This year’s Soper Service took place on January 25th. The service was led by Deacon Ruth Yorke, and we were particularly delighted to welcome Rev Dr Jonathan Dean, Chair of the London District of the Methodist Church, to give the sermon on this special occasion. In line with the tradition of honouring Lord Donald Soper’s legacy, Jonathan spoke on the continuing relevance of Soper’s commitment to the way of peace.
Jonathan reflected on how the current rise in violent acts and callousness toward victims is a symptom of a world deeply in love with violence. Donald Soper understood that peace, as violence, functions as part of a system, and that is up to us to advocate for a better one. As “you never cast out violence with violence”, Jonathan encouraged us to reflect on Zacharia’s vision of Shalom for Israel in times of deep trouble. Through this vision, Jonathan called us to acts of love and witness as God’s people in a world that desperately needs alternate option to violence.
“Before God made us, God loved us, and in this love, our life is everlastingly fixed.”
Here are some responses from the congregation to Jonathan’s sermon:
“The preacher reminded us that even in the Old Testament, Zacharia’s time, the idea of ‘War = Power’ was rife. Resistance involves instead showing that ’Truth + Peace = Power’ – power to build, attract, bring life.”
“I was particularly impacted by the reminder that violence has become so normalised in our culture – even in entertainment – we should challenge that.”
“I liked the reminder that Julian of Norwich lived in dangerous times too- history is full of diffcult things + awful things, but also full of people who resisted and spoke up and triumphed in love, truth and peace. I felt challenged and hopeful.”
Thank you to members of Revd Lord Soper’s family all everyone else who worshipped with Hinde Street this day.
If you missed Jonathan’s evocative sermon, you can now read it by clicking here or listen to it below on our podcast channel here.