July

Bishop Edwin Barnes Preaches . . . about S. Barnabas, Apostle.

We are very pleased and fortunate to give below the homily preached by Bishop Edwin here on St Barnabas Day:

In Antioch Barnabas could see for himself that God had given grace and this pleased him, and he urged them all to remain faithful to the Lord… for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith.   Acts xi 23f

So our joint Prime Minister is the product of Eton.  Effortlessly superior, they say about Etonians ... we just assume they look down on other people.  But attitudes like this are often more to do with jealousy towards those born with a silver spoon in their mouth.  Certainly many who make their way to the top in politics have had a privileged start in life - but many of them also have very high ideals about how their life should be one of serving others.  Unfortunately, though, some who are born to privilege seem to think they deserve their good fortune.  Such people have a very high opinion of themselves, and a very low opinion of everyone else.  That attitude we call patronising.  It is very horrid, and it gives patronage a bad name.  The fact is, being patronising is the very opposite of what we want to find in a patron. You here in Beckenham are especially fortunate with St Barnabas - a patron who is the very opposite of patronising.  You can see it in everything about him. 

The leaders of the church in Jerusalem asked him to visit Antioch as their representative.  Antioch in the Greek-speaking world, where Jews would not necessarily feel at home.  Barnabas was very much a Jew, a Levite, a man whose family had always been prominent especially in the worship in the Temple at Jerusalem.  In fact, the sort of man who might have thought himself naturally a bit superior to these Greeks of Asia Minor, [Turkey].

His family had settled in Cyprus, and though he might have lived in a Jewish Ghetto there, he knew plenty of Greeks.  It might have been because of this cosmopolitan background - we do not know - but Barnabas had a great knack for seeing the best in people.  He was not one to suppose his privilege of birth was something he deserved:  it certainly did not allow him to look down on anyone else. 

When he discovered that the Gospel had broken out of its Jewish boundaries, and attracted foreigners, he was pleased - he recognised these new followers of Jesus for what they were, people who had been touched by God’s grace, and he encouraged them.  Indeed, that was his special gift, encouragement.  It was this gift, I suppose, that gave him the nickname ‘Barnabas’, son of encouragement, son of consolation.   The name his parents gave him was Joses, Joses the Levite.  The Greeks in Antioch were not the first people he had encouraged in the faith, either; for Barnabas was the person who persuaded the disciples in Jerusalem to welcome Saul after his conversion.  In Acts chapter 9 it is put like this:

When Saul was come to Jerusalem he attempted to join himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, and did not believed that he was a disciple.  But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how Saul had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

So there was Barnabas speaking up for Saul, newly converted to become Paul the disciple.  Everyone else was terrified of Saul the Pharisee: Barnabas realised that people can change, and so he was able to help in transforming Saul the persecutor into brother Paul the Apostle.  Barnabas was the obvious choice for the church to send to Antioch, to see if the conversions there were genuine, too.  Once he had seen the way the Holy Spirit was at work in Antioch, he sent for a companion to join him in the task of teaching.

When people are newly converted and full of enthusiasm, they cannot just be left by themselves to get on with it; they need sound teaching to build them up in the faith.  So who did Barnabas ask to come with him to Antioch?  None other than Saul, the well-instructed Jew who had suddenly become persuaded that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.  Barnabas went from Antioch to Tarsus to search out Saul; that itself was no easy task.  It meant travelling down to the coast, then by boat round to the northeast corner of the Mediterranean.  When Barnabas had found Saul, he brought him to Antioch, and for a whole year they Barnabas the Apostle and Paul the new convert met regularly with the church and taught the people there.

It is easy to read about those early days of the life of the Christian church and find it all very predictable.  Christianity swept across the whole Roman Empire - and we just take it for granted.  We have no idea what a touch-and-go thing it was, or how enormous the obstacles were. 

There was just a handful of men who had accompanied Jesus and seen him die, and witnessed his resurrection.  With them, a few women.  None of them especially well-educated, none of them wealthy or influential; yet somehow they managed to set in motion a process which has gone on for two thousand years, and still continues.  Read through the Acts of the Apostles, and notice how it keeps mentioning numbers; when they gathered to choose someone to take the place of Judas Iscariot, there were just a hundred and twenty of them.  After the preaching on Pentecost day, 3000 were added to their number.  Then comes the great turning point with the martyrdom of Stephen; his death and the persecution that followed meant that disciples fled to distant parts of the Empire, and the growth in numbers became quite miraculous.

It is easy to get dispirited about the current state of the church.  Nothing is as it was.  Everything appears to be chaotic.  Its most distinctive and valuable asset, the parochial system, is being dismantled by and being replaced by centralising bureaucrats.  What hope is there?  But even as this is happening, new opportunities are opening up – not least the extraordinary initiative of Pope Benedict in trying to save our church from itself.

Barnabas the encourager should be an encouragement to you.  Who knows if Christianity would have taken off in the way it did unless he had befriended Saul?  He looked for the best in people, not the worst. 

There are plenty ready to attack what the Pope is proposing, claiming he is trying to undermine the Anglican Communion.  Yet what if he is genuinely trying to do what he says, to rescue what is best in our Anglican tradition?  Then it could be that this Apostolic Constitution really is the answer to our years of praying for Christian unity.

If Barnabas had not supported Saul, who can tell if we non-Jews would ever have been able to become Christians?  It was the way he encouraged the first non-Jewish converts in Antioch which opened up the future for us all.  He did such a good job there that even the name ‘Christian’ was first used in Antioch.  The faith was no longer a branch of Judaism, you did not have to become a Jew before you could follow Jesus.  Christianity was for everyone, and Barnabas was one of the first to recognise this.  So cheer up, all is not lost.  The Lord is good, and will not abandon us if we are faithful. Barnabas, Son of Consolation, your patron can still be a great encouragement to us all.

In nomine ....

X Edwin

THE FIRST PRIEST IN-CHARGE OF ST BARNABAS  

This is an abbreviated version of part of an account of the early years of St Barnabas Oakhill written by Fr Peter Marr. May we remember the causes for which St Barnabas Beckenham stood for from the beginning.  

The idea of a church district in the south of Beckenham was associated with the appointment of a Chaplain to members of the Hoare family living at Kelsey Manor in the 1870s. The moving force was Peter Richard Hoare. A chapel had been built there by Sir George Gilbert Scott and the Revd Robert Linklater served as Chaplain from 1869 until 1872. He subsequently went as a curate at St Peter's London Docks and was succeeded by the Revd Edward Pote Williams.

Edward Pote Williams was born on 23rd November 1838. He was born at Eton College where his family had been booksellers and publishers. He was a descendent of Joseph Pote (1703-1787) bookseller at Eton, whose daughter had married into the Williams family, also publishers. E.P.Williams senior, published sixty or so books, classical literature, history, theology and the Eton School Lists. In 1869 he also published a History of Boating at Eton.

The young Edward Pote Williams was educated at Christ's Hospital (then in London) and Christ's  College, Cambridge. He was ordained Deacon in 1861 and Priest the following year. He served a number of' curacies, at Calbourn, Isle of Wight (1861-63) Fawley, Hants (1863-64), and Chislehurst (1864-69/. During this time, in 1865, he joined the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) subsequently becoming the longest serving member of the Society.

In 1869 he served as a missioner at St Peters London Docks together with the Revd R.A.J.Suckling. He was Rector of the rural parish of Barsham in Suffolk (to which Fr E.P.Williams subsequently was appointed), and then Vicar of St Peter's London Docks, and of St Albans Holborn.

It would have been here if not before that Fr Williams would have come into direct contact with Robert Linklater and thus with the Beckenham connection. However, he left Chislehurst and served an curacy at St Augustine's Kilburn (1869-72), before coming to Beckenham that year.

He married Julia (Ellis), by whom he had five sons and three daughters. Their eldest child Katherine Mary was born in Chislehurst about 1865. The next child, Leonard, was born about two years later at St Leonards-on-Sea, whilst Fr Williams was still at Chislehurst. A third child Bernard Francis, was born about a year later, again at Chislehurst. During his time at Kilburn (1869-72) Mary and Margaret Irene were born. Margaret died on 20th November 1882 and is buried at Barsham. Then whilst at Beckenham Cyril and Mildred were born in the late 1870s.

The Revd E.P.Williams set to work to establish on Oakhill a church that was sympathetic to the Catholic tradition within the Church of England. This was finally achieved in 1877 a few months before Peter Hoare died. News of his appointment as the first Incumbent was certainly made known by April 1877. Keble College Oxford, then recently founded in memory of John Keble became the Patron. The College was chosen to ensure a succession of Catholic-minded priests for the parish. A capital sum of London, Tilbury and Southend Railway stock provided the stipend, apparently given by a now unknown benefactress.

The religious atmosphere in Beckenham at the time was not a happy one. In particular it was the year that the feelings over the book 'The Priest in Absolution', a manual for priests concerning sacramental confession, were at their height. The Church Association had a number of meetings locally expressing concern about ritualism and about auricular confession. On the other hand in 1877 the Beckenham and Bromley Branch of the English Church Union the other end of the churchmanship spectrum expressed its hearty sympathy with the Rev. Arthur Tooth in prison for conscience sake (i.e. ritualism) and its deep sense of thankfulness to him for his loyal stand in defence of the rights of the Church. Fr Tooth, then Vicar of St James Hatcham, is buried at Elmers End Cemetery where on 5th March each year we hold a service at his grave.

The establishment of St Barnabas nevertheless went on apace. But in July we read in the local press concerning St Barnabas, Oak Hill:

Within the past month, with signatures attached to it representing 304 persons, has been presented to the Rev. EP. Williams, in which the memorialists state that the gentleman in question, who has just been nominated as first incumbent of this Church, is a member of the Society of the Holy Cross and of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament and likewise one of those who signed a petition to Convocation in favour of the appointment of legalized confessors in the Church of England, they cannot in any way receive or recognise him as their minister or pastor, and therefore trust he will abstain from intruding into their homes in that capacity. Accompanying this memorial is a list of names of parties who decline to sign the same (representing 68 souls) with their reasons attached. A copy of the document was sent on the 12^th. to His Grace the Archbishop, together with a strongly-worded memorial...

We have already noticed that he had joined SSC in 1865. The month following the petition, August 1877, there were further problems. The Revd Charles Stebbing Wallace SSC had been refused a licence by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Tait, "because he would not leave SSC." However, the members of the SSC were "unanimous in thanking Bro.Wallace for his courageous conduct". Clearly the matter was somehow resolved as he appeared listed as "curate" at St Barnabas the following year at the Stone-laying ceremony for the new St Barnabas Church. He is described as the "embodiment of priestly chivalry and fraternal charity" and later became Vicar of the Ascension, Lavender Hill.

When St Barnabas District was made into a parish in 1880 it seems that the Revd Edward Pote Williams was not acceptable as the first Vicar. It is not clear why. He left Beckenham in 1880 and became Rector of Barsham, Suffolk, succeeding the Revd R.A.J.Suckling. At Barsham Rectory he had two domestic staff of which one, Mary Seels, probably came with the family from Beckenham. Her own family lived at Clayhill Cottages in the Bromley Road. Suffering from indifferent health, Fr Williams left Barsham and became curate at St Mary Magdalene, Paddington, a Keble College living (1889-91), then Chaplain to the Sisters of St Mary and St John in Chiswick (1891-1902) and finally curate of St Matthias Earls Court (1900-16).

He had joined the SSC in 1865 and by 1909 had become the senior member by length of membership of the Society. He had been a founder-member of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament and its Secretary-General. He became the oldest member of The Church Union. Much is revealed in the words of Ninian Comper, the architect, who was staying with the Williams' at Barsham on Good Friday 1883: Mr. Williams, rector, is what I call a regular thorough priest and not a rector or clergyman...... " Fr Williams returned to St Barnabas to preach on a number of occasions up to 1919 and a local writer observed in 1895 that FY Edward Pote Williams had "never lost his first love for the church and parish he inaugurated".

He died aged 84, and after 62 years as a priest, at Earls Court on 14th November 1922 and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery on 17th November. His obituarist wrote in The Church Times that Fr. Williams was closely associated with Fr Lowder and also Fr Mackonochie "the defendant in various ritual suits...and [Fr Williams] was in full sympathy with their ecclesiastical positions".