‘There’s power in the love’ – a wedding message that rocked
THE world was reminded of the power of a great speech to make the soul soar when Bishop Michael Curry delivered his address at the wedding of the newly minted Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Guests included the likes of George Clooney and David Beckham but the Bishop glowed with a dazzling charisma only matched by the passion of his delivery and the strength of his delight in the transforming power of love.
The service was choreographed with precision and every sentence of liturgy was finely crafted, but the American Anglican leader’s words seemed to jump from his heart.
As Jeremy Vine put it: “The preacher is doing 50 in a 30 zone and it’s brilliant.”
It is striking to look at the transcript and see that this a work which also pulses on the page. His genius as a preacher is that he made a sermon rich in theological depth ring with prophetic urgency and rush with the spontaneity of a virtuoso jazz solo.
In a splendid coincidence, the Church in Wales has just launched a £10m fund to inspire a new “Welsh revival”.
The Anglican denomination’s churches and cathedrals remain beautiful landmarks on many a horizon in Wales – but the number of people gathering to worship has plummeted. In a bold and brave move, the church is offering grants of between £250,000 and £3m for new projects to connect with the people of Wales.
It is a clear statement that the Church in Wales does not want to be a heritage body which uses the returns on investments to maintain elegant but empty buildings. Instead, it is going to try and re-excite the spiritual imagination in Wales.
Bishop Curry gave us a glimpse of what that might look like. Ed Miliband quipped that he could “almost make me a believer”.
Encouragingly for the Welsh church, the bishop showed that it is perfectly possible to preach a sermon within the Anglican tradition that strikes as many power chords as a Pentecostal revival address.
He used his precious time in front of the glittering congregation to argue that love, and our very lives, find their source, meaning and fulfilment in the presence of the divine.
“We were made by a power of love, and our lives were meant, and are meant, to be lived in that love,” he said. “That’s why we are here.”
He described his faith as a “movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world” and then challenged the audience in the chapel and around the globe to imagine how redemptive love could transform homes and families, governments and nations, business and commerce.
His message’s grounding in history stopped it from having the slightest flavour of saccharin. He bookended his address with references to Martin Luther King, who was assassinated half a century ago this year while pursuing a vision of reconciliation and transformation.
And he theologically rooted his faith in love in the sacrificial death of Christ. As he put it: “He died to save us all.”
Such convictions powered his faith that there will one day be a “new world, a new human family”.
There are so many reasons why this sermon, delivered in a place of beauty on a glorious day, throbs with poignancy.
The vision of a world defined by justice, peace and reconciliation remains distant. Back on the other side of the Atlantic, the latest school shooting brought grief to families and fresh despair to communities.
He delivered his oration just a couple of days before the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire commenced. The disaster has reminded us how inequality doesn’t just mean people live in danger of poverty – they can live in buildings at risk of an inferno.
This is an age of unprecedented affluence and technological power but we remain wretchedly inept at making peace and resolving conflicts such as the war in Syria. In the few decades since the end of the Cold War we have allowed enmity to once again define the relationship between Russia and the West.
Social media gives us new opportunities to gather mobs and publicly shame today’s villains but we lack the vocabulary and the mechanisms to facilitate forgiveness and restoration.
We can legislate for fairness and pass laws to enshrine equality and protect the rights of the vulnerable, and each time we achieve such progress there is cause to rejoice. But you can’t pass a Private Member’s Bill to compel people to feel compassion for the troubled family across the street or a desire to show kindness to a contemporary outcast.
Bishop Curry quoted the Gospel of Matthew and the words that upon love of God and love of neighbour “hang all the law”.
The worst variant of politicians seek out new groups of people to blame for our problems; they work to channel anger and indignation for electoral gain. But visionary leaders – of all faiths of none – will dare to speak of love and seek the healing of their nations.
Bishop Curry’s email inbox is probably pinging like an alarm clock as speaking invitations arrive. With the passing of Billy Graham this year, there is certainly space in American public life for an orator who can articulate a nation’s spiritual longing.
But there is also the challenge for politicians to find words that drive change but not division, progress but not recrimination. Government ministers in Cardiff and London are not just custodians of institutions but the guardians of values that must be cherished and nurtured in each generation.
We need to keep alive the confidence that everyone – no matter whether they were born in wealth or poverty, in a rogue state or a prized postcode – possesses a dignity and a significance so profound that we should see in them a unique reflection of the image of the divine.
If the Church in Wales invests £10m in telling the people of our small country with conviction and clarity that each one of us is loved more than we dare imagine and that resurrection hope can transform even the darkest corners of our communities this can only encourage us to love with new courage and creativity.
“Don’t underestimate it,” Bishop Curry said. “Don’t even over-sentimentalise it.
“There’s power in the love.”