This morning to church – not unusual for me on a Sunday morning, except today I worshipped at Holy Trinity in the Cambridge city centre instead of my ‘local’, St John the Evangelist. The occasion was the Mott Sermon, an historic endowed sermon, preached today by the Rt Revd David Thomson, Bishop of Huntingdon.

Mr William Mott was an 18th-century attorney who made provision for the poor in various ways, working through the churches. He left 10s 6d (52.5p)for the preaching of a sermon every year as a service to the poor people living in the parish. The money ran out a long time ago (and few poor people can afford to live in  Cambridge city centre these days) but the sermon is still preached every June, in the presence of the ‘Mayor and Corporation’.

Cambridge City Council has four ceremonial bailiffs, elected annually by the city’s 42 councillors; I have been one for most of my time as a Cambridge city councillor. In days gone by the bailiffs used to guard the person of the Mayor and seize goods from people who hadn’t paid their bills. These days I’m relieved to say our function is purely ceremonial, although as the Senior Bailiff I do get to make an equestrian speech every year at Reach Fair.

We accompany the Mayor when s/he goes to civic church services such as today’s, and to the two charter fairs authorized by King John. We have a fancy uniform too – a robe in Cambridge blue and a little top hat.

Today, the ‘corporation’ comprised seven or eight councillors including three bailiffs and an honorary councillor. We were joined by the new MP for Cambridge, Julian Huppert. It was our first bailiff event with the new mayor, Cllr Sheila Stuart, who was looking radiant! She was also attended by the Sergeant at Mace, macebearers and her cadet from the St John’s Ambulance Service.

Bishop David Thomson is the fairly new Bishop of Huntingdon and I hadn’t heard him preach before. His sermon was wide-ranging and both refreshing in style and thought-provoking. He preached on today’s gospel reading, John 15, about the True Vine. I left my notes in my pewwhen we processed out so I am relying on memory – but the full sermon can be read on the Bishop’s own website.

Roots, shoots and fruits

Bishop David started by describing how the community he comes from (Cumbria) has been sharing rather more pain than joy of late, with a fatal coach accident followed by the horrific shooting rampage last Wednesday. (I know people are still recovering from floods and some even from foot and mouth disease. And the local economy was not helped by the crash of a big local employer just before Christmas.)

He spoke on a pretty well known text ‘Love one another’ but also drew our attention to the less often quoted words about fruit trees being grafted one onto another and the superior fruit resulting from the joining of them. It was an apposite reminder of the importance of community and working together; as I looked at Julian Huppert sitting in front of me, I wondered whether the Liberal Democrat MPs feel engrafted onto their coalition partners, or the other way round! Let’s hope and pray for good fruit.

We were reminded of the importance of sharing the fruit, a good lesson in the imperative to share what we have, a lesson learnt at nursery school but often forgotten in later life.

All in all, a thought-provoking and challenging beginning to the municipal year.

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