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Preached by The Rev'd Adrian Bell
What is the purpose of Flower Festival?
I am sure that Judith Smyth and her team of flower
arrangers, as well all those have helped with the
refreshments and the stall during the Festival, as well as
those who prepared the church might have wondered at times.
Like Christmas Tree Festivals and sponsored
events they have just sprung up and taken root in churches
up and down the country and I can’t remember when any of
these events started.
This has been an exceptionally well organised
Flower Festival, well presented, well advertised, and a very
happy atmosphere throughout which I do believe is down to
Judith’s personal skills of bringing the best out of people,
but quietly and with determination being in control of an
everything.
So what is the purpose of a Flower Festival?
Obviously the question that people will ask
is how much money has it raised? But I have to say that with
the increasing costs of flowers, although all the flowers in
church have been sponsored, Flower Festivals don’t make
large amounts of money in real terms. However, the money
raised will be well spent, and is very much needed at this
time in this church.
So it is partly money, but it also giving
pleasure to people and allowing them to see the glory of
God’s creation in flowers. These flowers will have come from
all over the world and before anyone tell s me about climate
change and the use of planes to bring the flowers here, my
eldest son who is an environmentalist told me that actually
growing flowers in Kenya and Mexico and similar countries
does less harm to our carbon footprint than actually growing
them in this country. Also the production of flowers
provides urgently needed cash for poorer countries.
So Flower Festivals raise money give pleasure
but also bring the church and town together is a joint
effort, because church members alone could not run this
Festival and we are so delighted that so many people have
offered their help, and will be helping again in a few
months time at the Christmas Tree Festival.
But I believe one of the most important
purposes behind the Festival is underlined in the thoughts
of Jesus in today’s reading from Luke –Jesus says to his
disciples, ‘ We are servants and deserve no credit, we have
only done our duty.’
Note that Jesus does not say ’You are
servants’, but’ We are servants’. He saw himself as the
suffering servant and he knew that if the new church was to
survive it would have to be the servant of the community in
which is serves.
The fact that the votive stand has always
been lit with candles, and that people have come to see the
flowers stood still, or sat in a pew for the prayers on the
hour, and have seen as the centre of this Festival at the
high altar the glorious fact that the suffering servant
Jesus was buried and rose again.
In the world we live in we hear much to my
irritation the word ‘power’. Governments are in power,
District Councils have power, and the Church has power and
authority. This is all nonsense. We have influence may be,
but we are here to be the servants of God.
At the age of 5 years I sat around a black
and white TV to watch the Coronation along with family and
neighbours. It was a long service but at the heart of it is
the anointing of the new monarch, which was not televised. A
canopy was held over the monarch’s head for the anointing,
and the monarch is anointed on the head, hands and heart.
The spoons used in it are the only part of the crown jewels
to have survived the Civil War. This would remind the Queen
that she was now a servant of God anointed for a task, as
we, are at baptism, confirmation, or even at the ordinations
which are taking place today around the country.
I am pleased that Judith chose as one of the
‘Headlines News’ the Coronation as well as women priests
because it reminds us that all are here to serve.
Clergy may be given titles such as Most Revd,
Right Revd, Very Revd, the Venerable, Your Eminence, or even
Your Holiness but we are all servants of God.
So I would say that the main purpose of this
Festival is to help people understand that the church is
here to serve them and to help them. Hopefully people having
seen the flowers will leave with a burden lifted from them
and that they can glimpse the glory of God and God’s purpose
in life for them.
Amen. |
