I’m just coming towards the end of having a month’s holiday. I don’t usually take four weeks off together but I agreed not to take any time off during my Superintendent’s sabbatical and I would go away on his return at the beginning of August.
I needed a break after a busy three months, and also I needed this time to think through where my eight communities have developed since I arrived to be among them in September 2020. Frighteningly, if the Circuit choose to let me go after five years, I’m half way through my appointment in February! It’s not been the easiest two years really with circumstances beyond my control blighting normal everyday pastoral care, but I begin year three with my folk with hope and a desire to find where each of my churches can move forward.
In these weeks, I’ve discovered three things we all need to hold on to when it gets hectic or we feel we cannot go on with this church thing.
First, the need to rest amidst our chaos. It’s been good for me to drop into Evensong again both in Ripon and this last week back in Peterborough where I learned to love it. The other Sunday afternoon, the reading in the cathedral in Ripon was some of Isaiah 30:
“For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: "In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." But you would not, And you said, "No, for we will flee on horses"-- Therefore you shall flee! And, "We will ride on swift horses"-- Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift! One thousand shall flee at the threat of one, At the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill.
Therefore the Lord will wait, that he may be gracious to you; And therefore he will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When he hears it, he will answer you.”
Maybe in our stresses and strains, we have forgotten the promises of God. We need rest in order to listen for and understand his will for us and hear his message for us again. We make the choice to go the other way, we flee on horses, and we wonder why we are so troubled! Yet God waits… and he will answer. It was very powerful to sit and listen to Canon Michael read Isaiah 30 very slowly. The joy of Anglican Evensong is that you just enter into it, it’s timeless, it doesn’t change, the story of God’s care for his people is recited as it has been for centuries, in churches and cathedrals up and down the country day after day. And yet, in it, there is something that’s always fresh that you’ve never heard before to put you back on track whatever you face. So for me, a resolution for the new Methodist year has to be to go to my local cathedral more and enter into disciplined returning and rest… and then wait for God to speak.
Second, maybe in these weeks, I’ve rediscovered that life needn’t be so complicated! We are all surrounded by stuff, personally, and in the news. This cost of living crisis will be catastrophic for so many people as we get nearer the winter. We all have worries. But maybe we need to remember our blessings in order to cope with our chaos. This regular recitation of our faith seems to me to be important. As Wesley once said “preach faith till you have it.”
It’s been good while away to revisit some friends in the Fens. A highlight for us was to visit George and Mollie and June, dear friends we got to know in the chapel at Tydd St Giles, where we chose to worship in our short time in the Fens Circuit. Mollie had her 92nd birthday last Friday and it was a privilege to be at her party at home with her family and friends. Mollie and George are two of the dearest people we’ve ever met. They’ve lived all their lives in the Fens, been married over sixty five years, their lives being about their small holding, an appreciation of Fen life, their family, and their chapel. They went to the chapel at Tydd Fen up the road, then when it closed, they went a bit further to Tydd St Giles.
I’m sad the chapel there never reopened after the pandemic and apart from being sent the Connexion at home service and Songs of Praise on the TV their church involvement after a lifetime of service is minimal. But they taught me again visiting them this last week twice, about contentment. They’ve got aches and pains and physical impairments and don’t go out much now but they are happy, happy with each other and happy with their lot, and they’d be amazed if they knew I was writing this next sentence - they are an inspiration to me. Sometimes, we need examples of rest and returning to remind us that blessedness comes when we remember what we have. Yes, there’s lots to moan about and lament is a vital part of spirituality, but we also need to remember what we have. And nurture it! There’s a prayer which goes - Lord, we thank you for the bright and glorious things of life, let us count them and remember them.
Then thirdly, a new vision of what church might be.
It was good to have a day last Sunday at Greenbelt, the Christian arts festival in Northamptonshire. I went to Greenbelt in 1985 and camped with my youth club and hated every minute of it and vowed I’d never return! We went back in 2019 and I loved it and this year we went just for the Sunday. Next year I hope to do the lot and yes, perhaps camp (!) as I really enjoyed it three years ago and this year. Why? Because it’s church without the pressure! You just rub along with thousands of others, sometimes having conversations with complete strangers about faith or about life or about laughter. The highlight for me this year was a Taize service at 9pm as night fell. The tent was very full so a lot of us were outside it but we could still hear. Over a thousand people who’d never met, joined in singing what we believe very simply. The most powerful bit for me was the ten minute silence in the service. There wasn’t a murmur. You could feel the peace. You were being church with folk next to you, in that moment, a gathered community of pilgrims led to be there together. It was a spirit filled thin moment. No one was thinking about a church building or how we keep going, it was God and his people simply gathered together… in returning and rest you shall be saved.
I’m very aware I return this weekend to three services on Sunday, and to many issues. They are mostly about how we might grow the church. I’m also very aware of the pressure on me to deliver - all my churches want to see me more, schools want me, care homes want me - we have one less member of staff and no more hours than before - and I’ve things at home as well as work that need my attention…
What’s the message for a new church year? Not more on our plate, but returning and rest…doing less will help us cope with all our demands. Where’s our prayer life? How do we carve out time to read? How do we wait? In returning and rest we shall we saved. I’ve needed Evensong, George and Mollie and Greenbelt this August to put me back together and remember good habits.
A fruitful and flourishing new church year depends on me - and all of us - keeping those habits going.
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