Readings for the Baptism of Christ: Isaiah 42 V 1 9: Ephesians 2 V 1 10

Sermon preached by the Dean of Wells at Evensong on January 11th 2015. (Service includes a commemoration of Bishop Beckynton (1390 – 1465) who gave the gift of water to the city of Wells)

Readings for the Baptism of Christ: Isaiah 42 v 1 – 9: Ephesians 2 v 1 – 10

In Wells Cathedral there’s this ancient clock,
three parts time machine, one part zodiac.
Every fifteen minutes, knights on horseback
circle and joust, and for six hundred years
the same poor sucker riding counterways
has copped it full in the face with a lance.
To one side, some weird looking guy in a frock
Back-heels a bell. Thus the quarter is struck.

It’s empty in here, mostly. There’s no God
to speak of — some bishops have said as much —
and five quid buys a person a new watch.
But even at night with the great doors locked

chimes sing out, and the sap who was knocked dead
comes cornering home wearing a new head.

The poem by Simon Armitage reminds us that we live with tradition, and that tradition important in one age, may seem merely quaint to future generations. So we have to ask the question whether in gathering this afternoon to commemorate Bishop Beckynton, this service is a living expression of the life of the city of Wells or merely a pleasant, romantic reminder of a feudal, hierarchical order, familiar to our ancestors but alien to the questions of today?

Well, I suppose the role of a preacher is to bridge the gap of history, to make the words of the Bible and the traditions of cathedral city live again in a different context. So I will try!

The job of being a City Councillor is not an easy one and I am conscious that several of you are rumoured to be retiring in May, some after many years of labour. I want to say to all of you, and especially to those who are not standing again, thank you for the many hours that you have given to the City of Wells in a voluntary capacity, most of which will remain unknown to the general public. At a time of reduction in local government funding, sustaining services and looking to the future at parish district and county level is a constant challenge, and, as with all public service, it is always much easier to criticize than to act constructively for the good of all.

The demand to serve the common good of the people was already noted by the Hebrew prophets.In this afternoon’s first reading the servant of God, the people of Israel, are called to ‘bring forth justice to the nations’,’to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon’. Serving the common life of the people, or of a city, is not just about good administration, it is about having a vision forthe future, and it is about the creation of a just community where all can play their part.

The words we heard from the New Testament have a different tone. They are about starting again when we have failed. As you look back over the past years as councillors I have no doubt that you will see a mixture of success and failure. You will, I hope, be pleased with much what you have achieved, but aware that some projects have not worked out as you had hoped - sometimes because of choices that you now regret - more often, perhaps because of changing external circumstances and actions by others over which you had little control. In any position of responsibility you have to have both honesty and resilience; honesty to admit what has been less than perfect, and persistence to start again from the reality of where you now are. When I was appointed Dean of Wells the letter I valued most was from the Bishop who had ordained me deacon in Newcastle in 1976. He wrote, ‘John, you know that in this new role you will have to depend on the grace of God as never before’, and he was right. We all need the grace and forgiveness of God to keep going, and the humility to know that anything we may be able to achieve comes through the goodwill and collaboration of others.

I sense that this May we are likely to move into a new political era, both in local government and nationally. The overall political landscape seems more uncertain, more difficult to predict than I can remember previously. New parties, whether Wells independents or UKIP - it is interesting that they both have the word independent in their title - show dissatisfaction with the current system, but as yet few constructive alternatives. Talk at Westminster of devolution or regionalism obscures the fact that money for local government is shrinking in real terms and that smaller local authorities may struggle to deliver the range of services currently offered. Some, like West Somerset, may not survive in their present form.

Gone are the days when government could determine the shape and priorities for a local area. As I look back over the last few years in Wells most of the significant development have come through some form of private enterprise – sometimes for profit, sometimes as service to the community. Let me list a few: the building of the Morrisons and Waitrose stores; the work of the Bishop’s Palace Trust in opening the Bishop’s Palace to visitors; the new housing developments off the Glastonbury Road and elsewhere; the growth of the Wells Literary festival; the Cathedral Development Project; the construction of a high quality recital hall that will start in February at the cathedral school. Some of these have enhanced different aspects of city life, others we may regret. My point is that the energy for change in each of these projects has come through private initiatives, not through local government or central planning.

The Cathedral Chapter has recently looked at a draft of the Neighbourhood Plan for Wells. It is easy to endorse some form of its overall aims ‘to balance the distinctive character of its ancient heritage with the needs of a growing and dynamic city’. It is less easy to believe that its planning regulation approach will have any significant impact on the future shape of the city. Whilst we may want more employment, or more sustainable housing, or better parking facilities, or new schools, they will not come through words or generalised wishes. Change, as I suggested is likely to be driven by private initiatives, and, at best, local authorities may be able to gain limited public benefits out of commercial decisions.

This, of course, meansa more modest role for the city council.On this understanding it isnot elected so much to determine the future shape of the city as to support organizations that bring new energy and life to Wells, and to challenge those whose dreams of profit ignore the long-term good of the community. I am afraid that in this latter task it may have limited success, as in this fallen world money tends to overrule good intentions.

Wells does not stand by itself. Another potential weakness of any neighbourhood plan is a tendency to treat a particular community as an island. We live in an interconnected and interdependent world. Perhaps the biggest obstacles to the flourishing of Wells lie outside the boundaries of the city. Wells will flourish only if it has good connections to Somerset and far beyond. The slowness of broadband speed, the current parking policy which discourages tourists to stay for a long-time in the city, limited and shrinking bus services, and inadequate road connections to the M5 and the A303, are the biggest blocks to the needs of a growing and dynamic city. These can only be tackled by developing vision and by collaboration with other partners within Mendip and Somerset. They depend,for the most part, on more funds from central government and need a strong public/ private coalition to lobby for change. Unless communications are improved the cathedral and others will struggle, in the longer term, to raise the income needed to maintain the medieval heritage for which this city is famed, and upon which its economic future depends.

The knights continue to go around the clock. Time passes, as we remember Bishop Beckynton we remember a great builder and reformer, a man who didn’t just preserve the past but looked for a better economic and social future for the city. As we give thanks to God for his gift of water to Wells, we pray for vision today, and action tomorrow.

John Clarke – January 20th 2015