Preface
When my old schoolfriend Krishna Sethia was appointed to serve as High Sheriff of Norfolk in 2023, he invited me, as was apparently his privilege, to preach at the annual Justice service in the cathedral. This invitation was issued so far in advance that it was almost impossible to side-step. Although I rather enjoy giving sermons, the prospect of this one was daunting. A great Romanesque nave the better part of a thousand years old, the pulpit dizzyingly high above a large congregation including an abnormal concentration of lawyers with over-developed critical faculties – the only thing more unnerving than the anticipation was the actuality.
As it happened, all passed without incident – except that my sermon evidently displeased the Dean. The only advance guidance he had given me was that I should not speak for more than eight minutes. I replied that the length of my drive (from Dorset to Norwich) and the gravity of my theme were scarcely consistent with such a parsimonious allowance, but that he need not fear, as a professional lifetime of addressing impatient tribunals had given me an acute sense of the dangers of losing an audience.
I might have anticipated a well-meaning insistence on brevity. Less expected was the ungracious email I received from the Dean afterwards, reacting to the fact that I had been unable to forebear in my sermon from criticising the way in which the current Church of England leadership carries on. Those with whom I shared his email and my reply were incredulous about the way he had expressed himself. I am sorely tempted to reproduce the correspondence here, but I have been persuaded that I ought not to. Pity.