must always have a temptation to go with the appointment that avoids awkward customers. Noel must have been infuriating at times, occasionally wrong in his judgement. But, without him and without people like him today, the Church will be a very impoverished place. It would be sad if we all gathered here today to celebrate his marvellous battles with the respectable of his day, only because such events are now safely tucked away in history and there is no longer any likelihood of discomfiture to us. That would be to be disloyal to Conrad Noel and even more so Jesus the heretic whom we seek to serve.

May this Eucharist, the sign of God’s Kingdom, renew us in entering upon the heritage that Conrad Noel has left for us. May we like him be confident in Gabriel’s message that nothing is impossible to God.