By and large, it is not meet and right for the holy People of God to reflect, remember and remark on how well they have served God, how faithful they have been, how trustworthy they have been found. And by and large it is not wise or winsome for a priest to praise and magnify his people, his little flock, his precious parish, rather than his mighty God. When done, that enterprise does on some level to be no more than a subtle hope that his people will return the mercy, and compliment him as well.

But every once in a while, maybe every 50 years, a priest should admit, acknowledge, and acclaim his people for the faithfulness they have duly and diligently shown, the trust they have kept and justified, and the witness they have made to the grace and glory, the mercy and love, the presence and the power of our God in our midst.

Today is a day, I modestly but fervently believe, to pay tribute to you and those who came before who have been faithful in a little, and are now set over much in accordance with his great mercy, and in obedience to his perfect will.

You have fought the good fight, you have kept the faith, you have run with endurance the race that is set before you, and are now well-positioned to inherit the hope you felt at the founding of this parish, and the promise made to you from before the foundation of the world. Some have been here for many years, almost from the first, some are far newer to the witness and worship of this holy place.

But we are now all together, bound in the bundle of the living and the departed, those who in every age have worshipped in this place and the two places that preceded it in our parish history. You have continued their legacy with your characteristic and exemplary persistence and patience.

And it has not been easy, it has never been easy, it never will be easy. Founding this parish was not easy, sustaining and preserving it has not been easy. But ease is not what this parish needs, has always needed, and will ever need. It needs you, her people, who are her life, her future and her past, all one, one in God, for all are one in Christ, and he is one with God.

And so, here we are today - not, we know, a day to congratulate ourselves or acknowledge our gifts and asset, but to think of them and to thank them, who came before, and to acknowledge and revere their gift. A gift given to God and lent to us for our time in his love and service. A day, today, for us to offer thanks to them, and for them, to thank them for their sacrifice and vision, their generous and expansive spirit, and their provision for a people yet to come.

They provided a place where we can be still, and where we can be joyful, where we can adore in silence, and praise in song. Where we can meet our God, not as some vague surf-like static going on in the background, but in a living and vibrant and sustaining faith and fellowship under his most gracious rule, safe in his benevolent care.

A place where we can go on our way rejoicing, on that clear and joyful, open-hearted journey to Heaven, rather than feel it all a tiring trudge through the wilderness, a slow slog through the Sinai desert.

Because even in the most spiritual life, in the most heaven-centered hope, you need a place, a spot, a home where you live and move and have your being. A place to set out from, safe and secure, because it is a place we know and love and recognize and are assured we can return to, come back to, in order to rest, to pray, to talk, to hear, to learn, to listen, to see God in the eyes and hearts of those around us, all going forward together with us - a mighty company of the elect, the blessed company of all believers - here, gathered, assembled, at home, at one, at peace in a place, this place, this holy and life-giving and grace-filled place. This consecrated building, this set-apart life, this parish, this Church, this - our - St Mary's, for fifty years past and for fifty and more to come. For those who come after us, as we came after others. Above all, a day to give thanks to God for those who went before, to rejoice with them in the Communion of the Saints, those who founded St Mary's Church on October 28th, in the Year of our Lord, 1956.