Is the church to be a saint, of unvariegated goodness? A saint is a person who lived a long time ago and has never been adequately researched. The church may be a place where we can bump into a saint or two. We are all saints of course by virtue of belonging to Christ. But we often fail to be Christlike.

Neither these images are accurate. The church is to be a servant. 400 clergy in the diocese have already been through a servant leadership development course. We do not proclaim ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord.

We live in a narcissistic culture, where it is all to easy to be absorbed by our own image. In a world dominated by celebrity magazines, it is quite liberating when a large body of people point away from themselves and to another. Jesus Christ is the church's magnificent obsession. He is the one we long to emulate. To our friends here of other faiths, I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ. To you he is a prophet. To me he is saviour.

And we proclaim ourselves as your servants. How can a church do that in today's contested public square. How can we be servants without being servile?

There is a myth of a shop where a lady was taken and was told she could buy there anything she wanted. So she began to think through all she had ever wanted and started to name her list. The shopkeeper, who was an angel, stopped her. "Madam. We do give things away free here it is true. But they are only seeds."

The servant church gives away seeds. It offers wonderful creative ideas, and beliefs and values. These are the seeds of a new world. There are the seeds of compassion and healing for the walking wounded. There are seeds of hope for those on the path of resistance to injustices like the present terms of trade for many countries and commodities. There are seeds of encouragement.

And there is a seed store in every town and village in this diocese. The church is the original convenience store. But we do not go it alone. We want everyone in the diocese to discover their full story and live at full stretch.

We face dangerous and complex problems. Matthew Parris wrote in the Times recently that the world is pretty well stuck. Woody Allen said that humanity is at a crossroads. One path leads to despair and hopelessness, the other to utter extinction.

The western answers based on adversarial politics, progress through enlightened self-interest have not worked. But we are so far up the mountain that we cannot look down or set off down without starting an avalanche.

We need every resource we can find to help us chart an ethical and sustainable future.

The great religions of the world are like satellite navigation systems. Human societies do not do well when they try and fight poverty, and social evils. We need a deeper wisdom. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. Christ brings not certitude but wisdom. The world we live in is not safe. We speak in the name of the God who is not safe. In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the children are told that the lion Aslan was not safe, but he is good.

Let go half gods go that God may arrive. Present ourselves as servants of a beautiful, damaged and much loved world.

Its good to be here.

This will be updated when the bishop's official text appears on the Diocesan Website.