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Christ Church St Laurence Feast of St Laurence, Deacon and Martyr Solemn High Mass – 9th August 2019 St Paul’s College Chapel A Sermon delivered by the Reverend Antony Weiss. Psalm 17, 2 Corinthians 9:6-10, Matthew 6: 19-24

Firstly, on behalf of the Warden, I bid you a warm welcome to the Chapel of St Paul’s College, consecrated by Archbishop Hugh Rowlands Gough in April 1960 when Felix Arnott was Warden here before he was consecrated in 1963 as coadjutor Bishop in Melbourne and later translated to Brisbane as Archbishop. You are all most welcome and we look forward to worshipping with you here again for the Feast of Mary, Mother of our Lord this coming Thursday evening.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, our rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.

I am not sure that if there has been another occasion since 1845 that the people of Christ Church have gathered for the Feast of our adopted patron St Laurence in any other place save our beloved parish Church at Railway Square so perhaps this a first. Firsts seem to be a Christ Church St Laurence thing. Surely, it’s the first and only Sydney Anglican church which held its first services in a storeroom in a brewery?

The Church was consecrated by the first and only Bishop of Australia, +William Grant Broughton in 1845 whose impressive portrait hangs here in the Dining Hall of St Paul’s College.

In fact, Christ Church was the first church consecrated in Sydney – although St Stephen’s Newtown, a stone’s throw from here, was done the day before. However, in those days, Newtown was considered outside the bounds of Sydney: still is by some!

In 1845, CCSL had the city’s first robed choir, and in 1884, it became the first Anglican church in NSW to adopt a cross and candles on the altar. Then, in the following year, 1885, Christ Church was the first to introduce Eucharistic vestments much to the consternation of the Diocese.

Our sixth Rector (1911-1925), the Reverend. Clive Statham is the first priest attributed to introducing “liturgical innovations” such as three sacred ministers at high mass; incense and Page 2 of 5

Gospel processions—and Statham was the first and only Rector of Christ Church St Laurence who trained at Moore Theological College here on the southern boundary of St Paul’s College!

What is also interesting is that Christ Church is the first church in the Diocese of Sydney to take on as its patron a Roman saint, St Laurence, Deacon and Martyr.

Our parish, by its historic location on the southern fringe of early Sydney and by its theology has always had a strong commitment to the socially marginalised. In the 19th century, the parish provided education to the local community through the Christ Church Schools and undertook much needed mission work in the surrounding slums. Then in the 20th century, the parish provided a soup kitchen and youth employment services during the great depression and ministry to people with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, in partnership with Cana, our Saturday evening shelter provides dinner, bed, breakfast and fellowship to marginalised and homeless men.

So, it seems so perfect that Christ Church has, taken on this saint, St Laurence, as its patron. But there’s a twist to the story.

Christ Church was founded in one of the four small civil parishes in the town of Sydney out of the 57 in the wider County of Cumberland. Unlike the other three central Sydney civil parishes (St James, St Andrew and St Philip), St Lawrence was not named after a church. This later became controversial in the 19th century, as it meant that the Anglican church in the parish assumed a Roman saint’s name.

Well, God has a great sense of humour and it has ended up being ideal both in terms of Christ Church’s distinctive churchmanship reflecting the more catholic expression of Anglicanism (some think the more catholic expression of Catholicism) especially in this neck of the theological woods. And, of course, with the parish’s commitment to social justice and outreach: St Laurence is just too good to be true!

The life and times of Laurence, Protodeacon of the Roman Church are recorded in the Passio Polychromi dating from the fifth to the seventh centuries). The Passio Polychromi used early sources such as the De Officiis (cf PL XVL, 89-92) Of the duties [of clergy] by St Ambrose (c. 340–397).

The Roman Missal from 354AD records, “Laurence, the renowned Deacon of the Roman Church, confirmed his service of charity by martyrdom under Valerian (258), four days after the decapitation of Pope Sixtus II. According to a tradition widely diffused by the fourth Page 3 of 5 century, he patiently sustained a terrible martyrdom on the grid-iron, having distributed the goods of the community to the poor whom he regarded as the true treasure of the Church”.

How appropriate is it then, arising out of a 19th century administrative parochial sub-division in the town of Sydney that Christ Church, a parish committed to social outreach, has been able to have as its own, in this Diocese, St Laurence as its patron, one that reflects an integral part of our Gospel mission?

Born at Osca, a town in Aragon, near the foot of the Pyrenees Laurence was sent as a youth to Zaragoza, a highly renowned centre of learning in northern Spain, to undertake his theological studies. There he first encountered one of the most famous and esteemed teachers, the future Pope Sixtus II.

Sixtus and Laurence, as Master and disciple, were later drawn to that centre of western Christianity, Rome, to realise their ideal of evangelisation and missionary service which ultimately led to the shedding of their blood. Sixtus began a short-lived pontificate, one lasting less than a year. Without hesitation, Sixtus, committed to having Laurence, his friend and disciple, at his side. Sixtus entrusted to Laurence the important office of Protodeacon, the first or senior deacon.

(Today in the Roman rite, the senior Cardinal Deacon is the Cardinal Protodeacon of the Holy Roman Church. He has the privilege of announcing the new Pope’s election and name in the Habemus Papam announcement given from the central balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica).

Under Sixtus, Laurence became the head deacon of the Roman Church. He was never priested for way back then there was a permanent diaconate although it became a less a common ministry by the fifth century, unlike here in the Diocese of Sydney and in the Anglo- Catholic Diocese of Murray where the practice remains to this day!

But Sixtus’ and Laurence’s ministry partnership in Rome was to be short lived for they both died at the hands of the same persecutor, a few days apart. We have St Cyprian’s (Bishop of Carthage) account of the death of Sixtus in one of his letters. “The Emperor Valerian has consigned to the Senate a decree by which he has determined that all Bishops, Priests and Deacons will be immediately put to death”. Cyprian then continues: “I communicate to you that Sixtus suffered martyrdom on 6th August together with four Deacons while they were in a cemetery. The Roman authorities have established a norm according to which all Christians who have been denounced must be executed and their goods confiscated by the Imperial treasury”. But Laurence made sure the good went to the poor not the Roman coffers. Page 4 of 5

Ambrose wrote, “St Laurence wept when he saw his Bishop, Sixtus, led out to his martyrdom. He wept not because he was being let out to die but because he would survive Sixtus.” Three days after the death of Sixtus, while the terror raged, Laurence would be burned on the grid-iron. Ambrose also records St Laurence’s parting words to his torturers: assum est, versa et manduca - “This side is done, turn and eat” then Ambrose writes “With such strength of soul he conquered the flames of the fire.”

St Laurence lived his diaconal ministry giving supreme witness to Christ following in Our Lord’s footsteps, laying down his life for his sheep as Jesus did. Laurence’s imitation of Christ by means of unconditional self-giving is the outcome of his fruitful witness or as St Ambrose explains, “no other desire urged him but that of offering himself to the Lord as a holocaust [as a sacrificial offering which was burnt completely on an altar].” (de Officiis, 1,41, n. 207). St Laurence’s martyrdom expresses the greatest love for Christ showing his tormentors a life lived out according to the example of the Incarnate Word.

Ambrose’s account of the martyrdom of Laurence portrays Laurence as one who totally dedicated himself to the service of charity and distribution of material goods to the poor in the specific context of third century Imperial Rome, an empire in the throws of violent persecution.

So too are we to seek and serve in our modern context; to the poor materially and to the poor in spirit. Now unlike 3rd century Rome, it may not mean martyrdom! But in the context of 21st century hedonistic and self-serving Sydney, a place, just like 1st century Corinth where Paul writes to the fledgling church in tonight’s Epistle, in a city full of pride, individualism, wealth and idolatry, we, as members of Christ Church St Laurence, are to shun the values of this world and turn them, like Laurence in Rome, and according to Christ’s example, upside down. For Jesus calls us through Paul in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians to live counterculturally being ready and willing as generous and cheerful givers, not under compulsion, not because we think we can somehow merit ourselves before God and others rather seeking to build the kingdom up and out through our outreach.

“The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of us must give as we have made up our minds, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful give.” (2 Cor 9: 6-7)

Tonight, as a parish by God’s grace has adopted holy, holy Laurence as our patron; we remember his life, witness and martyrdom for the Gospel, the Gospel he lived out in seeking Page 5 of 5 the lost and serving to poor, the true treasures of the church, as Christ calls all his saints to do. May we, by that same Grace, seek to pursue the same.

+In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

AMEN.