Diocese of Chichester

If you had a choice, who would you choose to be patron saint of your church? Over the years I’ve been the incumbent of churches with a wide variety of patron saints – including the BVM (and her mother, St Anne), several distinguished apostles, an archangel or two, and a couple of missionaries from north of the border: St Kentigern and St Serf. Now, here in Chichester, I’m proud to be the Rector of a church dedicated to St Paul.

St Paul’s Chichester was built in 1836, and I sometimes wonder who chose Paul to be its patron. Perhaps it was Bishop William Otter, who processed across from the Cathedral to dedicate the church directly after his enthronement as Bishop. Or perhaps it was Henry (later Cardinal) Manning, who was soon to become Chichester’s archdeacon. Whoever it was, they obviously felt that the church deserved an A-Star saint, who would provide plenty of sermon fodder for future incumbents each year.

St Paul is indeed a wonderful patron, and one of the (few) serious books I managed to read during the summer lockdown was Tom Wright’s masterful account of his life and ministry. Every year we keep our patronal festival on the Sunday nearest the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, and reflect on the extraordinary work of God’s grace which began on the Damascus road. To me, one of the most moving verses in Scripture is Acts 9.8: ‘Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.’ Here is Saul, the proud persecutor of those ‘who belonged to the Way’, being led by the hand like a child. Little does he know that Christ has chosen him to be apostle to the Gentiles.

Not everyone is a fan of St Paul. Some try to sideline him from their relationship with God, regarding him as arrogant, verbose (and not always intelligible) and disrespectful of women. Perhaps that’s your own view; if so, I urge you to think again. Just think of the extraordinary poetry of 1 Corinthians 13. Try to imagine how impoverished Christian theology would be without his teaching about justification by faith, expressed in the Epistle to the Romans. Remember his penetrating words about the folly of the cross in 1 Corinthians 1. And consider how much the Church itself was brought into being by his tireless and fearless missionary journeys. It all adds up to a remarkable achievement.

And if you still find it hard to warm to him, read those words, almost shocking in their honesty, from 2 Corinthians, in which he boasts not of his achievements, but of his weakness, and his total dependence upon grace. At this time of such widespread anxiety and vulnerability, he speaks to our condition and offers us hope in Christ: ‘’Three times the Lord said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me… For whenever I am weak, then I am strong.’ (2 Cor 12. 9).

Written by: Simon Holland, Rector of St Paul’s, Chichester