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Photograph © Toby York, 2011
Sermon for a Solemn Requiem for the Revd Prebendary Gerard Irvine (1920-2011).  Preached on Saturday 1st October 2011 at St Matthew’s Westminster

‘You are here to kneel where prayer has been valid.’ 
Little Gidding I. 45-46, by T. S. Eliot

You will not be surprised, I’m sure, if I tell you that this sermon has been for me the source of, not inconsiderable, anguish. And that anguish is still there today, in spite of the sense of pride and privilege that I feel in the knowledge that Gerard himself, albeit posthumously, has requested that I preach it.