No.128
By all accounts the Victorian era
of the College produced some
memorable sermons. Dr Moberly, the
Headmaster, was unequalled in the
pulpit: graceful, brilliant, universally
accomplished, morbidly refined.
The Warden’s sermons, on the other
hand, were remembered for different
reasons. The same commentator
from the pews remarked that the
Headmaster was, ‘as unlike the
Warden as one good man can differ
from another’. Warden Barter pulled
out the same sermon on the Witch of
Endor on so many occasions that the
boys could recite it verbatim. It is on
record that, once going hurriedly into
Chapel, and snatching the uppermost
document from his drawer, Warden
Barter possessed himself of a sermon
which he had preached in his father’s
country parish, and found himself
presently exhorting the bewildered
boys to bring their wives to the
Communion as soon as possible after
they had been churched.
Another of Warden Barter’s sermons
was on the text, ‘Son, remember’–
with an appeal to the memories of
home and parents as a ‘talisman
against temptation’. On one occasion
Moberly, whose preaching turn had
come, was ill, and sent to beg that the
Warden would take his place. Barter
went to him in some distress: ‘There is
no time to write a sermon; I have one
which would do, but I have delivered
it several times – you have heard
it, Headmaster. The text is: “Son,
remember.”’
The Trusty Servant
say something about sport and the
Christian faith.
The church has had an interesting
relationship with sport and leisure
over the centuries. The Synod of Ely
in 1364 forbade its clergy from playing
games, and ordered them to banish
games from their churchyards. Later
in the 18 th century, the Reverend
Samuel Ashe clearly saw the need
for interaction between church and
sport. He would spend his Sunday
afternoons hiding in the trees by
the local sports field, biding his time
until a football strayed near him,
whereupon he would pounce on
the ball and pierce it with a pin. He
could then go home rejoicing that he
had stopped his parishioners from
sinning!
The Victorian bishop JC Ryle has a
Who’s Who entry, which records his
interests as ‘cricket until ordained’.
The Bishop of Manchester, in
1902, blamed the decline in Sunday
observance on three things: ‘…
carelessness, athleticism, and
particularly on the invention of the
bicycle!’
On the other hand, many of today’s
Premier League Football Clubs began
as clubs started by churches: Aston
‘It will do admirably,’ said Moberly,
— ‘only change one word; instead
of “Son, remember”, let it be “Son,
forget!”’
Moberly himself once preached a
stirring sermon entitled ‘Isthmian
Games’. Given the proceedings that
follow on this Winchester Match –
namely much sport, and, this year,
the Headmaster’s launching of a new
chapter in the College’s sporting
legacy – I thought I should try and
5
Villa, QPR, Tottenham Hotspur,
Liverpool and Everton – all with
the intention of keeping lads off
the streets and out of the pubs,
particularly on Sundays.
Pope Pius X declared, ‘Young people
should perform physical exercises.
Performed in moderation they will
not only promote the health of the
body, but also the salvation of the
soul.’ And Pope John Paul II once
said, ‘Athletic activity can help
every man and woman to recall that
moment when God the Creator gave
origin to the human person, the
masterpiece of his creative work.’
Which brings us to the Warden’s
reading this morning: the Genesis of
Man, God’s masterpiece.
Is God interested in our sport, our
leisure, our rest?
Rest, leisure, sport surely proceed
from work. These are unproductive
activities we do after we have done
our labour. And so it is for God, it
seems. For what does God do after his
great work is complete? He rests.
‘And God blessed the seventh day,
and sanctified it: because that in it he
had rested from all his work which
God created and made.’