OPINION: Putting hope in the picture - The Dean of Ripon

The delightful Victorian church was designed by the renowned north-eastern architect, John Dobson (!) - famous for Newcastle’s railway station and many other fine buildings in that region.

On the south side of the church was a window which depicted faith and charity (love) as two feminine figures. It often struck me that hope had, unhelpfully, been left out of the picture.

St Paul in the New Testament famously affirmed that faith, hope and love all last for ever. As congregations at funerals and weddings are often reminded when that passage, 1 Corinthians 13, is read, St Paul did think that the greatest of these is love. Even so, it’s obvious that faith and hope are also of eternal significance.

I guess we all know the importance of love, it would be a desperately tragic life which left someone with no sense of being loved. The Christian faith strives to convince us all that we are loved by a God who is love to his core; through love he created and sustains all things. Of course, ‘faith’ is a word that people are often ambiguous about.

And yet, surely, it is not possible to live without faith – without trusting in something or someone. It always seemed so sad to me that the window I’ve described left hope out of the picture. Yes, we need faith and love, but where would we be without hope when facing the challenges, disappointments, losses and tragedies of life?

November provides a season of remembrance when we find ourselves contemplating loss on a global scale, made up of personal tragedies for countless families the world over.

The Rev Richard Hall, Chaplain to the 21 Engineers based in Ripon, did a magnificent job in his sermon to a packed cathedral last Sunday, Remembrance Sunday.

He communicated the horror of warfare by drawing on the personal stories of local families. Included amongst the fallen honoured on local war memorials, he told us, are cathedral choristers, a bellringer, the son of the Dean of Ripon, the son of the Bishop of Ripon, and people who lived in the very streets in which many of us now reside.

Such loss and tragedy, both personal and global, needs hope which is equally personal and global – even universal. The same could be said for the victims of fatal road traffic accidents in our region, whom we will be remembering in the cathedral on Sunday afternoon. We look for the hope which can give strength to their grieving families. This needs to be the hope which has a sure foundation and which can face life’s worst tragedies.

COP26 has been reminding us that personal tragedy for some has resulted from the catastrophic impact of climate change.

Destructive winds, raging seas and merciless wildfires do their worst for the poorest. Human life, homes and livelihoods are turned upside down and even annihilated.

So, we look for hope that can comfort and motivate individuals, unite the nations, and sustainably transform the world for the better.

Every year, the church prepares for Christmas with a season which puts such hope firmly in the picture of life as we know it. Based on faith in the indestructible love of the God who sustains the universe, revealed in the down-to-earth achievements Jesus Christ, this is sure and certain hope which can lead the world forward from despair.

This theme of hope is celebrated and shared in the cathedral’s spectacular service of readings and carols at 5.30pm on Advent Sunday, November 28, when the candlelit singing of the cathedral choir will play its part in reminding us of the fundamental need for hope. See our website for more details of this, Christmas services, Christmas Fair, and preparations for our 1350th anniversary celebrations next year: www.riponcathedral.org.uk