Here is the reflection I shared in the lunchtime Eucharist for St Martin-in-the-Fields:
In my previous parish we used to begin our Evening Communion services with a call to worship from the Wild Goose Resource Group that began with 'Gather us in' and went on to describe the diversity of all those gathered in. It connects with our Gospel reading today (John 6.35-40) in that Jesus said the will of God the Father, who sent him into the world, is that Jesus should lose nothing of all that God the Father has given to him and raise it up on the last day.
Earlier in this same chapter we have been given an example of this in the feeding of the 5,000 where, at the end of the meal, all the fragments of bread were gathered up so that nothing may be lost. Jesus then gives this story of meeting basic needs a cosmic or eschatological twist when he later says it ‘is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day’.
These words come in the middle of Jesus’ teaching about being the Bread of Life, which followed the feeding of the 5,000. When Jesus gave thanks over the bread, the word used is ‘eucharistesas’, the word which gives us ‘Eucharist’. Jesus shared the bread around in communion, then, when everyone was satisfied, he instructed his disciples to pick up the fragments using that same phrase, ‘so that nothing may be lost.’ Just as none of this ‘eucharisticized’ bread was lost after the feeding, so, because ‘Jesus is the bread of life, [those who] see and believe in him … receive eternal life [and] become a fragment which he will gather up on the last day.’ (John, Richard Burridge, BRF 1998)
This is the reason why Christ came, which he revealed both here and in the parables he told about things that were lost; the lost sheep and coin. The shepherd and woman in those two stories are exactly the same; because of their concern for the sheep and coin which are lost, they will not give up searching until these have been found. The sheep and the coin are loved and this love is revealed or proved through the search.
The point of those parables is for us to know that we are similarly loved by God because he also searches for us until we are found. That search is the story told in the Gospels; that Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he laid down his own life for us becoming obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross – in order that all might be safely gathered in as those who are gathered in rise with him and return to God. Christ went on that search to seek and save those who are lost and thereby to ensure that none shall be lost and all shall be safely gathered in. We are loved by God so much that his Son left all he had in heaven to become a human being and die to gather us in. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, searches for all souls with God’s attentive love, looking and listening, finding and carrying; carrying us home, like a sheep on the shoulders, from the cliff edges of our lives.
Those who are lost almost universally consider themselves worthless but these parables and this story of the fragments gathered up specifically deny that assumption. What is lost is actually the most precious thing or person of all; the person or thing for which everything else will be given up or set aside. What is lost and found, discarded but then gathered up, is us. We are the ones for whom Christ searches at the expense of all that he has, including, in the end, his own life. We are the most precious lost person for whom he searches, the discarded fragment that will not be overlooked and will not be wasted. We are precious, we are loved.
Christ came to gather up and reconcile to God all the disparate fragments of our lives that none should be lost, even through death. This is why he speaks of the kingdom of God as being a banquet to which all, especially all who have experienced exclusion, are invited. It is why he states that there is room for all – many rooms - in his Father’s house and that he goes there to prepare places for us. He also calls us to respond in this same way to others and to the resources he provides for us in the world he created.
As a result, we have, I think, a basis for saying with the poet Walt Whitman that: ‘Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, / No birth, identity, form — no object of the world, / Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing.’ And so we pray, ‘Gather us in, from corner or limelight, from mansion or campsite, from fears and obsession, from tears and depression, from untold excesses, from treasured successes, to meet, to eat, be given a seat, be joined to the vine, be offered new wine, become like the least, be found at the feast.’
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Scott - The Resurrection Of The Body.
Showing posts with label wild goose publications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wild goose publications. Show all posts
Wednesday, 29 April 2020
Sunday, 29 July 2018
Gather us in ...
Here's my sermon from this morning's Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:
Jesus takes the child’s five loaves of bread and two fish, blesses them by giving thanks for them, breaks them for distribution by his disciples to the crowd, then asks his disciples to gather up the broken fragments of the meal in baskets so that none is wasted (John 6. 1 - 21). Jesus has yet to institute the Eucharist at the Last Supper, but we recognise the basic elements of the Eucharist in this story; bread that is blessed and broken before distribution in order that those receiving the broken body of Jesus are gathered up and formed into the whole Body of Christ, which is the Church.
Could you look for a moment at the leaflet you have been given for ‘Something Worth Sharing’, our annual conference on disability and Church, as there you will see an image which has the same elements included? There in the centre is bread that is broken; a priest’s wafer broken into seven pieces each held by a diverse group of people. Are they taking the broken pieces of the host to themselves or are they reforming the host into a whole? We do not know from this image, which was the inspiration of Fiona MacMillan. The image encompasses both the breaking apart and the bringing together and that is significant as both feature in the pattern of the Eucharist which we see enacted here in the feeding of the 5,000.
At the beginning of June Carol Ashby spoke at our Bread for the World service on this passage, the feeding of the 5,000, reflecting particularly on the fact that Jesus told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ She said that, just as Jesus needed helpers and just as all the leftovers were gathered up and kept, so each one of us is needed here at St Martin's and in God's kingdom and nothing we offer or give is wasted or goes unused. I want to build on the inspiration that Carol provided by suggesting three further ways in which to think about the gathering up of fragments so that nothing may be lost. The first concerns the gathering up of food waste, second, the gathering up of the fragments of our lives and third, the gathering up that is the kingdom of God. All these relate to our being gathered up and gathered in today at this Eucharist.
So, my first reflection is very literal and concerns food waste. In 2016 the Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed ‘the Evening Standard’s campaign on tackling food poverty and waste,’ by saying that as ‘hunger is a complex, widespread and shocking blight on our country and more needs to be done to highlight this issue.’ In commenting on this statement, the paper noted that the Archbishop had good scriptural reasons to join the Food for London campaign. They noted that after ‘feeding the five thousand, Christ instructed the waste to be gathered up afterwards’ and said that it was in that spirit that the Archbishop had supported this campaign.
It was positive to see a major newspaper quoting scripture and doing so with some understanding. This contemporary reminder of the feeding of the five thousand and the 12 baskets of fragments that were gathered up afterwards give us one way of reflecting on Jesus’ words. In the UK we throw away edible food worth £470 per household each year and a third of perfectly edible vegetable crops are discarded from our fields due to supermarkets’ strict cosmetic standards. This wasteful food cycle has a big carbon footprint, making climate change worse.
Earlier this year, the Church of England’s General Synod backed a motion calling upon the Government to tackle food poverty and take steps to minimise waste throughout the supply chain. The motion outlined ways in which retailers and Church of England members can attempt to tackle food poverty in Britain. The motion called for the Government to consider steps to reduce waste in the food supply chain, urged parishes to help lobby retailers on food waste and stressed the need for church members to reduce waste in their own homes.
Following that literal application of Jesus’ teaching, we can also think in terms of a metaphorical understanding of the fragments as representing the disparate elements of our own lives. The catalyst for the feeding of the 5,000 was the offering up of his lunch by the young boy. His offering was offered to God, multiplied and the result was that there were 12 baskets of fragments to be gathered, so as not to be wasted. This suggests that our offering of ourselves to God provides a means by which what is disparate and fragmented within our lives can gathered up and unified.
That was certainly my experience in offering for ordained ministry. In my working life I had experience of partnership working to create employment opportunities, with a particular focus on assisting disabled people in finding and keeping work. In my church life I had involvement in setting up a church-based day care business and a detached youth work project reaching out to disaffected young people. In my personal life I was writing and painting and finding a limited range of opportunities to share my creative work.
I realised, as I went through the selection process for ordination and then my ministerial training, that ordained ministry could hold and utilise all these disparate experiences and, as a result, could provide a frame within which all these disparate fragments of my life could be gathered up, held together and unified. And so it has proved, as each context for my ministry to date has provided unique opportunities to make connections between faith, work, art and social action through partnerships and projects. That has, of course, never been more so than here where our mission model and HeartEdge, our growing ecumenical network of churches, integrates congregation, culture, commerce and compassion.
Mission and ministry in, from and outside the church provides a framework, forum or context in which all of our skills, experiences, interests and failures can be gathered up, integrated and used for God’s glory and in God’s service. My personal experience of this reality has been in relation to ordained ministry but, the model of mission that we use here is clear that this gathering up of all that we offer applies to us all, whether lay or ordained.
Later in John 6, Jesus gives a cosmic or eschatological twist to this phrase we are considering when he says it ‘is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day’ (John 6. 37 – 40). These words come in the middle of Jesus’ teaching about being the Bread of Life which followed the feeding of the 5,000. When Jesus gave thanks over the bread, the word used is ‘eucharistesas’, the word which gives us ‘Eucharist’. Jesus shared the bread around in communion, then, when everyone was satisfied, he instructed his disciples to pick up the fragments using that same phrase, ‘so that nothing may be lost.’ Just as none of this ‘eucharisticized’ bread was lost after the feeding, so, because ‘Jesus is the bread of life, [those who] see and believe in him … receive eternal life [and] become a fragment which he will gather up on the last day.’ (John, Richard Burridge, BRF 1998)
This is the reason why Christ came, which he revealed both here and in the parables he told about things that were lost; the lost sheep and coin (Luke 15. 1 - 10). The shepherd and woman in those two stories are exactly the same; because of their concern for the sheep and coin which are lost, they will not give up searching until these have been found. The sheep and the coin are loved and this love is revealed or proved through the search.
The point of those parables is for us to know that we are similarly loved by God because he also searches for us until we are found. That search is the story told in the Gospels; that Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he laid down his own life for us becoming obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross – in order that all might be safely gathered in as those who are gathered in rise with him and return to God. Christ went on that search to seek and save those who are lost and thereby to ensure that none shall be lost and all shall be safely gathered in.
Those who are lost almost universally consider themselves worthless but these parables and this story of the fragments gathered up specifically deny that assumption. What is lost is actually the most precious thing or person of all; the person or thing for which everything else will be given up or set aside. What is lost and found, discarded but then gathered up, is us. We are the ones for whom Christ searches at the expense of all that he has, including, in the end, his own life. We are the most precious lost person for whom he searches, the discarded fragment that will not be overlooked and will not be wasted. We are precious, we are loved. As a result, we have a basis for saying with the poet Walt Whitman that: ‘Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, / No birth, identity, form — no object of the world, / Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing.’
And so we can pray, in words from a call to worship by the Wild Goose Resource Group that we used regularly in my previous parish: ‘Gather us in, the lost and lonely, the broken and breaking, the tired and aching who long for the nourishment found at your feast. Gather us in, the done and the doubting, the wishing and wondering, the puzzled and pondering who long for the company found at your feast. Gather us in, the proud and pretentious, the sure and superior, the never inferior, who long for the levelling found at your feast. Gather us in, the bright and the bustling, the stirrers, the shakers, the kind laughter makers who long for the deeper joys found at your feast. Gather us in, from corner or limelight, from mansion or campsite, from fears and obsession, from tears and depression, from untold excesses, from treasured successes, to meet, to eat, be given a seat, be joined to the vine, be offered new wine, become like the least, be found at the feast. Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marty Haugen - Gather Us In.
Jesus takes the child’s five loaves of bread and two fish, blesses them by giving thanks for them, breaks them for distribution by his disciples to the crowd, then asks his disciples to gather up the broken fragments of the meal in baskets so that none is wasted (John 6. 1 - 21). Jesus has yet to institute the Eucharist at the Last Supper, but we recognise the basic elements of the Eucharist in this story; bread that is blessed and broken before distribution in order that those receiving the broken body of Jesus are gathered up and formed into the whole Body of Christ, which is the Church.
Could you look for a moment at the leaflet you have been given for ‘Something Worth Sharing’, our annual conference on disability and Church, as there you will see an image which has the same elements included? There in the centre is bread that is broken; a priest’s wafer broken into seven pieces each held by a diverse group of people. Are they taking the broken pieces of the host to themselves or are they reforming the host into a whole? We do not know from this image, which was the inspiration of Fiona MacMillan. The image encompasses both the breaking apart and the bringing together and that is significant as both feature in the pattern of the Eucharist which we see enacted here in the feeding of the 5,000.
At the beginning of June Carol Ashby spoke at our Bread for the World service on this passage, the feeding of the 5,000, reflecting particularly on the fact that Jesus told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ She said that, just as Jesus needed helpers and just as all the leftovers were gathered up and kept, so each one of us is needed here at St Martin's and in God's kingdom and nothing we offer or give is wasted or goes unused. I want to build on the inspiration that Carol provided by suggesting three further ways in which to think about the gathering up of fragments so that nothing may be lost. The first concerns the gathering up of food waste, second, the gathering up of the fragments of our lives and third, the gathering up that is the kingdom of God. All these relate to our being gathered up and gathered in today at this Eucharist.
So, my first reflection is very literal and concerns food waste. In 2016 the Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed ‘the Evening Standard’s campaign on tackling food poverty and waste,’ by saying that as ‘hunger is a complex, widespread and shocking blight on our country and more needs to be done to highlight this issue.’ In commenting on this statement, the paper noted that the Archbishop had good scriptural reasons to join the Food for London campaign. They noted that after ‘feeding the five thousand, Christ instructed the waste to be gathered up afterwards’ and said that it was in that spirit that the Archbishop had supported this campaign.
It was positive to see a major newspaper quoting scripture and doing so with some understanding. This contemporary reminder of the feeding of the five thousand and the 12 baskets of fragments that were gathered up afterwards give us one way of reflecting on Jesus’ words. In the UK we throw away edible food worth £470 per household each year and a third of perfectly edible vegetable crops are discarded from our fields due to supermarkets’ strict cosmetic standards. This wasteful food cycle has a big carbon footprint, making climate change worse.
Earlier this year, the Church of England’s General Synod backed a motion calling upon the Government to tackle food poverty and take steps to minimise waste throughout the supply chain. The motion outlined ways in which retailers and Church of England members can attempt to tackle food poverty in Britain. The motion called for the Government to consider steps to reduce waste in the food supply chain, urged parishes to help lobby retailers on food waste and stressed the need for church members to reduce waste in their own homes.
Following that literal application of Jesus’ teaching, we can also think in terms of a metaphorical understanding of the fragments as representing the disparate elements of our own lives. The catalyst for the feeding of the 5,000 was the offering up of his lunch by the young boy. His offering was offered to God, multiplied and the result was that there were 12 baskets of fragments to be gathered, so as not to be wasted. This suggests that our offering of ourselves to God provides a means by which what is disparate and fragmented within our lives can gathered up and unified.
That was certainly my experience in offering for ordained ministry. In my working life I had experience of partnership working to create employment opportunities, with a particular focus on assisting disabled people in finding and keeping work. In my church life I had involvement in setting up a church-based day care business and a detached youth work project reaching out to disaffected young people. In my personal life I was writing and painting and finding a limited range of opportunities to share my creative work.
I realised, as I went through the selection process for ordination and then my ministerial training, that ordained ministry could hold and utilise all these disparate experiences and, as a result, could provide a frame within which all these disparate fragments of my life could be gathered up, held together and unified. And so it has proved, as each context for my ministry to date has provided unique opportunities to make connections between faith, work, art and social action through partnerships and projects. That has, of course, never been more so than here where our mission model and HeartEdge, our growing ecumenical network of churches, integrates congregation, culture, commerce and compassion.
Mission and ministry in, from and outside the church provides a framework, forum or context in which all of our skills, experiences, interests and failures can be gathered up, integrated and used for God’s glory and in God’s service. My personal experience of this reality has been in relation to ordained ministry but, the model of mission that we use here is clear that this gathering up of all that we offer applies to us all, whether lay or ordained.
Later in John 6, Jesus gives a cosmic or eschatological twist to this phrase we are considering when he says it ‘is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day’ (John 6. 37 – 40). These words come in the middle of Jesus’ teaching about being the Bread of Life which followed the feeding of the 5,000. When Jesus gave thanks over the bread, the word used is ‘eucharistesas’, the word which gives us ‘Eucharist’. Jesus shared the bread around in communion, then, when everyone was satisfied, he instructed his disciples to pick up the fragments using that same phrase, ‘so that nothing may be lost.’ Just as none of this ‘eucharisticized’ bread was lost after the feeding, so, because ‘Jesus is the bread of life, [those who] see and believe in him … receive eternal life [and] become a fragment which he will gather up on the last day.’ (John, Richard Burridge, BRF 1998)
This is the reason why Christ came, which he revealed both here and in the parables he told about things that were lost; the lost sheep and coin (Luke 15. 1 - 10). The shepherd and woman in those two stories are exactly the same; because of their concern for the sheep and coin which are lost, they will not give up searching until these have been found. The sheep and the coin are loved and this love is revealed or proved through the search.
The point of those parables is for us to know that we are similarly loved by God because he also searches for us until we are found. That search is the story told in the Gospels; that Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he laid down his own life for us becoming obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross – in order that all might be safely gathered in as those who are gathered in rise with him and return to God. Christ went on that search to seek and save those who are lost and thereby to ensure that none shall be lost and all shall be safely gathered in.
Those who are lost almost universally consider themselves worthless but these parables and this story of the fragments gathered up specifically deny that assumption. What is lost is actually the most precious thing or person of all; the person or thing for which everything else will be given up or set aside. What is lost and found, discarded but then gathered up, is us. We are the ones for whom Christ searches at the expense of all that he has, including, in the end, his own life. We are the most precious lost person for whom he searches, the discarded fragment that will not be overlooked and will not be wasted. We are precious, we are loved. As a result, we have a basis for saying with the poet Walt Whitman that: ‘Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, / No birth, identity, form — no object of the world, / Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing.’
And so we can pray, in words from a call to worship by the Wild Goose Resource Group that we used regularly in my previous parish: ‘Gather us in, the lost and lonely, the broken and breaking, the tired and aching who long for the nourishment found at your feast. Gather us in, the done and the doubting, the wishing and wondering, the puzzled and pondering who long for the company found at your feast. Gather us in, the proud and pretentious, the sure and superior, the never inferior, who long for the levelling found at your feast. Gather us in, the bright and the bustling, the stirrers, the shakers, the kind laughter makers who long for the deeper joys found at your feast. Gather us in, from corner or limelight, from mansion or campsite, from fears and obsession, from tears and depression, from untold excesses, from treasured successes, to meet, to eat, be given a seat, be joined to the vine, be offered new wine, become like the least, be found at the feast. Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marty Haugen - Gather Us In.
Saturday, 9 January 2016
Past Life - Present Mission (4)
Chapter 3: Christian life and mission in the light of Celtic Christianity
St Edmunds Tyseley
Tyseley is a large geographical area in East Birmingham, 2½ miles from the city centre, known as ‘the forgotten triangle’. It is an older working-class area of mixed residential and industrial land use with high proportions of minority ethnic people together with a rapidly increasing young family population with a high birth rate. Social needs in Tyseley included high levels of unemployment, large numbers of elder people and lone parents, a lack of youth facilities, congested roads and heavy industrial traffic, a polluted atmosphere, high levels of illness, and few open or play spaces. On my arrival at St Edmunds in 1989, a social worker told me:
“The thing you will soon discover about Tyseley people is that they have no hope. If they are middle-aged and unemployed they will never be employed again. What they have got in life now, won’t really be added to before they eventually die.”
The Church buildings and site were in need of refurbishment although the facilities were used by the community and the Church members viewed themselves as being an extended Christian family committed to being a church for their community. Change occurred in our situation as major building works were financed and completed and through an experimental Neighbourhood Project, StEdicare – Tyseley. The building works and StEdicare created an environment where, by the mid 1990s, we were motivated to search for a fresh and relevant set of Christian mission principles that applied both to our own lifestyle and were relevant to the local community. The use of Celtic materials in worship and study were a key part of developing this fresh approach.
Using the Biblical themes
Mitton’s biblical themes were used by three housegroups and several individuals (45 starters, 40 completers) as a set of notes with the following format:
1. Consider an historical story about one or more of the Celtic Saints which illustrates each Biblical theme.
2. Interpret the story and its theme and apply it to the Church of today.
3. Read a relevant Bible Passage for each theme.
4. Discuss questions arising from the text.
5. Conclude with prayer.
When each group had finished studying the material I visited them and discussed their response. Behind my approach lay the question: “Is it possible for an ancient form of indigenous Christianity to act as an important guide line for Christians living and mission in a deprived UPA 1500 years later?”
Responses
Category 1 responses: This included the majority of participants (a total of 32 out of 40), most of whom were long-term residents of Tyseley. As a group, Category 1 people were untroubled and perhaps unaware that there could be a problem in accepting, that an ancient, indigenous, Christian approach could be relevant to their own spiritual growth and awareness. In general they set aside what one might call the structural and historic differences between rural, agrarian people and themselves as urban dwellers immersed in the culture of Tyseley and St. Edmund’s Church. They were prepared to consider what the biblical theme itself offered. As a part of that, they accepted themes and aspects of themes that affirmed existing Christian life-style, and any challenge toward new ways for them, to live out that theme.
Category 1 people coped with the ‘Woven Cord’ programme notes through the strength of the story approach, and the sense of concreteness it brought to their discussions. The success and centrality of the story approach with its visual and descriptive imagery should not be lost sight of. Neither should the use of biographical content and illustrative testimony by group members, which became a positive part of their own involvement with the notes. The notes were totally focussed on examples of Celtic Christian principles and practices. So this was what participants accepted and applied to their lives. Equally themes which were not accepted reflect positive decisions as these emerged from the exploratory process they had practised.
People in this first category were warmed by stories of Celtic Christians and connected with them at a feeling level.
Category 2 responses: These people were a minority (8) of participants in the ‘Woven Cord’ programme. Category 2 people found the issue of responding to cultural knowledge and life style from an ancient Christian people somewhat difficult. They perceived the Celtic way to be ‘romantic’ and rural and, therefore, irrelevant. Their reasoning was academic and the question arose as to whether the use of ‘non-academic’ faculties such as intuition, story and art was viewed as a threat.
This also raised the question, are well-educated Christians who occupy a high social class but choose to live in or near a UPA and worship within it, less motivated to consider alternative Christian life-styles than the ones they currently live out? Whilst this is merely a possibility it could be relevant to the way mission was planned and structured in UPA parishes. After a lifetime’s involvement in working class areas, I am of the view that well-educated, professional people are needed to worship and live in UPAs. They have lots of gifts to offer, but the essential question is how effectively they relate to Christian living and life-style of local people who are long-term residents. In this instance the two categories seemed to be within two different worlds.
I asked myself the question, why were the Category 2 people so unaccepting of the Celtic themes? Various possibilities seemed relevant: What was their commitment to living in a UPA, was it for ‘Romantic’ reasons? Was their response related to the kind of worldview they implicitly accepted, which (perhaps) made receptivity to the past difficult? What theological position had they adopted with respect to tradition? Had they thought through the question of ancient text (the Bible) or story (the Celtic) in relation to contemporary life? Did they assume the Biblical text transcends the historical and cultural in a way which other texts do not?
Themes that resonated
The following are themes that particularly resonated with the Category 1 participants. They are themes that were transposed directly into their approach to Christian living, and are not presented in any particular order:
In the main these were as follows:
Key factors
The key factors which made these themes of significant meaning were:
Implications for developing future programmes
Some excellent material has surfaced in the last few years, that greatly improves the position. This comes, for example, from the Rev. Martin Wallace who initially published a series of low cost, samizdat publications based on Celtic style talks given at St. Peter’s Chapel, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex. This was the Church St. Cedd built in 654 AD. Wallace’s basic value in writing such books was to “combine the lives of the Saints together with radical lessons for today.” These were followed in 1998 by Wallace’s “The Celtic Resource Book”. This excellent book uses the same type of worship resource material we used at St. Edmund’s, which included material from David Adam, the Carmina Gadelica, Wild Goose Publications (Iona), the Northumbrian Community and the like. Content is divided into sections that include: Liturgies; Prayers; Lessons from the Saints; Practical Meditation; Artistic Activities; and Going on Pilgrimage Today together with exploratory ideas on different ways of using the Resource book. Any future programmes about Celtic Christianity among UPA people would be helped by making use of Wallace’s ability to relate Celtic Spirituality into the context of modern urban living, particularly that of ‘deprived’ communities.
Learning patterns
The following were important to the way the Study developed:
David Fitzgerald & Dave Bainbridge - I Arise Today.
St Edmunds Tyseley
Tyseley is a large geographical area in East Birmingham, 2½ miles from the city centre, known as ‘the forgotten triangle’. It is an older working-class area of mixed residential and industrial land use with high proportions of minority ethnic people together with a rapidly increasing young family population with a high birth rate. Social needs in Tyseley included high levels of unemployment, large numbers of elder people and lone parents, a lack of youth facilities, congested roads and heavy industrial traffic, a polluted atmosphere, high levels of illness, and few open or play spaces. On my arrival at St Edmunds in 1989, a social worker told me:
“The thing you will soon discover about Tyseley people is that they have no hope. If they are middle-aged and unemployed they will never be employed again. What they have got in life now, won’t really be added to before they eventually die.”
The Church buildings and site were in need of refurbishment although the facilities were used by the community and the Church members viewed themselves as being an extended Christian family committed to being a church for their community. Change occurred in our situation as major building works were financed and completed and through an experimental Neighbourhood Project, StEdicare – Tyseley. The building works and StEdicare created an environment where, by the mid 1990s, we were motivated to search for a fresh and relevant set of Christian mission principles that applied both to our own lifestyle and were relevant to the local community. The use of Celtic materials in worship and study were a key part of developing this fresh approach.
Using the Biblical themes
Mitton’s biblical themes were used by three housegroups and several individuals (45 starters, 40 completers) as a set of notes with the following format:
1. Consider an historical story about one or more of the Celtic Saints which illustrates each Biblical theme.
2. Interpret the story and its theme and apply it to the Church of today.
3. Read a relevant Bible Passage for each theme.
4. Discuss questions arising from the text.
5. Conclude with prayer.
When each group had finished studying the material I visited them and discussed their response. Behind my approach lay the question: “Is it possible for an ancient form of indigenous Christianity to act as an important guide line for Christians living and mission in a deprived UPA 1500 years later?”
Responses
Category 1 responses: This included the majority of participants (a total of 32 out of 40), most of whom were long-term residents of Tyseley. As a group, Category 1 people were untroubled and perhaps unaware that there could be a problem in accepting, that an ancient, indigenous, Christian approach could be relevant to their own spiritual growth and awareness. In general they set aside what one might call the structural and historic differences between rural, agrarian people and themselves as urban dwellers immersed in the culture of Tyseley and St. Edmund’s Church. They were prepared to consider what the biblical theme itself offered. As a part of that, they accepted themes and aspects of themes that affirmed existing Christian life-style, and any challenge toward new ways for them, to live out that theme.
Category 1 people coped with the ‘Woven Cord’ programme notes through the strength of the story approach, and the sense of concreteness it brought to their discussions. The success and centrality of the story approach with its visual and descriptive imagery should not be lost sight of. Neither should the use of biographical content and illustrative testimony by group members, which became a positive part of their own involvement with the notes. The notes were totally focussed on examples of Celtic Christian principles and practices. So this was what participants accepted and applied to their lives. Equally themes which were not accepted reflect positive decisions as these emerged from the exploratory process they had practised.
People in this first category were warmed by stories of Celtic Christians and connected with them at a feeling level.
Category 2 responses: These people were a minority (8) of participants in the ‘Woven Cord’ programme. Category 2 people found the issue of responding to cultural knowledge and life style from an ancient Christian people somewhat difficult. They perceived the Celtic way to be ‘romantic’ and rural and, therefore, irrelevant. Their reasoning was academic and the question arose as to whether the use of ‘non-academic’ faculties such as intuition, story and art was viewed as a threat.
This also raised the question, are well-educated Christians who occupy a high social class but choose to live in or near a UPA and worship within it, less motivated to consider alternative Christian life-styles than the ones they currently live out? Whilst this is merely a possibility it could be relevant to the way mission was planned and structured in UPA parishes. After a lifetime’s involvement in working class areas, I am of the view that well-educated, professional people are needed to worship and live in UPAs. They have lots of gifts to offer, but the essential question is how effectively they relate to Christian living and life-style of local people who are long-term residents. In this instance the two categories seemed to be within two different worlds.
I asked myself the question, why were the Category 2 people so unaccepting of the Celtic themes? Various possibilities seemed relevant: What was their commitment to living in a UPA, was it for ‘Romantic’ reasons? Was their response related to the kind of worldview they implicitly accepted, which (perhaps) made receptivity to the past difficult? What theological position had they adopted with respect to tradition? Had they thought through the question of ancient text (the Bible) or story (the Celtic) in relation to contemporary life? Did they assume the Biblical text transcends the historical and cultural in a way which other texts do not?
Themes that resonated
The following are themes that particularly resonated with the Category 1 participants. They are themes that were transposed directly into their approach to Christian living, and are not presented in any particular order:
- The importance of authenticity, simplicity of life-style and holiness within daily Christian living.
- The centrality of the Bible and the commitment to living out its teaching in a direct manner.
- The acceptance of the presence of illness, death and dying and the significance of faith in relation to that awareness. ‘Life’ beyond the grave.
- The sense of unity with the world of creation.
- The reality of spiritual powers, including those of evil, and the fact of spiritual battle.
- The place, work and gifts of the Holy Spirit...Discernment, prophecy and healing.
- Acceptance of the ministry of women, and the place of children within the Christian setting.
- The importance of prayer in the daily life and worship of Christians.
- The possibility of experiencing peace, quietness of spirit and hope in the living out of faith.
- The sense of freedom in Christian living and worship.
- The awareness of Christian belonging and sharing faith with others.
In the main these were as follows:
- Celibacy seemed to be regarded as irrelevant to their lives. In terms of gender, their view and assumption was the acceptance of heterosexual family life as being the norm.
- Asceticism was regarded as strange and irrelevant. They were aware of the challenge toward discipleship but now saw that in terms of direct Christian living within their daily lives. Asceticism was not applicable to their view of growing in holiness.
- Poverty was a matter most knew something about. For them it had not involved choice. As a factor that was chosen as part of a Celt’s life of faith, it did not appeal to participants in the ‘Woven Cord’ programme.
- Christian Monastic Community was ignored as significant to their lives. In general the response of participants was biased towards direct examples of Christian living as demonstrated in the ‘story’ approach. This particular theme illustrated their unreadiness to approach issues from the basis of Institutional life.
- Peregrinatio was discussed with interest and felt to be Biblical. We have already established that with most themes that resonated, they were then applied directly to people’s lives, especially any scriptural teaching. The fact this theme did not resonate related to the lack of feasibility for them to practice peregrinatio i.e. it was a Celtic Christian practice that did not transpose into their social structure. The fact it did not resonate, thereby showed the critical ability of Category 1 participants to show that not everything about Celtic Christianity was suitable for them.
Key factors
The key factors which made these themes of significant meaning were:
- People’s identity and self-image: Many UPA Christian people do not have a strong identity or confident self-image in relation to the wider society. They are not confident about many roles. Roles that for example, most middle-class people are automatically prepared for by family and life experience. In the Christian context of St. Edmund Tyseley that included such common roles as: becoming a Sunday School Teacher; taking a Bible reading in a Church Service; or joining a visiting team. All of the themes that resonated had this linking strength. Acceptance of the themes aided that person’s identity and self-image as a Christian believer.
- Direct applicability to everyday Christian life as a UPA person: The social context for the target group of Tyseley residents was one of ‘deprivation’ and marginalisation from affluent Britain. Within the Church context of St. Edmund’s there had been an absence of ‘hope’. The movement into using Celtic Christian principles and practices as a set of guide lines for spiritual growth within the Church reinforced in the mid 1990’s, a movement away from this no hope perception for the individual and the Church. As the ‘Woven Cord’ programme progressed there was an increasing awareness of the presence of God, a God who was at the centre of the new openness to directly apply the practice of Celtic spiritual material into daily living. The story of the way Celtic Christians saw and lived out their faith became relevant and accessible to participants. The manner in which this happened, suggested that Category 1 participant’s perception of renewed Christian living did not depend on institutional or social class definitions of the correct type of image or behaviour. One of the more significant changes in absorbing Celtic Christian practice, was the move away from coming to Church “to get your batteries charged” – to viewing Christian living as a daily affair involving prayer, worship and service to others. The themes that resonated had this “direct applicability” element to the participant’s everyday Christian life as a UPA person.
- Need for a sense of belonging and to find their Christian roots: Within UPAs’ there is usually found a locality-based, neighbourhood sense of community. Social networks are often locally based also. This, together with family and friendship networks, link strongly into a person’s identity and self-image. Tyseley has been very much a white community with a great emphasis on extended families. That structure is now in rapid change into a multi-ethnic community, surrounded by the influence of contemporary social values and rapid social change. This means there are areas of new vulnerability within the local neighbourhood, within family, Church life and for the individual. The whole structure of belonging and the sense of roots has been dislocated through rapid social change. It is hardly surprising that for Christian UPA believers, anything that helps their sense of belonging and discovery of significant roots is welcomed. This programme and its Celtic Christian backcloth together with the themes that resonated, strengthened the participants sense of belonging to each other and to God through Christ. Their sense of dignity and worth as a child of God gained new roots through their identity with Celtic Christians. A significant factor in this was that their faith was no longer to be so determined by their UPA human context or definitions about them stemming from social class attitudes and behaviour.
Implications for developing future programmes
Some excellent material has surfaced in the last few years, that greatly improves the position. This comes, for example, from the Rev. Martin Wallace who initially published a series of low cost, samizdat publications based on Celtic style talks given at St. Peter’s Chapel, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex. This was the Church St. Cedd built in 654 AD. Wallace’s basic value in writing such books was to “combine the lives of the Saints together with radical lessons for today.” These were followed in 1998 by Wallace’s “The Celtic Resource Book”. This excellent book uses the same type of worship resource material we used at St. Edmund’s, which included material from David Adam, the Carmina Gadelica, Wild Goose Publications (Iona), the Northumbrian Community and the like. Content is divided into sections that include: Liturgies; Prayers; Lessons from the Saints; Practical Meditation; Artistic Activities; and Going on Pilgrimage Today together with exploratory ideas on different ways of using the Resource book. Any future programmes about Celtic Christianity among UPA people would be helped by making use of Wallace’s ability to relate Celtic Spirituality into the context of modern urban living, particularly that of ‘deprived’ communities.
Learning patterns
The following were important to the way the Study developed:
- Celtic Christian prayers, poems and meditations used within Church worship from 1994.
- A series of sermons during 1996 that transposed Celtic approaches into life, living, and Christian faith within a UPA context.
- The use of everyday objects as visual aids or as a sacramental symbol. For example: offering the congregation, after a sermon about Columba’s life and ministry, a small pebble from the beach on Iona where he landed. It was offered on condition that if accepted, the pebble would be used as a symbol for that person of a commitment to share the Good News about Jesus with others. Another image used was that of the ‘Open Gate,’ signifying movement in our Christian pilgrimage individually and as a Church.
- A series of visions that occurred at the time of a PCC Away Day in 1996 and their challenge about responding to the Spirit’s work in rebuilding Church relationships.
David Fitzgerald & Dave Bainbridge - I Arise Today.
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