EACH YEAR since 1905, except in wartime, the annual National Service for Seafarers has been held in St Paul's Cathedral, in the City of London, to celebrate the unity of calling of all those who use the sea. At the 1981 service, held on Trafalgar Day, October 21, the RNLI was represented by seven East Sussex lifeboatmen. Coxswain/Mechanic Len Patten of Newhaven was the RNLI's colour bearer, escorted by Crew Members Jack Shinn and Derek Payne. Making up the uniformed party was Coxswain/Mechanic Ron Wheeler and Crew Member George Cole from Eastbourne and Crew Members Tony Crawford and Colin Maltby from Brighton. Also attending the service were the Duke of Atholl, chairman of the Institution, Captain J. B. Leworthy, a member of the Committee of Management, and Rear Admiral W. J.

Graham, the director.

The sermon, extracts from which are quoted below, was given by the Archbishop of Canterbury. After remembering with thanksgiving all those who, by their service at sea, serve their fellow countrymen, Dr Runcie continued: 'Thanksgiving, then, is where we begin but the theme and heart of my sermon was suggested by a brief but memorable vovage I made last Sunday, on the Walmer lifeboat.

'Ships have always been popular images for communities and nations. Even now, we sometimes talk about the Ship of State.

This is understandable, because you can see clear/v, in miniature, on a good ship the qualities needed by any healthv community.

'Recent turmoil in the life of our national community ha.s made me ponder the vital ingredients of any Christian society.

If YOU are a follower of Jesus Christ, what sort of community should ou be committed to build? 1 found four vital ingredients in the Bible which, blended together, make I believe for a Christlike community life. The four ingredients are: acceptance, discipline, loyalty and vision. I had been preaching about these before I visited the Wa/mer lifeboat and my short trip brought the abstract ideas alive and gave me a vivid picture of the kind of Christian community we should be trying to build in this countrv.'Looking first at 'acceptance', under which he gathered the homely virtues of welcome, tolerance and gentleness. Dr Runcie said: 'In the confined space of a ship, these family virtues are essential. You have to accept and be tolerant of one another or life becomes unendurable. I was very touched by the warmth of the welcome I received on the lifeboat. I must confess that sometimes as Archbishop I feel a little anxious, visiting a factory or a school or a ship. "Who does he think he is?" / can imagine people saying and here it was a Sunday afternoon, very soon after lunch, and a large number of people had been dragged away from their firesides to launch the boat, just to give the Archbishop a trip out to the Goodwin Sands. Even though, however, I have no pretensions to be any kind of sailor—just an ignorant ex-Guardsmen—/ was quickly put at my ease by unaffected friendliness and men who talked lovingly and knowledgeably about the lifeboat. I was made to feel one of the family almost immediately.' Family virtues, however, needed the stiffening of discipline: 'The ship where there is no clear commander and no discipline will not survive very long. On that small lifeboat, we had a General, an Admiral and the Archbishop of Canterbury, not to mention singlehanded round-the-world yachtsman Sir Alec Rose. Yet there was no mistaking who was in charge and we all cheerfully jumped to it in obedience to the firm orders of the skipper from the wheelhoitse.' Dr Runcie's third ingredient was shared loyalty: 7 was moved by the loyalty shown by the crew to the traditions of the lifeboat service and glad that it was an Archbishopof Canterbury, Manners Sutton, who in 1824, presided over the meeting which brought the fore-runner of the present Royal National Lifeboat Institution into being. I was told that some American visitors to Walmer had been unable to believe that the lifeboat service was manned all year round by volunteers; men who, when the maroons were fired, risked their lives voluntarily to help others. I was able to see the power of a shared loyalty in action.

Jesus, weeping over Jerusalem, accepts and blesses these local loyalties.' If narrowness and complacency are to be avoided, loyalty has to be complemented by vision: 'Vision gives us a creative dissatisfaction with our achievements. The Wa/mer lifeboat vision was summed up in very simple words by one of the younger crew members —"Every time we go out. we hope to do someone a bit of good". Saving lives means constant experiments with new techniques, new types of boat. I was particularly impressed with the new inflatable lifeboat. It had a/ready built up an impressive record of rescues . . . Vision supplies energy for change in life which is not just random but purposeful.' Dr Runcie concluded: 7 was very fortunate, after preaching about the ingredients of a Christian community, to be able to see the reality in action on the lifeboat. There was acceptance, welcome and friendliness but also discipline.

There was loyalty to tradition and a proper pride in the past but there was also a vision of service to the shipwrecked which saved the crew from being inwardlooking and complacent. You see the national community in miniature on a ship and if we dare to call ourselves Christians, here is a model of the community we ought to be committed to and working to build.'.