Sermon preached at St Mary’s, Primrose Hill by Andrew Allen on Trinity Sunday, 2007

The Feast of the Trinity comes at the start of what is called Ordinary Time. Since Advent we have been commemorating the life of Christ, concluding with the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Trinity Sunday may be seen as a conclusion to this because it is the first time in the Church’s year that we see all three parts of God in their context –the Father has sent the Son to redeem his creation, and following his death and resurrection, the Son has returned to the Father, whilst the Father has sent the Spirit to continue his work on earth.

God is the Trinity. People perceive God as being solely God the Father , rather than God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit but all Three together make up God.

Sounds simple.

But the idea of having One God who is Three persons can be challenging. The term ‘person’ is a misleading one, and modern theologians such as Jane Williams tend to play down the term persons, and rather to talk about the Trinity as being ‘a dynamic unity with three centres.’ This term frees us from thinking of the Father, or the Holy Spirit as a person, because we then apply our own expectations of a person to that entity, whereas they are very distinct, distinguished centres which unite to make up God. This combination of Unity with Distinction is characteristic of God.

As God is made up of three distinctive centres, to borrow Williams’ phrase, each centre has a different function.

Take this church for example.

There are various purposes, roles, and uses for the church – firstly, as a place of worship, as we are doing here today; secondly, the role we play in the local community, such as though the social inclusion project, and thirdly, as a profit making body, through hiring out the church or centre. All three of these different faces of St Mary’s are linked to each other – without having a form of worship, we wouldn’t be able to play such a strong role in the life of the community, and likewise, without sufficient funds, it would be virtually impossible to do anything. Yet, when these come together we make up the Church: the different faces cannot exist separately of each other, nor can they exist outside of the umbrella of St Mary’s Primrose Hill.

This is similar to the Trinity - each player or centre cannot exist without the other. If we consider the Nicene Creed, which we will recite after this sermon, it is clear that God the Father is – there is no mention of the Father being created. God the Son, however is ‘begotten of the Father’ and God the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The diversity of these verbs determining the relationship and existence of the Trinity is important in showing that each member of the Trinity has a different origin, and also a different role – to quote again the Nicene Creed – the Father is maker of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ ‘was made man, was crucified and suffered death.... and rose again, and the Holy Spirit is the giver of life. Each player or each centre has a specific purpose, which comes together for the benefit of the church as a whole, again reinforcing the idea of Unity and Distinction being the chief characteristics of God.

Like many others, I feel that the Church should embrace the idea of unity despite distinct characteristics when considering the Anglican Communion today and its future. From the outset I want to say this is just the exploration of my thoughts, and I will certainly not be trying to solve the problem.

The Anglican Communion is summarised by the Archbishop of Canterbury as a

“church seeking to be a coherent family of communities, meeting to hear the Bible read, to break bread and share wine as guests of Jesus Christ, and to celebrate a unity in worldwide mission and ministry”.

And, on paper, this sounds very good – reflecting the phrase in the Eucharist – ‘though we are many, we are one body, because we all share the one bread.’

Yet in reality this is not the case. The Anglican Communion is on the whole a leftover of British imperialism – a sort of sacred Commonwealth. The cultural, historical, political, sociological, and economic differences between the different churches of the Communion are immense. Trying to maintain a united approach on the doctrines which make up the church is very difficult. This is particularly noticeable in the crisis which has been plaguing the Anglican Communion for the past few years.

This crisis, as you all are probably aware has mainly been sparked off by ordaining a practising gay priest to a bishopric in the States. There are, of course other issues, such as the role of women with God-given vocations to serve the Church in the ordained ministry, but the focus of much of the debate has been on the issue of homosexuality.

What is at stake is a balance between biblical teaching, and the context of the society that the bible and indeed the church are trying to serve.

Homosexuality was legalised in Britain in 1957 and since then, attitudes, on the whole, have become very accepting. However, that is not true of all people in Britain, and probably not true of all people in this congregation, never mind the entire Anglican Communion with its some 30 million members. If one looks at other countries in the Communion, the attitudes of are completely different, In Nigeria, for example, there have been strong motions to criminalise homosexuality.

How then can the Church take a stand point which is considerate to all members of the Communion and their interaction with biblical interpretation?

Church leaders can only pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as Christ said in today’s Gospel, ‘When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.’ In essence the whole question of the future of the Anglican Communion is about the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Following on from Pentecost, God the Spirit may lead us in ways which challenge our comfort zones and our protection, to guide us and lead us into the future.

What we need to decide, as Rowan Williams writes, is whether the unity of the Anglican Communion is worth preserving over our own beliefs, if we believe that our beliefs are true and right for our society,or should we sacrifice our values for something greater than what we as a member Church believe to be true?

Is it time for us to throw in the towel on the future of the Anglican Communion?

Or can the strength of our communion remain united with distinctive characteristics? The leading argument to keep the Communion together is that if it goes, then other member churches may break up from within.

I do think it is time to cut these links, because then we can be freed from the constraints of trying to all toe the party line and thus offend everyone in the same process.

The abolition of the Anglican Communion would not be the end of the Anglican Church – indeed it could be like freeing an overgrown pot plant from a tight spot, being able to flourish and grow, and indeed explore, whilst still having a common framework – the Bible, albeit with different interpretations; the Creeds and the Prayer Book. For far too long the Church has mused over the homosexuality question, and whilst it is an important one, surely, as John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York has spoken about, it is time to move on and think of other major questions, such as or social injustice, or slavery, or declining church attendance, or showing God’s love to all his created humanity, rather than getting into perpetual knots about peoples’ private lives.

The Trinity is a doctrine of Unity with diverse parts, and this can be applied to a post Anglican Communion Church – we would still be United because we would be Christ as best we think we can, within the context which means the most to us, whilst allowing others to find their way without a power struggle for who is in control, or whose interpretation takes precedence. It would allow us to focus on aspects such as fighting injustice or prejudices, or AIDS rather than perpetually struggling over the same issue, when it is clear that there will never be an answer to keep all parties happy. For God the Holy Spirit can speak in different ways to different people, and this is part of the diversity of the Trinity – different centres travelling along different routes to reach the same final goal – a God who is love and for whom to worship is our very being.

And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion, henceforth and forever more. Amen.

Andrew Allen, 2007