A Flight of Fancy for Friday - Epiphany 2024

 

London Skyline (A little overcast). 2012

(Photo krb)

Over the past few months I have, on occasion, found myself wondering if I had my time over again would I have sought to be ordained first as a deacon and then as a priest in the Anglican Church, 34 and 32 years ago respectively. The answer is always, of course I would have! It is a 'calling' over which I think I had very little control and I have never regretted it for a moment. There have been many times in which I have realized that the life of a priest and his/her family has not been easy - in fact, if I am honest, that has been the reality most of the time for me. But it has been and continues to be a privilege to travel the journey with an amazing variety of people and I am thankful for that.

But I do feel great concern for all of those who at this moment are struggling with their life in the institutional church and there are many. They are clergy, people who work for the church in various capacities and particularly members of congregations. How the church works - or perhaps doesn't - is changing rapidly. The expectations and level of commitment put on both clergy and people has increased enormously as the church has become both more clergy focused and more conformist in its thinking.  Participation in the life of the church is less about a shared journey toward truth and meaning and more about conforming to particular set of doctrines and a conservative theological and political agenda. 

This is a very large subject brought to mind by beginning to read Brian McLaren's book 'Do I Stay Christian', - not the greatest title, I think, but it is provocative. I would be interested in sharing my reflections on the book and the important issues it raises with any who have read it or are beginning to read it, or with any for whom this is an important issue. Please get in touch by email: krbatterham@gmail.com

Every blessing as you continue on your journey. May God bless you and be your companion on the way. Please get in touch with me any time to say g'day. 

Peace, justice and blessings to all.

A Thought for Thursday - Epiphany 2024

 

Lago Roca, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina 2015

(Photo krb)

One of the greatest pleasures of 2023 was reading 'A Century of Poetry' by one of the outstanding leaders of the Anglican Communion, Rowan Williams, poet, priest and Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. In that role he had a huge influence of Anglican spirituality throughout the world.  He anchored the unique spirituality of Anglicanism as something to hold onto as the institutional church collapsed from the weight of division and corruption. Those divisions still remain unresolved through the impact of a closed minded politically right wing conservative schismatic group which holds sway in many dioceses in Australia and elsewhere. This leaves little room for the more progressive minded Christian community. 

In this context it has been Williams' writings that have opened up for us new ways of thinking about what it is to be Christian in the 21st century.

In response to the poem, 'Neither' by the great Welsh poet and priest, R S Thomas Williams writes 'God is independent of the Big Bang, yet God is equally within the repeating patterns of the physical world. We are created so as to ask unanswerable questions; we catch a fleeting sight of the reality but it brings us to the limits of what we can say.'

Every blessing as you continue on your journey. May God bless you and be your companion on the way. Please get in touch with me at any time to say g'day.

Peace, justice and blessings to all.

 

A Word for Wednesday - Epiphany 2024

 

The River Cam, Cambridge, England 2019

(Photo krb)

A few years ago, our arrival in London happened to coincide with an event at Southwark Cathedral. The event was a 'Come and Sing' organized by the Friends of Southwark Cathedral and the Royal School of Church Music. We thought that because we would be jet lagged (which we were) we would sit quietly in the audience and enjoy the music. However, one way and another we found ourselves sitting in our appropriate places in the choir music in hand. I think there was probably meant to be a rehearsal, but it seemed as though that hadn't happened. 

When I got my first look at the music, I was very relieved to discover that I knew all of the anthems quite well and was therefore unlikely to embarrass myself. In the few minutes before the music began, I was wondering how it would go. Of course, the English Church coral tradition is lengthy and outstanding, but this was a group of well over 200 singers who had not sung together before. The first piece, "I was Glad," an Anthem by Hubert Parry, begins with 3 chords sung loud (f) and then builds even louder (ff). Those first 3 chords were sung with such perfection and confidence I immediately thought 'this is going to be good', and it was.

As the singing progressed, I felt a great sense of this group of hundreds of people growing together around a single purpose of making good quality music. It was like over that 90-minute period we became a community. It was not the building wonderous though it is or the acoustics which were magnificent. It was a that group of strangers came together without regard for social class, or status or wealth or power and certainly not where we came from. None of these extraneous issues mattered. We came together and worshipped God. 

Every blessing as you continue on your journey. May God bless you and be your companion on the way. Please get in touch with me any time to say g'day.

Peace, justice and blessings to all.

A Trifle for Tuesday - Epiphany 2024

Denali National Park, Alaska, USA. 2009

(Photo krb)

In the final lines of the beautiful, mystical poem, 'The Journey of the Magi', T. S. Elliot writes:

'But no longer at ease, here in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.'

    (In 'Love is Strong as Death', Poems chosen by Paul Kelly Penguin 2019)

Thus, Elliot describes what happens for us when we encounter the divine, the spiritual, the numinous, God.... In that moment everything changes. We can no longer be satisfied with the ordinary, everyday world around us.  But our encounter with God happens in the ordinary, everyday world if we are open to them. Our encounter with God happens whenever we commit ourselves to following in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth.

Once we could have said that it was the primary role of the church to enable our people to recognize the daily opportunities for us to live in the presence of God. You could be forgiven for thinking that that is no longer the case. We should be demanding that the institutional church does much better and seek to be much more the conduit through which the Kingdom of God comes into being in the world.

Every blessing as you continue on your journey. May God bless you as you set out on your daily journey in which you will seek to encounter God - an encounter which will change everything. 

Please get in touch with me any time to say g'day.

Peace, justice and blessings to all. 

  

A Moment for Monday - Epiphany 2024

 

Dubrovnik, Croatia. 2017

(Photo krb)

The Benediction for Epiphany is one of the few pieces of Australian Anglican liturgy that still holds up in the 21st century. Some other sections would still work if it was taken seriously and not just dismissed as something we just have to get through.

The Benediction reads:

'May Christ the Son of God be manifest to you,

that your lives may be a light to the world'

Despite the somewhat archaic language it is still greatly empowering for all who receive it. Sadly, I think, it is probably slipping into disuse as is happening for much good liturgy.

In a world in which the laity, that is all of us, are told, don't rock the boat, don't ask questions, know your place, it is a revelation to discover that we are the people who can and must do everything to change the world for the better. Whether you are a religious person or not we are called on to live a life that lights up the world, that brings light and life into the darkest places of our world. This is a radical call to risk everything to bring, in my language, God's kingdom into being on Earth through unconditional self-giving love for all.

Every blessing as you continue on your journey. May God bless you and be your companion on the way. Please get in touch with me any time to say g'day.

Peace, justice and blessings to all.

A Flight of Fancy for Friday - The 12th Day Of Christmas 2024

River Red Gums, Flinders Ranges National Park, South Australia. 2007

(Photo krb)

Today we end our Christmas journey for another year. The short season of Christmas has come to an end and tomorrow we enter the season of Epiphany. Tomorrow is the day to take down your Christmas decorations and the tree unless, of course, you have already done it. If it was a natural tree perhaps it will become compost in the garden and if it isn't then the task will be to close the branches and try to enclose it in its box. Ours seems to expand with each year. 

I heard, in the period shortly before Christmas the comment, 'I am not ready for Christmas' or 'I have not felt the spirit of Christmas so much this year,' much more often. Our societies attitude to and celebration of Christmas is changing. It has become much more a secular festival, the celebration of which gravitates around families. It is less a religious festival. It is like the church has decided to play down Christmas, to hand it over to the secular and commercial world. It is much easier to take the community on a journey through Advent than to deal effectively with the mythical nature of the Christmas story. It is a lot of work to deal well with Christmas and there is less and less reward for the effort.

But the myths at the basis of the Christmas story are important. They help us to discover our identity and they certainly draw us together as a community. Myth is important to us so long as we don't allow it to become dogma. The great myth that comes through the Christmas story is that God's preference is with the poor and the outcast, the nobodies of our world, not with the rich and the powerful. That myth tells us much about who we are as Christians and who we must be in our relationship with God and the world. It is a hard lesson for the institutional church to promote. Maybe it is just a little too hot to handle.

Every blessing as you continue on your journey. May God bless you and be your companion on the way. Pleases get in touch with me any time to say g'day.  

peace, justice and blessings to all. 

 

A Thought for Thursday - The 11th Day of Christmas 2024

Lake Como from the Funicular at Brunate, Italy 2012

(Photo  krb)

In his book "Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed and the Disillusioned." Brian D McLaren writes " A growing proportion of smart and honest Christians of each new generation will abandon the sinking ship, just as they have been doing for centuries in Europe and decades in the United States. In the not-too-distant future, Christianity will only exist in those enclaves where authoritarian leaders rule over submissive flocks who enfold their religious lives within the assumptions of the first axial age."

 The decline in the institutional church is evident in the census data which shows that regular attendance at church was stable during the 20th century declining from about 25% of the population at the beginning of the century to about 23% by 1990. Over the next 10 Years church attendance declined by a further 3% to about 20% of the population.  Recent figures, however, show that regular church attendance has declined to between 10% and 8% of the population. Regular attendance at and commitment to a church community is seen as being among a very small minority of the population. I am sure that anyone who has traditionally been involved in the life of the church will be well aware of this drastic decline.

There are a great variety of factors which have brought about this decline. In our Australian experience the main factors have had to do with the higher levels of education giving rise to a better understanding of the world and the empowerment of each new generation to make decisions about life without the influence of others, particularly the institutional church.

The implication of this that seems to escape the leaders of the institutional church is that the people are no longer willing to be told what to think, how to behave or what to pursue in life, by, generally, old men who decide from on high how life is to be lived when they themselves have limited experience of life in the real world.

I have to say though that while there has been a rapid decline in interest in and tolerance of the institutional church, people still show a very great interest in religion and spirituality. I think that McLaren has chosen the wrong subject for his book. Had he instead asked the question "Do I Stay in the Institutional Church?" that would have resonated much more. This is a question that most of us have faced during our lives. It is difficult to see how one can stop being Christian if one has been brought up holding strong Christian values which are part of our worldview and which we seek as best we can to pass on to future generations. 

The only possible future for the institutional church can be if it is able to abandon its seemingly inbuilt notions of superiority and exclusiveness and engages with the world with no agenda except to launch out into the deep by offering place to explore truth and meaning in life in peace and unconditional love.

Every blessing as you continue on your journey. May God bless you and be your companion on the way. Please get in touch any time to say g'day.

Peace, justice and blessings to all.

     

  

 

 church is as much evident