I
t is a great honour and a great joy to
have been invited to preach on this
important and splendid occasion: an
honour, because I realise how many of
the great and the good - bishops and
provosts and archdeacons could have
been asked - and a joy because for 15 years I
worshipped in this Chapel and both the Chapel
and people had an important influence on my
development as a Church of England Reader
and as a schoolmaster. I am one of that
multitude of people who owe much to this
school and this Chapel.
Nathaniel Woodard would be delighted that we
are here. When the school, founded by the
Revd W Tuckwell - that distinguished and
significant figure in British education,
responsible for the first room in any British
school devoted to the teaching of sciencefailed
financially, the mortgagees hoped to raise
£12,500. They reckoned without Woodard's
financial acumen. He waited them out, and
beat them down to a mere £8,000. With the
other handsome buildings there came the tin
tabernacle, a picture of which can be seen on
the PowerPoint presentation that is playing
around the school. Woodard wanted
something much more handsome. The plans
for a new chapel were drawn and work was
begun, but it was to be delayed for an
unconscionable time, as the problems of
finance and recruitment that King's endured in
its early stages took their toll.
It was not for 28 years after the foundation of
the school that the Chapel in a very
abbreviated form started to be used, and it was
not for another 25 or so years before the
truncated initial building was extended to its
originally planned size, and even then the roof
was a temporary and an inadequate one. That
was the chapel that I found when I joined the
staff 35 years later - in 1970, and it was again
a privilege to be involved with the planning for
the completion of the chapel in its present
handsome form, which was dedicated, just
after I left, in 1986. It took over 100 years for
King's to acquire a chapel that it deserved. So
we celebrate this centenary not of something
that was easily gained, but of something that
has been built through many years and by dint
of much labour and much investment, and for
that it is doubly precious.
It is, of course, true that in a very real sense the
King's Chapel is not a building made of stone
and wood and glass, but, as St Peter reminded
us in today's epistle, is built from the living
stones that are you and me, the members of
this community: a community that consists, of
course, of all the pupils, and of all those who
work here: the teachers and the many others
who make the life of a community possible, in
the offices and kitchens and grounds, as
cleaners and technicians, in the sanatorium, the
laundry and the maintenance yard; but also
from the wider community: governors and
parents, Old Aluredians and former members of
staff like me. All of us together are the living
stones built into this spiritual house, under the
headship of Jesus Christ "the stone that builders
rejected which has become the very head of the
corner." Destroy this building, and the real
chapel of the school would continue, worship
and witness continuing wherever it could.
Saying that, though, is not to underplay the
importance of the building - as Nathaniel well
knew. In last night's splendid concert sung by the
choir, one item was the Bruckner motet: Locus
iste a Deo factus est, inestimabile sacramentum -
"this place was built by God, a priceless
sacrament". And this building, built by God, is a
sacrament, an outward and visible sign of an
inward and invisible grace. It is a sacrament, a
sign and symbol of many things. First it is a sign
that this school is a community - if you like, a
communion. The school is not just a group of
individuals receiving their individual education for
their individual needs, but a community that lives
out Paul's statement "we are members one of
another". We all join the school - pupils and
teachers and other staff alike - as individuals, but
we become stronger, more capable, more able to
develop by the
fellowship that
grows up. That
is why Old
Aluredians, and
former staff like
me, have
returned for this
occasion.
Human beings
are social
animals; we
only flourish in
community, and
Aluredian
13
Chapel
Centenary
A sermon preached on the
occasion of the Centenary of
the Chapel of King's College,
Taunton by David Exham