Sabbatical Reflection 7 - Reaching into the Past to Look Towards the Future

This photo was taken in 2012 on a Wesley Study Centre day retreat to Lindisfarne, just a couple of months before I started serving as a Probationer Presbyter in the Wharfedale and Aireborough Methodist Circuit. 

In the foreground is Cuthbert’s Island, a small island just off Lindisfarne that you can walk to when the tide is out but that, like Lindisfarne itself is cut off at high tide.  In the background is Lindisfarne itself with St Mary’s church in a position of prominence.  The island is called Cuthbert’s island because its where St Cuthbert, one of the Celtic saints, used to go on his own to pray and the remains of his hermitage can be seen in the photo, marked by the simple wooden cross. 

Those of you who have been reading these Sabbatical Reflections may remember that originally the focus of my Sabbatical was to be a ten day pilgrimage to the Holy Land with associated reading and study.  When it became clear that this wasn’t going to be possible I felt God leading me to a short pilgrimage to Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island; a place I’d visited before and one of the cradle places for Christianity in our land: not the Roman Catholic Christianity that became dominant in later centuries by the gentler Christianity of saints like Aidan, Cuthbert and Hilda of Whitby: a form of Christianity generally known as Celtic Christianity. 

Some scholars object to the phrases ‘Celtic Christianity’ and ‘Celtic Spirituality’ and whilst acknowledging their opinion and reasoning I will use the phrases as a handy shortcut for the rest of this reflection: as it is indeed intended as a piece of reflection rather than scholarly writing. 

I’m reflecting as I prepare to go on retreat to Lindisfarne, a retreat that as I write is less than two weeks’ away. Lindisfarne is known as Holy Island (along with Iona in Scotland), as what the Celts called a thin place where the veil between earth and heaven is especially thin and it can somehow be easier to pray and hear the voice of God.  I am told this is especially true when the tide is in and Lindisfarne is cut off from the mainland.  

I will admit that I am going to Lindisfarne in the hope of encountering God in a special way as I think about leaving my current Circuit and churches, which is going to be really difficult spiritually and emotionally, and go the Burnley & Pendle Methodist Circuit to serve as their Superintendent minister.  I am hoping that on Lindisfarne God will bless me with his real, tangible presence and a spiritual anointing for what is to come. 

Lindisfarne will also, I think, be a place to ponder what I am starting to become convinced is a way forward for the Christian Church in our land: not to look to the future and to new forms of church like Café Church or Messy Church, good though these are, but to look to the past and the native Celtic Christianity of our islands.  This has been a growing conviction within me for a number of years, and first came to me whilst on another Wesley Study Centre retreat at Ampleforth Abbey in 2011 as feeling God was saying that the way forward for the church was unity not division, combining the best of the traditions of each major denomination with a progressive and dynamic yet orthodox theology.  It is for this reason that I am a supporter of the Anglican/Methodist Covenant and the two churches working towards organic unity as a first step. 

The great thing about the Celtic Christianity of our islands is that it combines the best characteristics of the various forms of Christianity that abound in our world today.   

Simon Reed, Chair of the Caim Council of the Community of Aidan and Hilda, sums these characteristics up, in his book Creating Community: Ancient Ways for Modern Churches thus: “The Celtic Church had an Evangelical emphasis upon the Scriptures and upon mission, a Catholic sense of the importance of incarnation and sacrament, a Pentecostal-charismatic experience of the work of the Holy Spirit and an orthodox vision of God as Trinity. 

This sense of evangelism and mission is vital today in the UK, with many of our churches experiencing a decline in membership and increasingly elderly membership, with fewer and fewer people able or willing to undertake the tasks needed to keep a church functioning.  The only way to grow the church is to bring others to Christ, not through mass rallies with famous evangelists and preachers, but through friendship and Christian example in our community through unconditional no strings attached mission and service, the way of our Celtic Christian ancestors.   

This Catholic sense of the importance of incarnation and sacrament is reflected in the formality and ritual of high church worship which, when done well under the leading of the Holy Spirit, conveys a strong sense of mystery and the other. I have read on several occasions that the fastest growing form of Christian worship in the UK in Cathedral worship: that people of all ages are attending Cathedral services because of their sense of tradition and dignity and rootedness in the eternal, that sense that a church service takes place in a liminal space between earth and heaven.  This is also a feature of Celtic Spirituality and worship. 

Celtic Christians were also very close to nature and Celts, whether Christian or not, cared for the land.  One example of this closeness to nature was that after St Cuthbert spent a night praying whilst standing in the sea up to his neck in water, otters came and dried him when he came ashore.  This chimes in well with our modern concerns for the environment and preserving our planet for future generations. 

Celtic Christians were also intensely aware of the spiritual dimension of life and did not deny the possibility of the supernatural as many do today.  Modern Christians who follow the Celtic Christian path are equally convinced that the supernatural dimension of our lives is just as real as that which can be observed and explained by science.  To the Celtic Christians, angels are definitely real and miracles can and do happen.  The church badly needs a much great awareness of this part of creation. 

At the very centre of this sense of awareness of the supernatural was God’s Holy Spirit.  Often as Christians we picture the Holy Spirit as a dove, a thoroughly Biblical image taken from Jesus’ baptism Celtic Christians have another image of the Holy Spirit, as a Wild Goose.  The wild goose reveals a spirit which is passionate, noisy, and courageous. This symbol reminds us that God’s spirit cannot be tamed or contained. 

Celtic Christianity, both in its historical form and revived twenty first century expressions, very much focussed on community.  This is something that is perhaps gaining a new sense of importance in the minds of many people following the Covid-19 lockdowns.  We have spent so long separated from others that we are appreciating again the value of community.  When talking to church members prior to Sabbatical I got the overwhelming impression that it wasn’t just worshipping together in church that they missed; it was the fellowship over tea and coffee, the mid-week coffee mornings, craft groups and exercise classes and the Bible Study and Fellowship groups.  Yes, we all live in a community, whether that be a hamlet, village, town or city, a community we should be serving as individuals and as churches, but at its best each church is also a mutually supportive community of people growing together in the love of Christ. 

Many Celtic Christians lived in monastic or semi-monastic communities, like that at Whitby headed by Mother Hilda; and followed a way or rule of life.  The modern expression of this is dispersed monastic communities like the Northumbria Community, the Iona Community (centred on Iona) and the Community of Aiden & Hilda (with strong connections to Lindisfarne).  The UK Methodist Church has recently recognised the value of a way of life.  Members of the Methodist Diaconal Order have followed one for many years, but recently there has been encouragement for all Methodists to follow a way of life.

Does Celtic Spirituality provide all the answers for the revival of our churches in 21^st century Britain?  It may or may not, that is something I am still reflecting on both as a Christian disciple and as a Church Leader.  I will undoubtably reflect on this again when I return from Lindisfarne, so you can expect another reflection in mid June. 

In the meantime I hope that the congregations I am leaving in July can reflect on how at least some of what I am writing can be of benefit to them, whilst I reflect how I can take all this forward on the path God is leading me on.

Sabbatical Reflection 6: Ascension Day for Today

Acts 1: 1-11

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach ² until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. ³After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ⁴ On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.⁵ For John baptised  with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”

⁶ Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

¹⁰ They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

 

Reflection

You may remember my starting my last reflection by commenting that “the progression of Sundays has largely passed me by since Easter Day”, but for some reason I was very aware that not only is today Ascension Day, but that there is a real connection between that event and the circumstances the church is facing right now in 21^st century England.

My reflection is partly informed by my latest Sabbatical reading, How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You Are Going by Susan Beaumont; a book recommended to us on the Superintendent’s Training Course.

Its subtitled, Leading in a Liminal Season.  The author defines liminality in this context as “a quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs during transition, when a person or group of people is between something that has ended and something else that is not yet ready to begin.”

I would argue that the disciples were in a liminal season at the time of the Ascension of Jesus, a liminality that continued until the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to them as a wind, alighting on them as tongues of fire.

That liminal season for them arguably began with Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  From that moment on Jesus’ disciples were disorientated, thinking that everything they had hoped for had come to an end.

Then came resurrection, and new hope as they met the risen Jesus, who appeared suddenly on several occasions and vanished just as suddenly.  Something new had happened that filled them with hope, but they didn’t quite understand it.  They didn’t know how to fully react to it: they were between something new that was ending and something new that was to begin. 

Their confusion is clear in their words as Jesus prepared for his Ascension: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The disciples were still thinking in terms of an earthly Kingdom, still failing to understand the new thing Jesus had for them to do.

Jesus tells them, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Then he vanishes.

Jesus’ words tell them what they will be doing, witnessing, but I don’t think they fully understand what that means and how they should go about it until they are filled with the Holy Spirit.  Once they are the Christian Church is born with an initial membership of around 3,000, according to Acts 2:41.

The church in the UK is in a liminal season right now.  Liminal seasons happen every so often in the life of the church, both locally as well as nationally and internationally.

Locally times of liminality are often cause by a change of Minister, not just in those few short weeks between one leaving and another arriving, but in the weeks either side as one Minister’s influence begins to fade once it is known they are leaving, and the new Minister’s ideas and leadership become known. It can be the same for Methodist Circuits when there is a change of Superintendent.

Nationally I would suggest that the church is in a season of liminality, liminality stemming from the Covid-19 epidemic that has dramatically affected all our lives in various ways since March 2020.  We entered the first lockdown so quickly that we had no time to think about how we would worship together when we couldn’t meet and what it meant to be church.

We found ways to do it, with service sheets being sent out to people and services on Facebook, YouTube and, of course, Zoom.  I think the phrase of the past year is, “turn your microphone on”.

We are coming out of lockdown now, hopefully for the final time and we look forward to things getting back to normal, or what some people are calling the new normal.  As churches we are still in the liminal season, because we don’t yet know what the “new normal”, the immediate future will look like.

Do we resume doing what we’ve always done, with the same styles of worship and orders of service as we had before?  Do we resurrect all the coffee mornings and Bible studies and fellowship groups?  Do we have hybrid church, a combination of worship in church buildings and worship online?  Do we finally abandon some of the stultifying traditions that have held the church back for so long?  How do we approach the future we don’t yet know?

I believe that like those first disciples who God used to bring about the birth of the Christian Church we must wait, listening to God and trying to discern God’s will as we do so.  We must wait for the Holy Spirit to come us and guide us towards the new normal for the church.  If we listen and wait faithfully the Holy Spirit will indeed guide us and lead us as we faithfully seek to follow Christ in the 2020s and beyond.

In first century Judea those first disciples waited in faith and the Church exploded into being with 3,000 new disciples: what might be possible for the Church today if we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit?

 

Sabbatical Reflection - Vocation

Even though I’ve been attending worship, mostly online, throughout my Sabbatical the progression of Sundays has largely passed me by since Easter Day and so it was a pleasant surprise to discover that today is Vocations Sunday in the Methodist Church; which in turn has set off a whole train of thought.

I must admit to having had some trepidation about starting Sabbatical having known Presbyter colleagues who were profoundly affected by it in terms of their feeling of vocation and call to ordained ministry.   

In the case of some of them it was quite mild in the sense that they decided to go into Stationing and move to a new Circuit when they’d previously been thinking of applying for an extension; something I knew wouldn’t now apply to me since I’m moving in August anyway.

For some it has been more traumatic and life changing because whilst spending the time contemplating and reflecting, they have realised that either the call to ordained ministry has gone, or that they maybe feel the time has come to move out of Circuit ministry and take up something like hospital chaplaincy.  Sometimes the result of slowing down is that we hear God more clearly and sense that God has something new planned for us.  Sadly, for a few, Sabbatical brings a realisation of complete exhaustion and nothing more to give and can result in early retirement.

Conversations have suggested that these thigs can happen to the ordained across various denominations who take Sabbatical.

I was concerned by how Sabbatical might affect me, especially as I have agreed to move in August and, subject to confirmation by the Methodist Conference, become the new Superintendent of Burnley and Pendle Circuit.

So far, as I approach the mid-point of Sabbatical my concerns have proved to be groundless.  If anything I am more certain than ever of my call to Presbyteral Ministry in the Methodist Church: that call is at least as strong as it was in 2011 when around this time the Connexion confirm that I could enter training as a Student Presbyter in the September of that year.  It is as strong as it was when I started as a Probationer Presbyter in Wharfedale & Aireborough Circuit.  It is as strong as it was when I was ordained in Coventry Central Hall on 29^th June 2014.

I’m sure of this because whilst I’m enjoying the different pace of life that Sabbatical brings, I am also missing undertaking those core things that are essential in the call of a Presbyter and that we promise to faithfully do at our Ordination Service.

In the Ordination Service we are charged, in God’s name:

• To preach by word and deed the Gospel of God’s grace.
• To declare God’s forgiveness of sins to all who are penitent
• To baptise, to confirm.
• To preside at the celebration of the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood.
• To lead God’s people on worship, prayer and service.
• To minister Christ’s love and compassion
• To serve others, in whom you serve the Lord himself.

Most of these things I cannot do whilst on Sabbatical, certainly not those that involve Sunday or mid-week worship, though I hope that even whilst distanced from my usual church responsibilities I am, none the less, preaching the Gospel by deed, in the way I live my life and treat and serve others day to day showing Christ’s love and compassion.

I can genuinely say that the longer I am on Sabbatical the more I am missing presiding at the Lord’s Supper, preaching by word (though perhaps these reflections in some way achieve that) and leading you all in worship prayer and service.  This confirms to me very much that my call to serve the Lord as a Circuit Presbyter in the Methodist Church is not only undiminished but has grown stronger.

That call has changed, though, or rather the practical outcome because it has genuinely become a call to Circuit Superintendency.  This specific calling to Superintendency is something I’ve been discreetly discussing with a number of trusted people for some months, indeed it was a trusted friend and District colleague who suggested that certain feelings and promptings I was having might be such a call.  It is quite correctly said that a call to ministry isn’t a certain call until confirmed by the church, and the request to move to Burnley and Pendle Circuit to become their new Superintendent was my confirmation of this calling.

As a Presbyter I know how incredibly fortunate I am to have this gift of three months Sabbatical to take the time to withdraw from the busyness of regular Circuit Ministry to think and contemplate and listen to God.  I pray that you too will be able to find some space in your life to contemplate what vocation God may be calling you to, both within the church (Local Preacher?  Church Steward?  Circuit Steward?  Youth Leader? Etc) and perhaps outside the church (a multitude of careers and professions) so that you can spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those you encounter in the way you live and the way you interact with others.