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This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

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from The Cathedral and Abbey Church of Saint Alban, Hertfordshire

Leader: The Reverend Barnaby Huish, Precentor of St Albans
Preacher: The Very Reverend Doctor Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans

With:
The Girls of the Abbey Choir
The St Albans Bach Choir
Simon Johnson, music director
James Davy, organist
Jane Lister, harpist

CHOIR: Wolcum Yole - Benjamin Britten

The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

Welcome to this ancient Cathedral and Abbey Church.
Here, at the Shrine of St Alban, Britain's first martyr, we remember today Saint Stephen,
who was the first of the followers of Christ to be put to death for proclaiming the Christian faith.

In the course of this morning's service, we shall reflect upon the example of Saint Stephen, and seek to find meaning in his martyrdom; and we shall hear of others who have died for their faith, and yet who give us hope by their strength of spirit.

But, before all else, we rejoice and give thanks to God our Father for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ: a great and mighty wonder, which the Church and the world continues to celebrate today.

HYMN: A great & mighty wonder
The Reverend Barnaby Huish:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you have stooped to raise fallen humanity
by the child-bearing of blessed Mary;
grant that we who have seen your glory revealed in our human nature,
and your love made perfect in our weakness,
may daily be renewed in your image,
and conformed to the pattern of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Like St Stephen, many Christians through the ages have found themselves living in the midst of great danger. Even in the Christmas story itself, the rejoicing of Mary and Joseph at the birth of Jesus is cut short because their lives are threatened by Herod, the provincial ruler, whose jealousy is enflamed by rumours of the birth of a new-born King.

READING: Matthew 2: 13-16

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 2, beginning at verse 13.

Now after the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.' Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I have called my son.' When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.

The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

So, whilst Jesus, Mary and Joseph escape, others are not so lucky; others, innocent - ignorant, even of the existence of Jesus - suffer in his place. It is only after Herod himself has died that Mary and Joseph are able to return from exile in Egypt and to bring the infant Jesus home, to Nazareth.

CHOIR: Balulalow - Britten

HYMN: Unto us a boy is born

The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

Jesus survived the wrath of Herod the Great; but later, as he drew disciples to follow him and set hearts aflame with his preaching of good news, the religious and secular authorities felt threatened and sought to silence him. But his execution did not have the desired effect; his followers began to proclaim all the more loudly Christ, risen from the dead. These new 'Christians' soon found that their lives were now in danger because of what they believed and proclaimed; Stephen was the first such follower to be put to death.

READING: Acts 7: 51-60

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 7, beginning at verse 51.

Stephen said to the High Priest and the council: 'You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are for ever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.'
When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 'Look,' he said, 'I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!' But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' When he had said this, he died.

HYMN: Stephen first of Christian martyrs

The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

As we shall now hear, Stephen was the first of countless men and women who, over the past 2000 years, have witnessed to Christ through their death, and who, in dying, have challenged us to be alive in faith.

Our preacher is the Dean of St Albans, The Very Reverend Dr Jeffrey John.

SERMON: The Very Reverend Dr Jeffrey John:

In TS Eliot's play 'Murder in the Cathedral' Thomas a Becket says in his Christmas sermon:

Is it an accident, do you think, that the day of Stephen the first martyr follows the day of the birth of Christ? By no means. At Christmas we rejoice and mourn at once. We rejoice at the coming of Christ into the world; but we mourn the cost of his coming: - his suffering and that of all who witness to him.

In fact the week after Christmas is full of feasts of martyrs: St Stephen, the Holy Innocents and Becket himself, as if to remind us that witnessing to Christ has always cost dear, and always will.

If you doubt it, go and see the new statues over the West door of Westminster Abbey. There's a line of ten modern martyrs, people like Janani Luwum, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, who all paid for their witness with their lives.

My favourite is Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador. He was such an unlikely martyr: a shy, scholarly man, rather conservative in his views. He was actually the man that the military regime in El Salvador wanted as Archbishop because he seemed so wet. A safe man, they thought; he wouldn't rock the boat.

But from day one of becoming Archbishop, Romero, in his quiet, shy, scholarly way, kept asking difficult questions. What about all the political prisoners, he said, who were kept without trial, or simply disappeared? What about having elections, real elections that weren't rigged? Why did 95% of the land belong to only 2% of the people? Why were the schools and hospitals being shut, so that the poor were getting sicker and more illiterate? This is wrong, said the Archbishop, in his quiet, shy, persistent little voice. And gradually more and more people started listening, until half the population was crowding round the cathedral just to hear him speak.

So the government, and some of the Church authorities too, tried to shut him up. First they said he was a Communist in the pay of Moscow and tried to get him sacked. When that didn't work they offered him money to buy him off. When that didn't work they send round beautiful women to try and seduce him. And when that didn't work they sent round a man with a gun, and shot him dead in the middle of Sunday mass.

Oscar was a hero and a half, but he only did what we're all supposed to do. The word martyr is just Greek for 'witness' and that is what Jesus calls all of us to be: people who are willing to pay the price of telling the truth that is in us.

By witnessing I don't mean being pushy. In scripture the people who really speak for God are usually the opposite: Moses the stammerer; Isaiah who was obsessed with his own unworthiness; Jeremiah who was terminally depressed about everything; Jonah who ran away. They none of them wanted to speak. But that was tough. God wanted it.

And I think it is the same with most of us. Ninety per cent of clergy and churchgoers are introverts. We prefer a quiet life; we don't like sticking our necks out. But at some time or other God needs us to speak. It might be to explain our faith. It might be to challenge an injustice at work. It might be to defend someone who can't speak for themselves. There are all kinds of situations where witness is required. And with nearly all of us, our sin isn't speaking too soon, it's not speaking at all, because we are scared. But as Jesus said, there is a worse thing to fear than fear. Fear letting him down. Fear losing your soul.

I have a memory from my schooldays that still haunts me. One year we had a boy in our class - I'll call him David. He was a pathetic kid, weedy and rather effeminate. And his life was hell. Children can be incredibly cruel to anyone who's different, and David was a brilliant target. He was beaten up, he got his lunch thrown away, he got called girl's names, nancy boy and poof and all the rest of it; and he always sat on his own. I can hardly think of the misery that kid must have gone through. Now I never beat him up, I never called him names; the fact it was happening used to churn my stomach. But I never said or did a thing to help him. Because of course I was terrified that if I did, they'd suspect me too, and I'd get the same treatment.

And of course that's how it works, in so many bad situations in the world - and yes, in the Church too. We know what's happening is wrong, but we keep our heads down, and hope someone else will do the martyr bit and face down the bullies with the truth.

If you go to Jerusalem and visit Yad Vashem, the museum of the holocaust, you see the famous quotation in the entrance hall by Martin Niemoeller, the German pastor imprisoned by the Nazis. You've heard it before; but listen again:

At first they came for the Jews, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. And then they came for the Communists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. And then they came for the gypsies and the Jehovah's Witnesses and the homosexuals and the handicapped and the mentally ill, but I didn't speak up because I was none of those things. Last of all they came for me. And there was no-one left to speak up for me.

Jesus said:

If you speak up for me before others, I will speak up for you before my Father in heaven.

CHOIR: This little babe - Britten

The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

"This little Babe so few days old, is come to rifle Satan's fold…"
The martyrs remind us that evil is put to flight not by brute strength, trickery or evil-in-return, but through the courage of integrity: the truth and integrity that was in Christ,
who humbled himself to be made man to show us the way.

HYMN: Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour

PRAYERS: The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

Let us pray.

Let us pray for those who have died for their faith; let us pray for those who, even in our own day, are persecuted because of what they believe; and following the example of Stephen, first of Christian martyrs, let us pray for all persecutors - that their hearts may be turned. And we remember Saint Alban, first martyr of Britain, who by his faith and courage has inspired the people of these islands over many generations.

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

We pray for those in our own day facing difficulty or danger in life, for the poor and the hungry, the oppressed, the sick and the dying, that they may be given courage and hope through the Holy Spirit of God; and, among those in our thoughts at this time, we continue to pray for the people of Iraq, and today in particular for the people of the Ukraine.

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Let us join our prayers with those of all Christian people as we say together the prayer that Jesus taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

As we've heard, a martyr of modern times is Bishop Oscar Romero; he inspired many people by refusing to stand by whilst others suffered, even though it cost him his life.

Here in his words is an exposition of what he believed, of the faith that drove him to speak out against injustice:

READING: Oscar Romero

The essence of the Church lies in its mission of service to the world, in its mission to save the world in its totality, and of saving it in history, here and now. The Church exists to act in solidarity with the hopes and joys, the anxieties and sorrows of men and women. Like Jesus, the Church was sent 'to bring good news to the poor, to heal the contrite of heart, to seek and save what was lost'.

To put it in one word - in a word that sums it all up and makes it concrete - the world that the Church ought to serve is, for us, the world of the poor. Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grain of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies.

ACT OF REDEDICATION: The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

Mindful of the example of those who have faced violence and injustice with steadfast integrity and faithful courage, let us rededicate ourselves to the service of God and pray that we may be strengthened by his Holy Spirit:

Lord, when I face difficulties, grant me perseverance,
when I feel pain, give me courage and strength,
when aware of injustice, help me not to keep silent,
and at the end of my life, open my heart
to be filled with the hope of your heavenly kingdom.
Amen.

The Reverend Barnaby Huish:

Thanks be to God for Stephen, and all martyrs;
thanks be to God for our own lives of faith;
and thanks be to God for Jesus the Christ,
born as at this time to set us free from sin and death,
and to bring the world to glory.

CHOIR: Deo Gracias - Britten

BLESSING: The Very Reverend Dr Jeffrey John:

Christ, give you grace to follow Stephen, Alban and all his saints in faithful witness to His truth and love; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen.

HYMN: I cannot tell

ORGAN VOLUNTARY: Chorale Prelude on 'In dulci jubilo' (BWV 729) J.S. Bach