Hero worship

It’s been an odd few weeks as I have had the chance to meet three of my heroes. The first was the week before last when I had breakfast with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. Ok, so there were 249 other people there but it was nevertheless a special time. The Archbishops were kind enough to make time in the busy 3 day schedule of meetings here in Cambridge to come and talk to the federation students and though there was some grumbling at having to be there for 7.30 it was well worth the early start. After breakfast and Morning Prayer each of the Archbishops gave a short address and then they fielded questions from the floor for over an hour. Several things struck me, one the genuine friendship and mutual concern the archbishops had for each other. It was wonderful to see this and realising how important that must be, especially in the difficult times that the Rowan has had of late. Secondly was how enormously intelligent they are. They fielded a huge range of questions with wit, grace and massive dollop of wisdom. They gave amazing answers off the cuff that most of us would have struggled to give even with many hours of research. As those that know me well, know I am a huge fan of the “West Wing” TV series. One of the reasons is that I love the idea that America could be led by a man of the intelligence and integrity of President Bartlett. Well I realised that in the Archbishops the church has just such men. It did make me consider again though why is it that we have a national obsession with pulling people off the pedestals we put them on? We build people up and then having done so spend the rest of the time trying to find things to criticise….

The thing that struck me most however was the amazing humility they have. These are men who have ever reason to feel important and yet they struck me as so down to earth. There is such a sense of how important it is to them to be rooted in prayer and the word of God and to remember for whom they are doing this. As Rowan himself said in answer to the question of how he had managed to survive such sever criticism, “by remembering who it is I am ultimately accountable and that’s God and not the editor of the Daily Mail.”

The second hero I met was Sister Francis Dominica who founded Helen House the worlds first children’s hospice. I had heard her speak at Greenbelt and read some of her work and think she is the most amazing woman. I was thus very excited when I heard she was coming to preach at the church I am attached to. She spoke so wonderfully and movingly of her work that, as at Greenbelt, I found myself laughing through a veil of tears. I was fortunate to find myself sitting next to her at the lunch that followed and like the Archbishops there was an amazing humility about her. She was so generous with her time and graciously answered the many questions we all had. She was a fantastic source of anecdotes and kept us all amused with stories of the great and the good that she has met in the course of her work. There was such genuineness about her that when, at the end of lunch, she was saying to people “I hope we meet again” you knew she really meant it. Truly one of Gods angels…