Election Court sermon 2026

At the recent 350th anniversary year Election Court Service of Thankgiving, our Honorary Chaplain Canon Jeremy Haselock presented the following sermon:

I had some fun in choosing a text for this address. Looking for Bible references to coaches was fruitless so I settled for chariots. I toyed with 1 Kings 7 verse 33: “And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel, their axletrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes were all molten.”

I was sure that our new Master would know what axletrees, and naves, and felloes, and spokes are but was uncertain that anybody else would. I then turned to 2 Kings 9 verse 20: “The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously.” Or as a more modern translation has it: “for he drives like a maniac.” I dismissed this as I feared the Master would think I was criticising his coaching skills. I thought of a verse from a well-known hymn, “His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form” but decided that this did not quite fit in with our theme of celebration.

So, in the end I settled on some words of William Blake which we will sing later in the service: Bring me my chariot of fire.

The chariot of fire, along with a bow of burning gold, arrows of desire and a spear and a sword, is a part of the equipment Blake considers necessary for reviving the sort of green and pleasant land which legend has it the young Jesus visited in the company of Joseph of Arimathea, in the hidden years before he began his preaching, teaching and healing ministry.

Blake’s vision is of an ideal city, a great city, a new Jerusalem, set in the heart of an equally idealised countryside, green and pleasant.

Might it be too much to say that since their foundation our Guilds and Livery Companies have always striven to make our great city a better place in which to work and live?

Among the coaches, wagons, railway carriages, motor vehicles, aircraft and the like members of our Livery have commissioned, built, supervised, managed and delivered is there still a chariot of fire we can work together to build?

All those who agree to assist on the Court of a Livery Company, and particularly those who agree to enter into the long progression process towards high office, are responding to a call, dare I say a call to build the Jerusalem William Blake imagined.

It is a call to service, a commitment to the well-being of the fellowship, a call to further its aims and objectives and most particularly it is a call to further its charitable purposes.

Our charitable work – here is our chariot of fire, here are our arrows of desire. Desire to recognise the excellence we find in young men and women as they begin their working lives, desire to grant aid in the training and further education of these young people in the crafts, skills and technologies to which present day Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers devote themselves.

When King Charles II granted our livery its charter on 31st May 1677 – 350 years ago next year – no one could have foreseen how things would change and evolve. What was then frankly a protectionist move to limit the number of men permitted to work in our trades within a perimeter of 20 miles east, west and north of the City of London, a move to protect livelihoods and ensure high standards, has now been turned on its head. Our aims and objectives now recognise no boundaries or limits. Our chariot of fire drives ever further into our world of inter-connectedness, not in restraint of trade, but to identify and encourage excellence everywhere in those entering into the industries we now represent.

Master, you have been called to this office of great responsibility in this significant anniversary year because your coachmaking and restoring skills and the associated skills of your working colleagues are the closest possible historical link we have with the time of the granting of our charter.

The tradesmen and skilled craftsmen it protected in 1677 would immediately recognise the work you do and feel at home in your present-day working environment. Yes, your election as Master this year acknowledges your many years of personal service to our livery, but it is also hugely appropriate because your work, your trade, your craftsmanship links us with a great past and represents today our heritage, our tradition.

The great Austrian composer and conductor of the late 19th and early 20th century Gustav Mahler once wisely said that “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”

We love our history and enjoy our traditions; we value the customs and ceremonies of our Livery and the privileged environments in which we meet and feast and pray through the year. But we do not live in our past, we must not live in our past – we drive our chariot of fire into the future knowing that what we do now is of immense importance not just to our great City, our new Jerusalem, but to all the young people we sponsor, reward and encourage.

Yes, the working environment and specialist trades we represent may have changed almost beyond recognition in 350 years, but our fundamental principles remain. We work together – and, of course, I believe we work together under God – for the common good, for the encouragement of our charitable activities and for the much-valued fellowship of the like-minded.

So, this evening we come together in an act of worship not just to thank God for 350 years of history and tradition, (which we do and will again next year) not just to ask his blessing on our new Master, Wardens, Assistants and Court in the year of celebration ahead (which, of course we do) – all these things – but also to pray that we may drive our chariot of fire, brandish our bow of burning gold, wield our spear and sword to build a future as great, if not greater, than our past.

“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice . . . whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”