Today we are keeping the festival of the dedication of this Church building. It seems to me that the festival of dedication has a three way focus to it. It looks back in time. It looks at the present time; and it looks to the future.

First the backwards focus. On this day we give thanks to God for those who have founded, built, established and maintained the Church here in the centre of Stafford from its beginnings and the years since. The Chapel of St Bertelin by the West door reminds us that it is very likely that it was on this spot that the Christian faith was first taught and proclaimed and the triune God worshipped in the name of Jesus Christ. Bertelin was a missionary and teacher – an evangelist. From his time in the 8^th Century this has been a place of Christian worship, and prayer and a centre of Christian mission to the people of Stafford.

As we all know this church is called The Collegiate Church of St Mary. I am sure you know a Collegiate Church was served by a college or community of priests. The priests lived as a community under a rule of regular daily prayer together, from this church as their base, sustained by their common prayer and community life; they went out in mission into the town and the villages of the borough of Stafford. Here those priests and their people prayed and worshipped God. From here they went out to teach the Christian faith, to proclaim the Christian Gospel and to serve both the spiritual and the practical needs of the people. This Church was established as a centre of Christian prayer and worship and a centre of Christian mission. At some point early in its history this building will have been dedicated. By that I mean set apart, dedicated, and consecrated as sacred space. A holy place in the midst of the life of this town and its people. Since then St Mary’s church here in the heart of Stafford has been a tangible sign of the presence of God at the heart of the life of this town and its people. Heaven in ordinary. The sacred in the midst of the secular. God with his people. And people recognise that.

And so now we move to our second present day focus of this Dedication Festival. Ten thousand visitors come here to St Mary’s every year. They come not only to admire the architecture and to learn about the history of the building but they come also to seek and to find the presence of God. Great events and milestones in civic and county life are celebrated and marked here. Here the community gather, to welcome a new mayor, to celebrate the life of the county, to remember the dead of war, to welcome those returning from war, to pray for our local hospital to pray for our judges and the work of the courts at the beginning of every session. Here the life of our community is celebrated in all its wide variety and because it is here in this church it is celebrated intentionally in the presence of God. Here the needs of our community and its people and those of the wider world are brought into the presence of God. We, the people of St Mary’s have a rare privilege and a great responsibility to welcome all who would come here to seek God. For that is what we and this building are about. We are called to help and to enable all who would seek God to find him here amongst us as he has made himself known to us in the face of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In our first reading from the book of Genesis we heard the famous story of Jacob at Bethel. The name Bethel means ‘House of God’. In the story Jacob was fleeing in great fear from the anger of his brother Esau whom he had defrauded. That night as he sleeps you might think that he would be having nightmares about what his brother Esau would do to him if he caught up with him. Instead Jacob experienced a meeting with God. He saw heaven opened to him and the angles of God ascending and descending between heaven and earth. There is communication between heaven and earth, between God and his people. God is part of our lives in all the circumstances of our lives and we are part of him. ‘God was in this place and I never knew it’ exclaims Jacob. ‘This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’ And as a true churchmen Jacob built and dedicated an altar to the Lord.

This story of Jacob at the House of God is the reason given in the wider story of the people of God in the Old Testament for the establishment of the great worship centre at Bethel. But the real point of the story surely is that sacred places have a purpose. That place Bethel became holy because God was there and Jacob met him there.

Within our holy places or around them the people of God may seek and find God in all the circumstances of their lives. God is to be found everywhere – we know that. He is not confined to any place or places. As King Solomon acknowledged in the great dediication prayer of the Temple in Jerusalem ‘If even Heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you Lord, how much less can this house that I have built contain you’. And yet it is our experience that God can indeed be sought and found in these holy places. That is why people come here to this church. They come here because the beauty of this place speaks to them of the beauty of God and the beauty of life ordered and lived according to the will of God. They come here because this place speaks to them of the peace of God in a troubled world and in troubled lives. They come here to seek the blessing Of God just as God has blessed his people in past times; the walls of this place are sweating with their prayers. That is why we have come here to seek God in his word in scripture and in the bread and wine of the Eucharist and in our fellowship with one another and with our fellowship with those saints of God who have worshipped here in all the generations before us. This Church was designed and built for the people of God to gather together in worship and prayer to seek and to find the living God. That is why we are here today - and so what of that future focus.

As I am sure you know the District Church Council for over a year now has been considering ways in which this church building can be adapted in order to fit it even more readily for mission and ministry in the town centre in these times of ours. We are here and now with the privileges and responsibilities which God has given to us in this wonderful place. What can we do to make this building even more accessible to even more people? What can we do to enable even more people to seek and to find the living God here? What can we do to make our worship more accessible to both young and middle and old? What can we do to minister more effectively to the people who pass by this church and gather in its shade in their hundreds day by day? What can we do to transform our visitors into pilgrims and pilgrims into Christian Disciples? Those are the questions that we are addressing as we think about this Church in the future, for that is a large part of what we are here for. This church is not a museum or part of a heritage trail – it is primarily a place of worship and prayer. From that experience of meeting with God here this church then becomes a centre and means of mission, witness, and service in and for and to the community all around us. What we are trying to do is to keep faith with all who have gone before us in worship and mission here in this church and to continue in our day and into the future the work which they began. And more importantly to keep faith with God for he has put us here in this time and this place and has given us work to do in his name

Very soon architects drawings will appear to make the South West Door area more welcoming and accessible. To change the choir robbing area into an office for the clergy and the parish administrator so that we can establish a working base here in the town centre where the people are. The Lady Chapel has already been re-ordered to give us greater flexibility for worship prayer and other uses. This is not change for the sake of change. This is necessary development to enable our work for God in the town centre to grow. So please I ask all of you give all this your earnest thought and consideration and above all your prayers for this vision which I believe God is sharing with us. Over its long history this church has always been subject to change and adaptation – now it is our turn to add our contribution to its history.

There is one last and very important thing to say. – The most important. Our second reading from the First Letter of Peter spoke about the ‘Living stones being built up into a spiritual house for God.’ We are those living stones – you and I and all of us. Being built into a spiritual house in the Lord means you and I being ever more open to the transforming love and power of God who alone can enable us to do his work for him. It means you and I paying ever more attention to prayer and worship making God a priority in our lives. It means giving ourselves whole heartedly to our worship together for here we meet God and here he transforms our lives. It means seeking the will of God in scripture and being obedient to that word and will revealed to us. For as God says to us - ‘Like living stones let yourselves be built up into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For you a chosen race, a royal priesthood , a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.’