Fr ROBERT LLEWELYN (1909 - 2008)

I am reprinting here the words I put in The Messenger (our regular Sunday sheet) written on the 9th February.

Had Fr Robert lived a few more months, he would have reached the age of 99. The parish will certainly not seem the same without him. He had studied mathematics as a student and for the first part of his priestly ministry was involved in education, first at Westminster School and then later in India, becoming headmaster of a war school and then in Lucknow, Principal of Sherwood College. Later he was appointed Archdeacon of Poona. Throughout his life he had also been drawn to the Religious life, at one time contemplating becoming a Religious. But it was after his retirement and his return to this country that his priestly ministry flourished most.

He was invited in the mid 1970's by Fr Michael McLean, who was then Rector of this parish, to come to Norwich and become a 'praying presence' in the 'Julian Cell'. From this 'Cell' in S. Julian's and from his small house in King Street, he developed a remarkable ministry of writing, listening, counselling and prayer to bishops, clergy, religious and lay people alike. Always keen to learn himself, he became a remarkable exponent of the theology of Julian of Norwich, and was keen to tell everyone of the wondrous love of God, which is unconditional, available freely to all, and in which there is no place for anger, wrathfulness or blame. His little book of excerpts from Julian's Revelations called Enfolded in Love became a best-seller and was translated into many languages. And this wonderful ministry of his continued up until he had a fall in his house just over a week ago.

In the nearly 13 years I have been Rector of this Parish he has always been a friend and tutor, to begin with saying Mass once a week in order that I should have a day off, and offering sage advice and rebuke when necessary, always linked with love, support, and an endearing smile. He will be sadly missed by hundreds if not thousands, not only in Norwich, and the United Kingdom, but in many places throughout our world.

May he now enjoy eternal happiness and peace with all the Saints in Heaven. Amen

A Memorial Service for Fr Robert will take place in Norwich Cathedral on Friday 4th April at 2.30 pm. It is probable that his ashes will be laid to rest in S. Julian's garden after this service; but this is not yet confirmed.

My thanks to all who worked so hard to make Fr Robert's Funeral such a moving and yet joyful experience for so many people. Our church, I thought, still looked its usual impressive self, even with the relocation of many chairs. There were 220 communicants at the Mass and many more people in attendance.

Rosemary Frost has broken her shoulder in a fall at her home. She is now recuperating at Sunnycroft Nursing Home, Fakenham Road, Taverham.

Our Parish Annual Meetings to receive the parish Report and the Accounts and to elect Churchwardens and PCC members take place on the Sunday after Easter, 30th March, after the Parish Mass.

Our clocks go forward 1 hour to British Summer Time on Saturday night 29th March.

Fr Robert's Funeral Mass Homily - Fr Martin

If you are anything like me, you will have all your funeral arrangements laid out: burial or cremation, hymns and readings, what we are going to wear, who should preach the sermon if there were to be one, and what was to happen afterwards. Nothing should be left to chance - after all it is your funeral! About 5 years ago now, as Rector of this parish and for no other particular reason, I wondered what Fr Robert's wishes were for his funeral; I thought I ought to know. Nobody I asked seemed to have the answer. So I asked Jean Herschel whether she felt she could approach the subject with Fr Robert. She said that that would be no problem. So she did. And Fr Robert's reply was, 'Fr Martin would know exactly what to do!' And indeed he does! But, this rather grand funeral Requiem Mass is not just something I have put together to satisfy my High Church cravings, but it is the service that Fr Robert told Denise and me one afternoon a couple of years ago that he desired. He loved the way we said farewell to our parish family here at S. John's with a Solemn Requiem Mass, gathering around the altar to celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, just as we do here day by day and Christians have done everywhere, over the centuries. It is of course in the Mass or the Eucharist or the service of Holy Communion, whatever you like to call it, that we celebrate too our own hope of resurrection and new life after death, as we partake of the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation, the 'Sweet Sacrament Divine', that keeps us in the eternal life we received at our Baptism, and of which Jesus said 'I am the bread of life: the living bread which has come down from heaven: anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.' Well may we sing with the Welsh rugby fans: 'Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more!' He decided where the funeral Mass should be; he didn't want the Cathedral, he didn't want S. Julian's, he wanted his Parish Church; he has chosen the hymns and the readings; he decided he would like to be dressed in priest's vestments in his coffin; he has declared that there should be a glass of wine in church afterwards (not considering what problems this might create!); he has asked for his ashes to be buried in S. Julian's garden; and he also chose the preacher, I am sorry to say! Many who knew Father, might be surprised that he should have wanted all this of a to do. They know Fr Robert as a man of quietness and stillness and silence a man of deep prayer - surely he wouldn't want such a fuss! Well, they would be wrong!

Some 30 years ago Fr Michael McLean, who was then Rector of this parish, invited Fr Robert to come to Norwich to become Chaplain of the Julian Shrine, a position invented for him after his retirement - he was asked to be a praying presence, a source of, and a source for, holiness in the Cell of the Lady Julian of Norwich, the place where this holy English mystic wrote down her Revelations of Divine Love, which she received in 1373. He took this up with a fervour and a dynamism that continued to the end. He became an expert on Julian's writings and her theology and their meanings and their applications for us today - he always told me off for saying this about him to visitors; he said he was no expert but only a popularist: but we know better! From his arrival here in Norwich he saw that his ministry was to free people from all the clutter and burdens that they had accrued, or had been placed on them over the years, by bringing them the liberating good news of the love of God made visible in Jesus Christ. He would explain all this in the words and revelations of Julian, that this love is perfect love and is unconditional, available freely to all, and that there is no place within the Godhead for anger or wrath or blame. Wow! For many who have suffered from over-strict and zealous theologies and clergy, from teachings of a wrathful and vengeful God, from a morbid fear of sin and wrong-doing and its consequent punishments, this indeed came and still comes as almost unbelievable GOOD NEWS!

Well, that was indeed one side of Fr Robert. But we are very lucky in this parish to have two churches. So we are able to cater for those who value quietness and contemplation and meditation, which is not for everybody, down at S. Julian's and for those who like me like and need bread and circuses and the more exotic expression of their religion up here at S. John's! Fr Robert, although brought up in the Evangelical tradition, came to value and love and appreciate the Catholic religion, especially as expressed in the Church of England. As much as he grew to love the Roman Catholic Church, I don't think he would ever have left the Church of England! And it was here at S. John's that he was able to express his delight and joy in Catholic spirituality and Catholic worship. There was never a Sunday, unless prevented by sickness when he was not present at the High Mass, in recent times whizzing up hill from King Street on his electric chariot, and woe betide any poor pedestrian that got in his way. He entered fully into all the worship here, feeling that the Catholic way of doing things was able to lift him and everyone who came here onto a higher plane: from the mundane to the heavenly; from dust and ordinariness to glory.

As many of you will know, he developed a great devotion and love of Our Blessed Lady, S. Mary, which is why he chose the opening hymn at this Mass with the line: 'For the faithful gone before us, may the holy virgin pray' - indeed he believed she would; indeed she is! His devotion to Our Lady grew even stronger after visits to Medjugore. I know you won't believe this, but I am a bit old-fashioned! I reintroduced to this parish what I think to be a lovely old hymn for the month of May connecting the name of the month with Mary. It begins: 'The Happy birds Te Deum sing, 'tis Mary's month of May'. Some people think it is doggerel, and were glad that it had had it's day! After the Mass when we had sung it for the first time I said to Father as he left church, thinking that he was bound to be intellectually offended by all that stuff: 'I'm sorry you had to sing that old rubbish this morning!' He replied in rebuke, in total seriousness: 'Its not rubbish: if you go to Medjugore the birds do sing when Our Lady appears'! For many years he had said the Rosary on a Monday morning in his house with Mary Mander, our then Monday girl at the Julian Centre, with the intention for those who would visit the Shrine during the week. About 6 years ago he asked if he could say the Rosary publicly in Julian's Cell instead of his house. The public recitation of the Rosary is not something very common in Anglican churches - alas! But I was more than happy to say, Yes! And this has proved to be quite a success and indeed continues, and has become very much an ecumenical service. Nobody from the diocese could possibly complain if it were a Fr Robert service! But, just to let you in on a little secret, and please don't let the Bishop know, about 4 years ago he had been given a tape of Pope John Paul II saying the Rosary. He found this deeply moving and extremely prayerful, and asked if he might, during Lent that year, say the Rosary in the Cell in Latin. I won't tell you what my reply was, but you can guess! He became devoted to the Rosary, and introduced many to this form of meditative prayer: in fact one year not so long ago he was invited by the Roman Catholic Cathedral here in Norwich to lead a Lent course on the Rosary. In his coffin today he is holding his rosary beads as if in prayerful anticipation of the perfect worship of heaven he would soon be enjoying.

All of us here today will have our own special memories of Fr Robert and will have our own tales to tell of him. But for those of us who have come to know him through Norwich, they will inevitably be connected with his love of the Lady Julian, and his zeal to expound her Revelations, and also his great desire to be available to people, to counsel, to listen, to share problems, or just sit in silence with those who sought him out. Julian called herself in her book a 'faithful servant of holy Church'. Nobody could deny that Fr Robert was a faithful servant of holy Church! May he now join the blessed saints in heaven and enjoy the rewards of his faithful ministry over so many years, and in the words of the Lady Julian which we have heard read by Fr Gregory today: 'be endlessly hidden in God, truly seeing and wholly feeling, and hearing him spiritually, and delectably smelling him and sweetly tasting him'.

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