I preached this sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral for the commemoration of Charles Simeon, a leader of the English evangelical movement.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Charles Simeon, born in 1759 and dying in 1836, was a teacher and promoter of missionary work whom we commemorate today for his contributions to Anglican mission, to the evangelical Anglican charism, and for the beauty and sanctity of his life.
Charles Simeon was born into a wealthy family, and like many gentry, attended Eton and Cambridge. As was the custom in those days, chapel attendance was compulsory for young men at school, and reception of the Eucharist was rare, though mandated yearly. It often caused grave scandal and lack of regard for the Sacrament, that these young men were required to attend chapel services and that it was insisted that they receive Eucharist annually, but no preparation for receiving, no amendment of life, no true Christian zeal was given. Chapel services were similar to Latin or Greek: something required and to be endured.
But, sometimes this wretched system produced something wonderful; that was the case with Charles Simon, who wrote in his journal:
"On 29 January 1779 I came to college. On 2 February I understood that at division of term I must attend the Lord's Supper. The Provost absolutely required it. Conscience told me that, if I must go, I must repent and turn to God."
Simeon would go on to Holy Orders, and be an important force in the development of the evangelical movement in the Church of England, that stressed Scripture, the Gospel message of justice, personal piety and conversion. Chalres Simeon was a founder of the Church Missionary Society, responsible for the conversion of hundreds of thousands in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The strong evangelical movement in the Anglicanism of much of the global south today is a direct inheritance of the Church Missionary Society.
Simeon’s writings also influenced reformers like William Wilberforce to work to abolish slavery in great Britain and her colonies, and Henry Martyn, the Anglican missionary to Persia and India, who translated the New Testament, psalter, and Book of Common Prayer into Persian and Hindi.
The tradition of chapel attendance and the gross irreligious behavior of the young men would later inspire another clergyman to speak out about the practice, and work to convert students, instructing them on proper reverence and devotion; that reformer, John Henry Newman, would eventually become a founder of the Oxford Movement, helping to reassert and restore catholic identity to the Church of England. These two movements, evangelicalism and anglo-catholicism and their two contributors, Charles Simeon and John Henry Newman, would help to shape the future of Anglicanism beginning in the 18th century up to our own day.
It is with joy that we celebrate Charles Simeon today, and his life and mission to spread the news of Christ. We are fortunate to have evangelicals and anglo-catholics in our calendar, men and women, children and adults, humans and angels. In our Anglican tradition, we celebrate all of the varied and beautiful ways that the Holy Ghost inspires sanctity and perfection in us, and it should inspire us to look for greater understanding f those from whom we differ. We need to remember to pursue unity, not uniformity, lifting up our differences, and giving thanks to God that we are all called to witness to His love for us, given to us through Christ.
Amen.
1 comment:
Enjoyed your homily. At the end you write of the variety and hope of many different types of witnesses. At the beginning, you do a bit bashing of American evangelicals. I am an Episcopal priest and decidedly not an Evangelical but we must be careful about our labels and judgment. Seems that is the stuff that saints are made of.
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