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The prophecy of Hosea, chapter 11, verse 8. God speaks:
My heart is turned within Me. My compassions are kindled together.

Can any good thing come out of Yorkshire? (John 1,46). From Yorkshire have come such television programmes as All Creatures Great and Small, Heartbeat, The Last of the Summer Wine and In Loving Memory. From Yorkshire have come coal, steel, wool and a candy called Pontefract cakes. From Yorkshire have come Richard Rolle, the century mystic; Guy Fawkes of gunpowder, treason and plot; Captain James Cook, the 18th century explorer; Charlotte and Emily Brontë, 19th century novelists; Hannah Hauxwell, the 20th century farmer heroine. From Yorkshire have come St Aelned of Rivaulx, St. Hilda of Whitby, St. John of Beverley, St. Paulinus of York, St. Wilfred of York. In Yorkshire lived Constantine, the 4th century Roman emperor; Robin Hood, the folk hero of legend - if he lived at all, that is; Frederick Delius, the 20th century composer; J. B. Priestly, the 20th century novelist; Viscount Halifax, ecumenical Anglican layman.

From Yorkshire came Bishop Robert Crawley. I don't suppose you keep a list of most worried people. If you did keep such a list, I don't suppose Bishop Crawley would be listed. Is he not our own Friar Tuck, our jolly joker to laugh our blues away? But night after night Bishop Crawley lies awake, his heart turned within him, his compassions kindled together. A churchwarden on the outs with his rector. A husband on the outs with his wife. A priest with anger. A young mother in poverty.

Article I tells us, "God is without body, parts or passions". We cannot understand or imagine God. God speaks via the prophet Isaiah, "To whom then will ye liken Me that I should be like him?" (40,25). But if we are to say anything about God, we have to use word pictures. And the prophet Hosea, from whom I take my text, is not embarrassed to describe God as having a heart, a churned up heart. God grieves for the suffering that His chosen people have brought upon themselves. "My heart is turned within Me. My compassions are kindled together."

Bishop Crawley is often churned up over us, his compassions kindled together. Thank you, Bishop Robert. Thank you, Mother Crawley, for sharing your husband's grief.

From Yorkshire came Canon Trevor Rhodes. Country parson; vicar of inner city parishes; chaplain to a prison for teens, where in the rough of a rugby scrum his charges acquired no little respect for their padre; traveller to help the church in Africa, Colombia, India; most recently a Benedictine monk in the United States of America. He has that tough omnicompetence I associate, not only with his native county, but also with his seminary, the House of the Sacred Mission, Kelham, where boxing, pig keeping and swimming were as much part of the syllabus as were Greek and choir practice.

From Yorkshire came Father Peter Wilkinson's forbears. To Yorkshire went Father Peter to prepare for priesthood. Yorkshire has big industrial cities like Bradford, Halifax, Leeds and Sheffield. Yorkshire has historic sites and pleasant places like Fountains Abbey, llkley Moor bar t'at, Whitby and York. But the small town of Mirfield is not a destination of tourists. It was to Mirfield that Father Peter went for seminary, to the College of the Resurrection, sited in a former stable.

In the 18th century an evangelical revival emanated from Europe. Its adherents were known as Moravians. They lived in Christian kibbutzim. One such settlement was established in Mirfield. Its members farmed, baked, built, educated children. One old boy of their school grew up to become, at the beginning of this century, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Ireland. I refer to the Earl Asquith of Oxford. Another old boy of their school grew up to become, at the beginning of last century, a Moravian minister. I refer to the Reverend James Montgomery, whose hymns we still sing, such as Go to dark Gethsemane (blue 132, green 100).

Now the Moravian understanding of bishops, priests and deacons is not identical with ours. Nevertheless at ordinations we often sing one of Mr. Montgomery's hymns: -

Pour out Thy Spirit from on high.
Graces and gifts to each supply,
And clothe Thy priests with righteousness,
To bear Thy people in their heart
And love the souls whom Thou dost love.

I can think of no more succinct description of priesthood, of episcopate, than that. "To bear Thy people in their heart, and love souls whom Thou dost love." From Mirfield where he once lived, from Yorkshire, come these words to Father Peter. From near Bradford where he once lived, from Yorkshire, come these words to Father Trevor. As these bishops go to the altar of God; as they pray the daily office; as they attend to Jesus in silence or in Scripture; as they go about their daily business, these bishops are before God with God's people in their hearts.

Christ the eternal high priest (Hebrews 3,1), the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls (I Peter 2,25), puts his love into the heart of a bishop, of a priest. And the love in Christ's heart comes from the love in the heart of His Heavenly Father. "My heart is turned within Me. My compassions are kindled together."

+Robert Mercer, CR