I attended, for a few years in the 1980's and 1990's, the church of St John Chrysostom's in Victoria Park, Manchester, where the rector was Fr Michael Melrose. The services there were in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. It was Fr Melrose who suggested I attend Fr Gresham Kirkby's church in east London when I told him I was moving down to London for work. Subsequently, for a while, I worked in both London and Manchester, so attended both churches.
FR MICHAEL MELROSE,
(Rector of St John Chrysostom's church, Victoria Park, in the 1980's and 1990's.)
INTRODUCTION
Fr Melrose's sermons impressed me, and I considered them helpful, so I used to write them up. Going through old notebooks recently I came across these accounts, and so, though they are sometimes sketchy, I thought I would share them online.
I used quotation marks where the words are as delivered by Fr Melrose, to the best of my memory, noted down on the same day as the service. Sometimes I also copied text from the weekly service sheet or parish magazine written by Fr Melrose. That is presented below as well.
When I returned to London to work, it was Fr Melrose who recommended me to try Fr Gresham Kirkby's church of St Paul's, Bow Common. For a few years I worked in both London and Manchester, and so intermittently attended both Fr Gresham's and Fr Melrose's churches.
At one of his final services at St Chysostom's, Fr Melrose told us there is a custom of ringing the church bell, and the number of chimes foretelling the years of the new priest's incumbency. So Fr Melrose decided to ring a good number of times. But, he said, after ten, the bell's momentum caused a few more dongs. So he thought it had accurately predicted his thirteen year stay with us.
Fr Melrose was a kind and humourous person; he was also scholarly. In bible study classes, a Greek New Testament would be open for reference beside him. In one of those discussions I asked him if taking communion did us good. He replied that it did God good. I am still thinking about that one.
He disapproved of the way Mancunians pronounced the church's name with the emphasis on the second syllable, 'sos', of Chrysostom's, whereas the stress should fall on the first syllable, 'Chrys', of course.
Fr Melrose moved on to be the vicar of St Giles, Reading. Whilst in post there he died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 61yr in 2009.
Below are set out some of Fr Melrose's sermons from the early 1990's.
23/06/1991 Fr Melrose sermon
Fr Michael said we are all called to our separate vocations by God, none are better than any other, each differs in the details. "There is laughter in heaven at our curious attempts to follow God's will, and rejoicing when, with God's help, we pass through the eye of the needle to get to heaven." We can do nothing by ourselves, but anything with the help of God, he said. Jesus told the young man, if you want to enter into life obey the commandments.
In the June 1991 St John Chrysostom magazine Fr Melrose wrote:-
"Our daily lives need to be shot through with small occasions of devotion, with a constant reliance upon God's goodness, with a perpetual looking to divine grace for all our needs. God cares about the little things in our lives, just as much as the big ones. Indeed it is waiting upon God's help in small eventualities that trains us to seek His will in important matters. The spiritual pennies take care of the spiritual pounds. "What is least may be very little, but to be faithful in the least thing is something great," says St Augustine, echoing perhaps Our Lord's promise of the Great Reward to those servants who have been faithful in the little things."
30/06/1991 Fr Melrose sermon
"We have always got to pray otherwise our faith will surely die. We have to pray communally in church, and by ourselves in private. Prayer is the way we have a relationship with God.
We have to be in contact with someone to have a relationship with them. In just the same way we have to pray to be in contact with God. If you have no contact with someone the relationship dwindles until it is just a happy memory.
We must use our intelligence to think about our relationship with God. And we must use our intelligence to understand and grow in our faith. And if we do not pray our intellectual grasp of our faith grows sere as a fallen leaf in autumn and it crumbles to dust."
14/07/1991 Fr Melrose sermon
Fr Melrose said we should take advantage of the gift of God of a mass for someone. All we have to do is ask. He said we bring to the ordinary Sunday mass many people in our prayers. "This is something we can do for them. To pray for someone is not a little thing, but a great thing. We can pray for someone as a sort of spiritual friendship."
(In the Summer 1991 St John Chrysostom newsletter Fr Melrose wrote,
"In the mass God is marvellously near, for it is the moment of His nearest approach."
and,
"The Mass is the most powerful means which God has given us to render Him honour, to thank him for his blessings, to obtain the favours that we want." )
04/08/1991 Fr Melrose sermon
"Other people must see God in our daily actions, or how else are they to see God? And if they don't, it doesn't matter what we say we believe, they will not believe us. We must show God in our ordinary daily actions."
18/08/1991 Fr Melrose sermon
"Evil is defeated. It was defeated 2000 years ago when God sent his Son to Earth; Jesus overcame evil. Of course it is still lingering on Earth. But the defeat of evil happened 2000 years ago, and the results of that are only just being felt. God will always defeat evil.
The Holy Spirit shows up the root cause of things. And the root cause of much evil is man's lack of faith in God. That is the root cause of much evil, lack of faith in God."
24/08/1991 Fr Melrose sermon
"It is good that we enter the faith as a child. But we shouldn't stay as a child. We should grow up. A sign that we need to develop or expand or move on is boredom. We should get to know Jesus more as our relationship with him changes and grows. Pray more, worship more."
01/09/1991 Fr Melrose sermon
"In the Gospel where Jesus is questioned, "Should we pay taxes?" Jesus carefully answered, "Who's head is on the coin?" Tiberius, Roman emperor. "Then give to Caesar what is due to Caesar, and to God what is due to God."
Just as we pay our taxes not because it is good of us, but because it is our duty, so we must give our due to God. That is our primary duty.
Thomas Moore said he hoped he was the King's good servant in all things, but he hoped he was God's servant first.
It is our first duty to worship, pray, and praise God. Our first duty, before we do anything else, is to God, because our life belongs to God."
06/06/1992 Fr Melrose sermon Pentecost
"The Holy Spirit comes into us to banish our fears. Our fear of ourselves - we know our own faults too well - we tell ourselves that we are not religious people, and we feel unable to answer God's challenge; we want to be safe, we never know where God will lead us.
The Holy Ghost removes this fear. Scripture says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
14/06/1992 Fr Melrose
"We believe in the God who is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Ghost in one person.
God made us out of an extension or surplus of his energy. Everything we are comes from him. We take part in this mystery, we approach this mystery, in the Eucharist.
We should pray and worship and live so as to make perfect his image in us."
21/06/1992 Fr Melrose sermon
Corpus Christi Sunday "Everything is from God, all we see around us. There is one Christ. Christ is in all of us.
Sacrifice - giving all until it is finished.
Our purpose is to be part of Christ's design. We are all used in his purpose.
When we take part in Communion, we enter into the deepest life."
19/07/1992 Fr Melrose sermon
In the Gospel reading Jesus healed the blind man sat by the road.
"He gets up and follows Jesus. He has a name - we are told it. First notice the road, the Way. We can sit at the side of the Way, but this is sitting on the side-lines of life. We sit on the side-lines and wait for something to happen. But this misses the point of life, which is to be lived.
Christian life has a goal. The Way is for progressing along. Jesus, if we turn to him, can heal our blindness and get us up and progressing along the way."
October 1991 Fr Melrose sermon
"After the first few years, when we grow to maturity, the history of our body is one of decline. Our strength and faculties lessen and fail. Personality and intelligence and charm are things of the first few years, and these also get less with age.
Inside, however, we should improve. And what should increase is greater. We should increase in holiness throughout our lives. We should live with God so his light can shine through us in the world."
Dec 1991 Fr Melrose sermon
"God shares not only in our happiness. Human life is necessarily also made up of a certain amount of stress. God shares also in our stress, and in our feelings caused by half-successes, or failures, or the unsatisfactoriness of it all. Take away this message"
My comment:- Why I liked the above sermon is that it is helpful. Fr Melrose is addressing our feelings about life, and telling us God will be with us, even in "the unsatisfactoriness of it all".
Epiphany Sunday 1992 Fr Melrose sermon
"Where is the epiphany star today? (The star that guided the wise men to Jesus.) It can only be ourselves. We must give out light. We must guide people to Christ.
It was foreigners the Lord chose to bear witness to Christ. We must bear witness to Christ, however far the journey is through which we come."
12/01/1992 Fr Melrose sermon (Last day (Sunday) of epiphany)
The Gospel was of John the Baptist baptising Jesus.
"The heart of the old Jewish religion saw that things had come into a bad way. People needed to turn around and make a new start. Jesus came to where the people were. He made something out of what they already had.
One of the difficulties of showing God to people is finding where people are, where or in what they really live. It is difficult to know where people really do live.
Sometimes people will show something real about themselves. It may be very little. It may be so small as to be hardly worth bothering about, you may think. But encourage that with simple conversation.
Sometimes people will show something real about themselves. Don't despise it. It is a start. God grows from very small beginnings.
Where there is some reality, there is where God starts. Start with what is shown."
My comment: In the above sermon Fr Melrose again tackles real life, giving guidance about how we are to interact with others; that we should value what is real in them.
St John Chrysostom's study group held by Fr Melrose. 15/01/1992
"When Jesus came to earth, eternity entered into time. This event can only be described in the language of the New Testament, and in no other way.
Eternity entered into time so that time could enter into eternity when Christ came again. The '2nd Coming' is now regarded as a process; part accomplished, part in the future." (This teaching corresponds with that of Fr Gresham Kirkby, who said the 'Second Coming' began at the resurrection and ascension of Our Lord, and continues as a process, completed at the end of time.)
Fr Melrose stressed how Elijah, Moses and Jesus had to suffer in this life. He said what is good enough for Our Lord is good enough for me. "So if God wants us to suffer, it is important to bear our suffering."
1992 January Fr Melrose wrote in the Parish Magazine:-
"The Mass is a remembrance of the passion of Christ, a solemn adoration of the Divine Majesty, a most acceptable thanksgiving to God, a powerful means of obtaining forgiveness of our sins."
19/01/1992 Fr Melrose Sunday sermon
"God gives you sometimes a person you can immediately get on with.
Philip of Sicily had a gift of knowing someone's character immediately. He could therefore speak to them on their level.
We learn about someone from the way they observe someone else, the way they listen, the way they ask questions, and other characteristics."
26/01/1992, Sunday, St John Chrysostom's Patronal Festival sermon. Fr Melrose
"St John Chrysostom lived and worked in Constantinople when it was the world capital city. He was violent in the expression of his faith, and in action and word on its behalf.
A city on a hill, surrounded by city walls, can be seen from far off. We return to its safety.
We must find safety in God, and be at home there. We must dwell in God, and rely only on him.
We must be a walled city showing itself on a hill. Others must be able to find safety in us.
It is our life's work to learn and do and fulfil God's will for us."
After the service there were refreshments for the Patronal festival. I talked with Miss Leech, a long-time parishioner. She was christened at St John Chrysostom's church, Victoria Park, Manchester (Fr Melrose's church) 70 years ago. She said her father was interested in the question of churches named for St John Chrysostom. There were not many of them. He found there only six such churches in England: one was in Birkenhead, and another was in Birmingham.
09/02/1992 Fr Melrose sermon
"The wisdom of the ancients is essential and important. But more essential and important is the foolishness of God.
Jonah was a fool, he was a comic character, he was a failed back-street prophet. But still God used him. Despite himself, God made him go to Nineveh. He would rather have done anything than go into the city and make a fool of himself.
In order to reveal his true nature God died on the Cross. A paradox. God cannot die. God, who has no beginning and no end. God, who cannot suffer change. God died as a criminal, as a (?)failure. God made a fool of himself on the Cross in order to reveal his true nature."
16/02/1992 Fr Melrose sermon
(The Gospel reading was of the man who sowed on stony ground, and good ground etc.)
"We put effort into various things. For instance reading about something we are interested in. Or a friendship. Or a new project. Sometimes we get little return. Sometimes we get very little return. Sometimes we get a great return. It is hard to imagine a hundred-fold return.
Our first vocation is to let Christ be formed in us. That is our agenda. Before any vocation of work, or anything else in our lives, our first duty, our first vocation, is to let Christ be formed in us.
Inside ourselves we may have stony ground. We may have shadow areas; perhaps areas we may prefer to keep like that. But we must keep nothing back. We must offer everything up to God in prayer and in the Eucharist. Then he will do the rest. He will make us grow like a tree.
We, us here, must be his saints. This we must do inside ourselves; before the upkeep of the church fabric, before the decade of evangelism. Before all else, we must let Christ be formed in us. That is the first thing on our agenda."
23/02/1992 Fr Melrose sermon
(The two readings of the mass were the Old Testament reading of the man asked to bathe 7 times in the river Jordan to cure him. In this old testament reading the man demurred at first at immersing himself in the Jordan. In the New Testament reading Jesus healed a man by putting his fingers in the man's ear and by using his saliva.)
"This was the ceremony, the drama of healing. Physical actions and the senses were involved.
We have to be involved in the drama of our own redemption by and through Christ. There are two characters involved, ourselves and God.
We have to go through the drama of our own redemption in all the little actions of our lives. All of our lives, all aspects of it, all the trivial details, have to be offered up in this drama. We must be involved physically and in every way."
A prayer of St John Chrysostom's in the Prayer Book, p79
"Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise, that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests; fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen."
01/03/1992 Fr Melrose sermon
(Gospel reading:- the woman caught in adultery.)
" "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone." They all depart. Jesus says to the woman, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more."
Jesus wants us not to dwell on the past, but to go forward in life. Jesus was the only man where God's judgement and his mercy met. Let us focus on the point where mercy and truth meet. Do not dwell on the past. Go forward, focussing on Jesus."
March 1992 Wednesday bible study
Fr Melrose quoted Rabbi Hillel (?) from the first century , who said, regarding loving your neighbour, "Never do anything to anyone you would hate to have done to yourself."
31/01/1993 Fr Melrose sermon
Everything is God's. Our talents are not ours, they are gifts from God. We must include them in our considerations about our gifts for the Church. God has brought all of us separate individuals together to make up this church.
07/02/1993 Fr Melrose sermon
The truth. We need to rely on the truth of God. This is vital. Rely on anything else and we go astray. But if we pray to the truth of God from wherever we are, he will lead us even to the very glory of God himself. God is something that is only God and nothing else. The truth will never let us down. It will always be strong enough to help us.
To deliberately choose what is right for those around us, or choose what God wants of us rather than what we want, is a way of overcoming the self, which is always clamouring after personal desires and wishes.
ENDS
After the service David Robinson said, "I can always come to church and ask God to help me."
02/1993 Fr Melrose sermon
The Gospel was Jesus saying to the crippled man, 'arise, your sins are forgiven you.' In daily prayer we need to offer up our sins to God. In church we can offer up our sins to God. In Confession we can offer up our sins to God. We need to use all three ways of God's mercy, really. Then all the strands in us are gathered together and healed. All our past experiences, instead of being a mess inside us, are healed. We gain wholeness in mind and body.
21/02/1993 Fr M Sermon
Everything we do affects society. We can do nothing that affects only us. Everything we do affects others.
23/02/1993 (Shrove Tuesday)
Fr Melrose sermon. He said we should first of all ask God for spiritual courage that we may bear suffering, like Bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp, that God may call us to bear to show his glory.
28/02/1993 Fr Melrose sermon
For lent, instead of giving up something we are fond of for lent, or continuing without it for all of lent, do something positive rather than negative, Fr Melrose suggested. He said after a day without a newspaper he felt a bit cut off. He felt ready to see the TV news. He said he was going to try and face the world a bit more with his Christianity.
He said, in lent, as we walk the city we can hold the scenes and the people we see, prayerfully before God. We can do this and help to make Easter, when it comes, real for the city.
14/03/1993 Fr Melrose sermon
Fr M said we make up the body of Jesus Christ on Earth. We are his hands here. When we wonder what we are doing turning up as a small disparate group here on a Sunday, what we are doing is making up his body here on Earth. This also is the case during the week in our daily lives and in our prayers. It is first of all to fulfil the will and work of Jesus that we should ask for strength and courage.
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.