Manchester Grammar School Founder’s Day This was not unusual in the medieval world. There are 500th anniversary celebration parallels today in the way that some business people 16 October 2015 collect directorships of companies with which they have only tenuous links but for which they get paid Preached in Cathedral handsomely. by the Right Reverend , Bishop of The good news is that, for all his faults, Bishop put his extensive income to a number of good causes, including the founding and endowing of a Grammar It is good to be with you today as we celebrate the 500th School here in Manchester for the education of poor anniversary of the foundation of Manchester Grammar boys. After all, it was his home town. To be precise, School. As someone who was until recently Bishop of Hugh Oldham was born in , which in the early Stockport, I spent six years of my life living down the sixteenth century was a village just outside Manchester. road with this great city and cathedral just over the horizon. So I know something of the reputation of this In founding this school he wanted to give thanks for all school and it is an unexpected privilege to find myself that he had received from his family and upbringing. He associated with it. invested in the well-being of future generations of young people by ploughing his wealth into education. It was a I’m also very much aware that David Walker, the Bishop praiseworthy thing to do and of his generosity all of you of Manchester, is himself an Old Mancunian; so I trust are his beneficiaries. that nothing I say today will serve to make him ban me from entering his Diocese ever again. Now as then, education is the gateway to a bigger world. It expands our minds and broadens our horizons. It is of As you know, the founder of your school was Hugh infinite value, though few of us necessarily appreciate it Oldham, one of my illustrious predecessors as Bishop of at the time. Only in adulthood do we look back and Exeter whose life-size bronze statue stands gazing down realise just how fortunate we’ve been. at you in your school grounds. I’m not sure how a school such as this views your During his lifetime Bishop Oldham managed to acquire Christian foundation or how you endeavour to embody for himself a vast array of jobs which he held that religious ethos today, but if nothing else I would simultaneously, and with them, of course, went their hope that thanksgiving for what we have been given in extensive revenues. life and generosity in giving remain hallmarks of this way in dark times. Bad and sad things happen in this place. world, and sometimes they happen to really good people. Making sense of that experience is one of life’s Bishop Oldham’s tomb stands at the east end of Exeter biggest challenges and there is no escaping it. Cathedral. I walk past it almost every day. If ever you are on holiday in you should come and see it for And this is where the Christian faith and its scriptures yourself. It is spectacular. His coat of arms forms the have so much to teach us because they grapple with shield at the centre of your own school’s arms. questions of human striving and failure. They point us to the God in whom we live and move and have our being, He is the origin of the owl which he adopted as his the God who wants us not merely to exist as men and heraldic device and, somewhat bizarrely, owls are women, but to thrive. carved all over his tomb in Exeter. It was a medieval joke, a sort of pun because, as I’m sure you know, in his We live in an age deluged with more and more data day Oldham was in fact pronounced Owl-dom. And that which can sometimes become an end in itself. Some is why he adopted the bird as his own. organizations become paralysed by a mass of information and struggle to make sense of it. Which is If I remember correctly, in Harry Potter and The why we should not make the mistake of confusing the Philosopher’s Stone it is the owls who bring Harry acquisition of information with the pursuit of wisdom. In messages, warning him and advising him of the new the words of the poet T.S. Eliot: future that awaits him. Harry learned to trust the owls and look out for them. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? The owl has always been a symbol of wisdom. We talk Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? of a good teacher as a ‘wise old owl’. The reason why owls in popular imagination were considered to be wise When NASA first started sending astronauts into space is because they have such extraordinary big eyes and they discovered that biros didn’t work in zero gravity. because they know how to fly in the dark. Twelve billion dollars later and after ten years of research they eventually developed a pen that could Perhaps the owl offers us an image of education. If we write in zero gravity, upside down, under water, on would be wise, then we too need to have our eyes wide almost any surface including glass and at temperatures open, not shut to the world either in its beauty or its ranging from below freezing to over 300 degrees horrors. We also need to develop our capacity to find our Celsius. Meanwhile the Russians found that in space they could Then, after a long pause, it recalculates my route, manage quite well using a pencil! directing me home from wherever I am, even when I’ve got myself hopelessly lost. Wherever I am, it always I’m being frivolous, but my point is that it’s all too easy to guides me home. become obsessed with information rather than wisdom. Wisdom comes with experience and it takes time to And that’s what God does. It’s what Christians mean distil. Like the poet T. S. Eliot, I’m interested in when they talk about the Holy Spirit guiding us. God recovering the ‘life we have lost in living’. wants to lead us and guide us, if only we will pause and listen to his directions. And that’s why prayer is important It think of the words of Jesus who famously said, ‘I have because prayer is all about learning to listen to God with come that you may have life, and have it in all its the ear of our hearts. fullness’ (John 10.10). His words continue to inspire my own discipleship. So as we celebrate this 500th anniversary, let us give thanks for Bishop Hugh Oldham, local boy made good, Finally, a personal word. I have to do a lot of driving in and let us honour his legacy by bringing wisdom to bear my job. Devon is a pretty big place. In fact, after on all we do. Yorkshire it’s the next biggest county in . You’d be amazed how many thousands of miles I clock up in a Don’t stop exploring, asking questions, seeking after year travelling around my diocese. How Bishop Oldham truth, distilling wisdom in your experiences. For my part, did it on horseback I don’t know. in the words of Jesus, I pray that the God of truth ‘will lead you into all truth and that the truth will set you free.’ I can’t tell you the relief when I’ve been out visiting some Amen. distant parish late at night, perhaps the other side of Dartmoor, and I get into my car and press ‘home’ on my Satnav. + Robert Exon

Sometimes – and here comes the confession – I opt to go a different way, convinced that I know a quicker route than the Satnav. In a rather plaintiff voice, the Satnav tells me to turn round when possible and to retrace my steps. But then, as I drive further and further away from her prescribed route the Satnav goes silent on me.