St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by the Very Reverend Rowan Smith in the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr on Advent II, 10 December 2006

Farewell for Barry Smith

"I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for you all." Phil. 1 v.3.

By one of those wonderful coincidences I was recently given a copy of the Lent Gateway of 1988. It contains a poem about the African Madonna, and it is the edition in which Dean King speaks of his retirement plans in August that year. He wrote:

"'Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new,' so wrote Milton in Lycidas - these words rang in my ears on January 1st for this is the official date of my retirement as Dean."

Today in this Cathedral Mass we as a Cathedral community want to give thanks to God and express our appreciation for the forty-two years of ministry as Director of Music by Barry Smith. It was Ted King who had appointed Barry in April 1964 and on 31 December, three weeks today, he will lay down the baton as our Director of Music. And yet, as Bill Cosby said to Archbishop Desmond in 1996, "Does God allow you to retire?” Already Barry has made plans for 2007, but today we want to say with St Paul:

"I thank my God, every time I remember you ..."

Traditionally in the Church the second Sunday in Advent is called Bible Sunday because of the Collect for the day, but the Scripture readings and our music point towards John the Baptist, of whom the prophet Malachi says:

"See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me" Malachi 3 v.1

John the Baptist is the archetype of our calling as Christians insofar as we are to be messengers of the Lord, pointing to the Christ by the example of our lives. The collect for next Sunday does indeed carry that message but points to those who minister in the Church. Either way, we in this season of Advent look forward to the coming of Christ and we are to prepare our hearts to receive him as Saviour and King. The ultimate purpose of our lives is to proclaim the Kingdom of God and so to live the Gospel that, as St Paul says:

" ... the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. 1 v .6

And St Paul says this with confidence! Today, we too can say with confidence that the life of both this cathedral church and the city of Cape Town have been enriched, Barry, by your generosity, your gifts, but above all yourself.

Our paths crossed over thirty years ago with the establishment of the Centre and on one occasion we engaged in a dialogue after the Fauré Requiem, parts of which had been accompanied to dance by Rosemary Raw. And then when the Orchestral Masses were started not only did you insist that the music follow the order of our SAPB but that preaching be included, saying to me, 'the music must be the handmaid of the liturgy'. That you have faithfully sought to do, ensuring, like John the Baptist, that our faces are turned to Jesus:

"Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight ..." Luke 3.4b

You have served under three Deans and directed the Enthronement music for Archbishop Bill Burnett and subsequent Archbishops up to the present Archbishop, having arrived just after Robert Selby Taylor took office. Not only at the Cathedral but also at the Grammar School you were involved in the making of music - this together with your teaching at UCT and building up the music in the city with the St George's Singers as the core group for this ministry. In the Advent Gateway there are tributes from a variety of people to cover some of your life's work, and we pray:

"... that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ."

I hope that you will find time to put down your own life's story, and look forward particularly to reading the chapter on “Weddings for which I played” - that would include the reasons given for the bride arriving late! These forty years have been anything but dull, particularly here at St George's Cathedral, and I know that the experience has been mutually enriching. This has been in part due, no doubt, to the understanding that the music is the handmaid of the liturgy and that we seek to uphold high standards in all our worship because it is all to the glory of God and the proclamation of the Gospel. Again writing in 1988 Ted King said:

"...we must be courageous and accept that we are living not only in a time of political and social turmoil, but also intellectual and spiritual turmoil. It has all happened before in the world and the Church's life..."

He then goes on to say, in these times of change we must trust in the basic
"God, Jesus, grace through the sacraments, reflective study of the Holy Scriptures ..."

That too is what the Collect for today encourages. These scriptures point us to John the Baptist, the messenger, the one whose work is to prepare the way of the Lord. May we too appreciate your work, Barry, over the forty-two years as always pointing to Christ, so for you and ourselves:

"This is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight ... so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless ..." v. 10

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