This week I’ve been thinking about how sacred space should be hospitable and safe for everyone. Are we radically inclusive and welcoming or do we keep the needy out? Are our doors really open to all? After all, who is in or out is not a decision for the church to make. My contemporary spiritual heroine Nadia Bolz-Weber writing about her house for saints and sinners says describing any church as a tent that “it is not the church’s tent, it is God’s tent.”
Last Sunday morning, we went to the service at Mary Magdalen’s Church in Ripon, I guess the nearest to our manse. It was originally founded as a hospital around the year 1115 near a crossing of the river Ure at the northern edge of the city. Archbishop Thurston provided funds for a priest to say mass in the hospital chapel and sisters to give food, clothing and shelter to any leper born or living in “Ripshire.” The hospital was instructed to give food and a bed for the night to lepers from outside of Ripon. It also gave alms to the poor and cared for blind priests within the Liberty of Ripon. Today it is known as the leper chapel and there’s a low window where the lepers would watch the mass from outside.
Eventually the leper house was closed through lack of inmates and turned into almshouses, where people still live today. The Victorians had built a new church across the road, and the original building was left to decay. It was used by a local farmer as a pig sty. Thankfully it was restored and now has a congregation meeting in it every Sunday.
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” I imagined the lepers and the desperate crossing the river to the north seeking sanctuary finding it in this place. I needed sanctuary in worship and I found it in 1662 words and simple, unfussy, quiet worship. It was also good to receive communion. I kept thinking of Muse’s banging track “Uprising”:
“They will not force us, they will stop degrading us, they will not control us, we will be victorious.”
After the service the kettle went on and we enjoyed the company of the folk there, a lot of retired priests and nuns! I found a piece of heaven on earth in this little place, alive and supportive and we will be back there before this sabbatical ends. Maybe all you need to find space is the 1662 communion service!
We’d decided on Sunday evening to drive an hour to Sunderland as I’d spotted a compline at the ancient church of St Peter at Monkwearmouth, the church was associated with Bede and his contemporary, Benedict Biscop. If you are going to invite people into sacred space, make sure your website is up to date! We arrived to find the church in darkness and locked!! A pity. We got space with a curry in South Shields instead but it was a lost evening really.
Tuesday was a glorious sunny day to begin my second sabbatical month - and the start of Spring. I was told last week about Malham Methodist Chapel. Malham Chapel is open every day between 10am and 6pm. The front door locks automatically at 6pm. The village was full of walkers and visitors on a sunny day so there was clearly a plan to play the tourist card. The chapel had got down to two members. It has now been refurbished as a multi use space.
Inside I found a table with knitted angels on and visitors are encouraged to take one away and write in a visitors book where it is going. There were scenes from the area painted on the floor. There was a prayer tree and displays about the history of the chapel and of wider Methodism and there were leaflets about Christianity available and most helpfully a series of reflections to use exploring the beauty of Malhamdale, reminding the user of God the creator. They now have two Sunday services a month and a couple of village drop ins and the space is advertised as good for hiring for quiet days.
Here was a example of sacred space used differently. I would have done the displays a bit neater maybe but I was inspired by what they’d done. I hope they get people visiting them. How we use our rural spaces for everyone and don’t leave them locked up apart from an hour a week or even every two weeks is something I intend to explore with my folk. Get your churches open!!
My day on Wednesday was again disrupted by wet weather so I cried off chaplaincy duty at Fountains Abbey. I spent an hour in Ripon Cathedral. The welcoming lady asked me if it was my first visit. It was good she was friendly. First impressions matter. I was there for 3pm to see what prayers on the hour were like. We prayed for Ukraine and for peace. The duty chaplain, well into his 80’s, came and chatted to me after the prayers. He does two days a month on duty. I was quite shocked when he looked at the candle lit for the people of Ukraine and to encourage prayer, and he asked me “what do you think of this?” gesticulating at the candle, then said “I don’t think it does much good!”
Oh dear!
Wednesday was, of course, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. We went to the service at Holy Trinity in Ripon, the more conservative expression of Anglicanism in the city. The service was fine but there was not enough misery for me!! Ash Wednesday is about penitence for me. But it was good to be there. Holy Trinity is a lively community and has a fabulous space beautifully refurbished.
The rest of this week has seen the situation in Ukraine and Russia worsen. The images of people trying to escape are unbearable to watch. They are crying out for sanctuary. There are stories emerging of those with faith crying out the words of Psalm 31. We are not in a place where we need to cry for life itself to be saved. We have problems and we get stressed but our life is not in danger. I end this week constantly thinking about ordinary people caught up in a horror I cannot even imagine.
Maybe we all need a bit of escapism and solace in a complicated life. We aren’t in Ukraine or Russia or the countries trying to house refugees, but we all find life difficult and need time out. Some people find that in church or ancient holy sites, others in other places that become a religion or hope to them. We went into the Lake District on Saturday for Lis’s birthday. We saw a lot of walkers round Derwentwater. Maybe being out in the sun on a nice spring day for them was sacred space.
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