By Priest Vicar Nigel Guthrie
Tina and I don’t often watch live sport now. When our sons were at home and playing rugby we cheered them on from the touchline at school, of course, and occasionally attended professional games with them at Sandy Park.
But when we saw, recently, that matches for the Women’s Rugby World Cup were being played in Exeter we thought that we really should go along. So, on 6 September we will be at Sandy Park watching Canada v Scotland and then Wales v Fiji. And we will be cheering as Tina is half-Welsh and I’m half-Scottish. Fortunately Wales is not actually playing Scotland!
As well as playing at school, our sons also played for the junior teams at Crediton Rugby Club. The girls’ teams were getting established at that time and now there are at least three age group teams for girls as well as an adult women’s team. The club was a great gift for our sons and it continues to be an important feature of social life in Crediton, with 700 members, promoting physical activity and positive values in its sporting life.
So, looking forward to the games this weekend I listened with interest to an interview on Radio 4 with Abbie Ward, a member of the England Rugby Squad. She has represented her country at Senior level since 2015. She was the first member of the squad to take advantage of the maternity arrangements now in place, giving birth to her daughter in summer 2023. Abbie was training in the gym until two weeks before the birth and back at training (non-contact!) with her team, the Bristol Bears, less than three weeks after the birth. And less than a year later she was playing for her country again. She is quite a pioneer in British women’s rugby and is helping to redefine how women’s sport is viewed.
But the part of the interview I appreciated most was when Abbie Ward was describing what she most values about the game. She named the varied attributes which various players brought to the game in their different positions, like strength and agility, and said ‘no one person can succeed without everyone doing their job’. St Paul couldn’t have put it better!
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)
Paul goes on to develop his picture of the Church being like a body in which all members must work together and respect the other parts, ‘that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.’
It has been a privilege, and quite fascinating, to learn about many different aspects of Cathedral life during the past year. As a Priest Vicar my duties (beyond taking a turn on the clergy rotas) are mainly to arrange Baptisms, act as Chaplain to the Servers and to arrange the Lunchtime Carol services before Christmas. But I’ve now met people from many of the Cathedral departments and been impressed and amazed by the quantity and quality of work and ministry offered here. Yet what makes a great Cathedral (and a great Rugby team) is not just the talent and hard work of individuals but also our ability to work together for the common good, to show mutual respect to those with different gifts and to recognise that together we are more than the sum of our parts. In the case of the Red Roses, the success of their collaboration may lead them to another title. In the case of the Cathedral, we might aspire to be a truer version of the Body of Christ serving God’s people in Exeter and Devon.