It’s a huge privilege to join you in your celebrations and thank you so much for supporting Naomi House and Helen House in this your Diamond Jubilee year. Your patron Nicolas, as we were reminded earlier, is of course the Patron Saint for Children and I hope he would approve of the work we do. May his prayers and example continue to strengthen and guide you in the life and ministry of this church bearing his name.

Now names, whether they are names of churches or names of hospices are very significant. They tell us something about what those places stand for and where they come from. Naomi House, near Winchester, is named after the daughter of the lady who donated the land where Naomi House now stands. That name reminds them of the generosity that allowed them to build in such a beautiful location, not far from Winchester. Helen House in Oxford, which is where I work, is named after the little girl who inspires the whole idea of a children’s hospice. The name reminds us who work there that the children’s hospice movement began 25 years ago with a friendship between an Anglican nun and a very lovely but very poorly little girl.

It’s amazing to me how much of the way Helen House runs today is still based on the foundation of that friendship, so many years ago. Helen House is still all about offering a place where children with life-limiting illnesses can come to receive the best possible care, and where families can come and have a break from the normal routine which can be so exhausting and unrelenting, both physically and emotionally. Naomi House and Helen House both share this very simple philosophy, offering support to families even through the darkest days, and through the years of grief that follow.

For those of us who are Christians at Helen House, we hope that we help to fulfil some of those words of the prophet Isaiah that we heard earlier. To remind you:
      to comfort all who mourn;
      to provide for those who mourn in Zion
            to give them a garland instead of ashes,
            the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
            the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

I am struck that for the Prophet Isaiah it’s very clear that the good news of God is first and foremost for the oppressed, for the broken-hearted. These are the ones who he says will be the oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord’s to display his glory. At Naomi House and at Helen House, the broken-hearted are given this top priority, and we pray that through our work they may indeed be blessed, upheld and comforted.

Now from what I’ve just said, people imagine that children’s hospices must be terribly sad places and sometimes, yes they are desperately sad. But most of the time they are the most wonderful and inspiring places, because every effort is being made to make life as good as it can be, to allow the children to experience and enjoy as much as possible. As Sister Frances, that nun who started it all off, often says, it’s all about living deeply even if you aren’t going to live very long. It’s also, I think, about learning how to receive the Kingdom of God. Jesus recognised the way which children could accept the Kingdom of God so much more easily than most adults. He told us: ‘Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’

The children of Helen House remind me of the preciousness of life but also the preciousness of even the simplest experiences: a touch, a sound, a feeling. These are the things that give the children at Helen House extraordinary joy, and they remind me that the Kingdom of God is to be received in these simple, common things. There’s something of this simplicity, I think, in Paul’s letter to Timothy when he writes: ‘We brought nothing into the world and we take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing we will be content with these.’

Places like Helen House and Naomi House and the extraordinary families and children who use them can remind us of the simple things, the simple things that really matter, rather than the more extravagant and expensive things that we spend so long trying to attain. As St Paul said, ‘The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.’ The Kingdom of God is so much more precious and so much more simple than anything money can buy.

That’s not to say that money can’t have its uses! We would have a really difficult time running places like Naomi House and Helen House without the money that generous people like yourselves give to us. Children’s hospices still depend almost entirely on charitable donations and we guarantee that your money will be used in the best possible way to enhance the lives of the children and families who visit us.

You’re not the only people having an anniversary this year. For you it’s the Diamond Jubilee Year; for us at Helen House, we’re celebrating a rather more modest Silver Jubilee, 25 years. And some things have indeed changed over that time, improved medical care means that some of our children are now living much longer than anyone would have expected. They are becoming young adults, and with the best will in the world, a kind of home-from-home place like a children’s hospice isn’t quite right for them anymore. That’s why 3 years ago we opened Douglas House, just across the garden from Helen House, as a hospice for young adults. I know Naomi House have plans to build a unit for young adults just across the garden from Naomi House. Douglas House offers all the same care, building on that simple founding philosophy, but it also deals with the issues of growing up, the difficult business of becoming an adult, a business made even more difficult in the face of life-limiting and life-shortening disease. So Douglas House is a much more grown-up kind of place, a place where young adults can have a bit of space from their families and from their carers, but Douglas House still offers all the same kinds of support at the end of life and for those who are bereaved. Of course like Helen House, Douglas House is named after the young man who inspired the idea. The names of Helen and Douglas will live on, and will continue to remind us who work there of that simple philosophy of friendship that underlies our work in those two hospices.

On behalf of Helen and Douglas House, and Naomi House, may I thank you once again for your friendship and your generosity towards us in our work.

This church, your church, bears the name of Nicolas, that great bishop with a great heart for children and who gave his life for the love of Christ. With Nicolas and with all the saints, we bear the name Christian; we bear the name of Christ, our God Incarnate, who welcomed the little children and who gave his life to usher in God’s Kingdom. May we be worth of the name ‘Christian’ and may that name be known for our children and our children’s children, so that in another 60 years, or in another 660 years, the Kingdom of God may be celebrated in this place in all its preciousness and in all its simplicity. And may that be so until the Kingdom is brought to completion when the Lord returns

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Amen