O heavenly Father! I humbly beg Thy Holy Spirit, so to help me at this time to read, and understand, and remember, and practise Thy Word, that it may make me wise to salvation!.
AMEN.
Thomas Ken, ‘A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College’, 1675
Those are the words of Bishop Thomas Ken, whom we’re commemorating this afternoon, and who is most likely to be known to us through his hymns, such as ‘Awake, my soul, and with the sun’, ‘Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear’, and ‘Glory to Thee, my God, this night’, which we’ll sing at the end of this Service, and which ends with what is often known simply as ‘The Doxology’, ‘Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow’.
His Feast Day is June 8th, but that’s not his death date, nor his birth date, it’s the date he made a decision according to his conscience, for which he was imprisoned – one of a number of tricky decisions he made, more about which later.
Born into a well-off family in 1637, he spent four years at Winchester College, from 1652-56, by now the Stepbrother-in-law of Isaac Walton, the famous priest and fisherman, also commemorated here, before going to Oxford and being ordained in 1662 – the year of the re-publication of the Book of Common Prayer, Evensong from which we are using this afternoon.
He soon returned to the Diocese and became Vicar of East Woodhay, a few miles south of Newbury. In 1672 he resigned that post, as by now he was a Prebendary of this Cathedral, Chaplain to the Bishop, and a Fellow of Winchester College – but also looking after the Church of St John the Baptist, a few hundred yards from here, in what was then one of the poorest areas of the City. It was during these years that he wrote many of the hymns I mentioned a moment ago, and the rather wonderful ‘Manual of Prayers for the use of the Scholars of Winchester College’, from which my opening prayer was taken – although that would need a bit of translation to be used by the Scholars these days, as the titles of some of the sections are too embarrassing even to mention in a sermon – you can asked me afterwards or look it up if you want to know.
Still having a residence here, he became a Chaplain at the rather disreputable Court of Charles II, where he was not unused to challenging the King about the behaviour at Court. When the Court came here in 1683, ‘Ken was notified that the King’s mistress, the actress Nell Gwynne, was to be lodged at his house. He refused, saying, “A woman of ill-repute ought not to be endured in the house of a clergyman, and especially the King’s Chaplain.” The King took no offence, and in the next year made Ken the Bishop of Bath & Wells, declaring that none should have the position except “the little … fellow that refused his lodging to poor Nelly”’.
Shortly after, Charles II died, and was succeeded by James II, a Roman Catholic, who suspended the English and Scottish Parliaments, issued Declarations of Indulgence, basically permitting religious freedom, and generally upset everyone. As a matter of conscience, Thomas Ken opposed the Declaration of Indulgence, and, with the Archbishop of Canterbury and five other Bishops, was imprisoned on June 8th, 1688, to be tried for rebellion and sedition. They were all acquitted. Soon, after James II was deposed at the Glorious Revolution, Thomas Ken was again wrestling with his conscience. His oath to James II, even though he had opposed him in many ways, meant he couldn’t take the oath to William of Orange, William III – he became a ‘Non-Juror’, and was deprived of his Bishopric. He retired to Longleat for about twenty years, and died on March 19th, 1711, having shortly before written, ‘I am dying, in the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith professed by the whole Church before the disunion of East and West; and, more particularly, in the Communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from both Papal and Puritan innovation, and adheres to the Doctrine of the Cross’.
He lived, suffered and died for his principles. There is no doubt about his integrity and his unshakeable beliefs. But, looking from our perspective, we might wonder about some of the principles for which he stood, and for which he was imprisoned or suffered in other ways.
Like Thomas Ken, we’re living in really challenging and changing times. For many of us, the top level theological and ethical positions which we took for granted in our younger days – as a teenager, I can remember working my way through the assumption that only men could be priests, for example – we’ve re-thought, listened to the Spirit, and come to different understandings, (not everyone has, of course). How do we know that the major stances we take on significant questions are the right ones? Is it simply enough to follow our gut feelings and to take a stand based on those? Can we find clear answers in Scripture – sometimes easier than others? Or in discussion with friends and colleagues? When are the times to go with the flow, and which are the times to take a stand and try to stem the flow? I feel that Thomas Ken’s life teaches us that not all of the positions we take will be viewed sympathetically by future generations. But, that all we can do is to pray, think, to listen for God speaking to us, through Scripture, through the Church, through trusted friends and colleagues, through the world around us, always measuring our decisions against the yardstick of Jesus’ love, life, death and resurrection, and what we learn about the nature and the love of God in Scripture; to fashion our lives in that way, and to be guided to support or oppose the changes in the world around, and in the Church, in the light of that reflection and prayer. We have at times to challenge and to re-think some of our most comforting and trusted and long-standing assumptions – and that can be painful.
When we think of the Ministry of this Cathedral, and of all of our Parishes, Churches and Chaplaincies in the Diocese, and the decisions we have to make, we could perhaps do no better than to be guided this Prayer of Thomas Ken:
O God,
make the door of this house wide enough
to receive all who need human love and fellowship,
and a heavenly Father’s care;
and narrow enough to shut out
all envy, pride and hate.
Make its threshold smooth enough
to be no stumbling-block to children,
or to straying feet,
but rugged enough
to turn back the tempter’s power:
make it a gateway
to thine eternal kingdom.
Thomas Ken, man of prayer and principles – we give thanks for that like, for his connection to this Cathedral, College and Diocese, and for his legacy of prayer and faithfulness and example.
And as we reflect on his life and the choices he made, perhaps we too can think about the choices we have to make, and decide where it is that we are called to make a stand, for the sake of the Gospel, and for our principles. AMEN.
