Simon Marsh

WHAT AN EXTRAORDINARY JOY it was to be present at the Inaugural Conference of the new Affirming Liberalism network at Trinity College Oxford yesterday. Not much of a “party affiliated” person by nature I was surprised by the enthusiasm with which I greeted news of a new liberal-minded network within the Church of England.

But then it’s true that I’ve grieved in the past decade or so as I’ve watched fellow Christians become more and more deeply entrenched in one degree of “certainty” after another. It’s true that I’ve been distressed by my own disinclination to “fight back”. It’s true that my theological inclinations have always been more ready to seek out affirmations than assertions. So the 10 Affirmations unexpectedly set before my eyes by Affirming Liberalism were bound to bring a measure of relief and joy to my heart.

Affirming Liberalism seeks to enhance the ‘enrichment’ of the Christian faith and support ordained and lay Christians of the Liberal Anglican tradition by:

Affirming faith in Jesus’ life, teaching, death and resurrection as revealing God’s limitless love for all humanity in this life and the next.

Affirming the dynamic action of the Holy Spirit in dispersing this divine love throughout the world.

Affirming the positive impact of biblical, literary and historical criticism for our engagement with Scripture and Tradition.

Affirming appreciation of the distinctive nature of religious language in vibrant worship which connects us to the divine.

Affirming a philosophical approach to Christian faith and the search for truth through God-given reason.

Affirming the positive insights of the natural sciences and mathematics in the formation of a Christian world-view and understanding of the universe.

Affirming the positive impact of the social sciences for understanding human nature and society, and developing Christian ethics.

Affirming the vitality of the performing and creative arts in shaping a dynamic Christian vision of life lived in relation to God.

Affirming open, creative conversation with Evangelicals and Catholics as a means of enriching our understanding of the Christian gospel.

Affirming open, creative conversation with other faith traditions and cultures as a way of deepening our understanding of God.

 

THERE WILL PROBABLY HAVE BEEN TIMES in your life when you’ve been able to say with the priest and poet, R S Thomas, that God comes

That’s so often how it is with the coming of God. Unannounced simplicity. No immediate expectation that we should behave in a particular way. No expectation that we should speak in an out-of-the-ordinary or convoluted theological language. No expectation that the “saving of souls” will make clearly defined or absolutist demands of human-kind, save for the Divine expectation of the God newly arrived in the back-streets of Bethlehem, that some one might pick up a Christ-child and hold Him close to their heart for to keep the little Chap warm.

This little Jesus teaches you and me how we are to be bridge-builders. This little Jesus is Pontifex — the bridge-maker, Emmanuel, God amongst us, the great High Priest, the Son of the Most High, the sacrifice or Christmas present of Almighty God Himself to His beloved world. This little Jesus is God come among us. We are to be little like Him. We are to be loved and we are to love. We are to be remarkable, at Christmas-time and through all time, for the absence of clamour; knowing that Christ leads His children on to the place where He has now gone. Home.

¹ Suddenly - R S Thomas, COLLECTED POEMS 1945-1990

WHENCE COMETH LOVE?

From he who has in him of she

for she who has in her of he

who was and is

Eternity

click photo for full resolution 

WHAT WAS YOUR PERSPECTIVE

on the world when you were housed

here?

Was this shell a warm place -

a cocoon of security

a window through which you might gaze

out upon a world

more colourful than you?

Were these polished walls a safe haven

in the hours of your vulnerability? The soft

sensitive facets in me would be glad of such

a splendid shell as yours

from time to time

And yet I own gladness that I may stand for

your protected fragility is no more

and amongst the joys of today’s peaceful shore

I found only your shell and an echo

in what was once your land

 
Grateful thanks to Andrew Rudd, Cheshire Poet Laureate 2006, for inspiration and encouragement

 

PEACE AND JOY to you and yours this Christmas night. I’m happy to be at home. I read somewhere that Nigella Lawson “revels in the warmth and light of the house” on Christmas afternoons. Me too. And in bacon sandwiches - always my first reward after the late night and the morning’s Eucharistic worship. But I’m revelling, too, in calling to mind the good natured people I’ve met, in their hundreds, at church services, in the past month; revelling in the truth that in this part of the world there are hundreds of young people who are wonderfully proficient in the art of making music; hundreds who, in one way or another, whether in drama, story-telling, film or friendship, work or worship set out to share Christ’s call to build a peace-filled world.

And it’s a source of particular joy to me that Her Majesty the Queen’s Christmas Broadcast makes similar appeal … for “peace, tolerance and goodwill”. Pope Benedict asks “Let us love God and, starting from him, let us also love man, so that, starting from man, we can then rediscover God in a new way!”. Archbishop Rowan of Canterbury told today’s gathering at Canterbury Cathedral that “as he (Jesus) gives, he makes us grow, and sends us to make the same promise in his name to all, whatever the conflicts, whatever the guilt. To all he offers the authority to be children of God; from his fullness we may all receive, grace upon grace.”

Bishop Riah, the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem writes: “Astronaut Neil Armstrong, first human to step on the moon said: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” I have always believed in small beginnings. I have a great dream which requires a small step to mushroom in the land. I called it “Integratsia”. I see children of the three Abrahamic faiths: Arab Christians, Moslems, and Jews gathered in the warmth of harmony in one educational center co-living and integrating as one. The iceberg that has been separating people on basis of race, color and religion, has got to melt down. Extend a hand. Make this dream come true.”

I’ve met so many people this Christmas who share these dreams that tonight I, too, feel able to “revel in the warmth and light of the house”. May the vision pervade every day, every people and every nation in the coming year, the vision - God’s vision - of light and warmth and peace.

I’VE ALWAYS LOVED CLOCKS. The long-case clock in our Sacristy here brings untold comfort and peace to me. The quiet ten minutes or so of silent preparation for Worship has made undemanding friends of the clock and I.

Tick … tock. Tick … tock. Breathe gently. Go placidly. Remember God. Redeem the time. Tick … tock …

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, for they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself.

 

Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune but do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.

 

Max Ehrmann (1872-1945)

Tonight another clock bade me and my companions “go placidly” as we prepared for a quiet office of Evensong at Bramall Hall. And I recall the gentle, measured counting of the clock inside York Minster.  Perhaps Archbishop Sentamu has been touched by it. Please God that the world might be touched by the peace-full voice of the clock …

Breathe gently. Go placidly. Remember God. Redeem the time. Tick … tock …

ARCHBISHOP SENTAMU OF YORK has given up a planned holiday in Austria this week. The “Watchman for the North” will, instead, “camp out” in York Minster calling men and women of goodwill, everywhere, to join him in prayer and in fasting for peace …

“We have an opportunity to stand up and be counted with those in Israel, Lebanon and Palestine and all over the world who seek after Peace. This is what this week will be about, people coming together for one purpose alone – to pray for peace in our troubled world and to pray especially for the Middle East”. 

Many will want to heed the Archbishop’s call - and bless his example. And I shall pray that York Minster will be only one amongst many centres of focused and purposeful gathering in the coming week. May temples, synagogues, mosques, churches, schools, workplaces and homes throughout the land be filled with peoples bound by common purpose. Filled with peoples united by their conscious longing for the peace that can only be granted to any of us - individuals or nations - by something or someone quite BEYOND ourselves and our limited horizons and aspirations.

And may that great and diverse gathering “for one purpose alone” renew in all of us a sense of our common brotherhood and sisterhood in the family of our humanity. May we remember that the Creator of the World hears the cry of the poor, of the little ones, of the bewildered and the dispossessed. May we remember that God bears no ill will or ill intent for ANY child of his making. May the Watchman for the North inspire each of us to be watchwomen and watchmen for the very food of our continued presence in this world: a united humanity. Peace. Peace. Peace.

Some of the prayers used by the Archbishop this week can be read here 

WE’VE BEEN WATCHING NEWS OF WAR in the Middle East with ever-increasing heartache: one father, mother, husband, wife, son or daughter after another struggling to come to terms with the nightmarish realities of war. The sound of fear resounds in their and our ears. News of foiled UK-based terrorist attempts cause us to wonder, once again, how it would be for us if tragedy on such a scale struck any closer to our own hearts and homes. God help our humankind: there can be no alternative to our learning to be more temperate. We are all God’s beloved children. Superiority — racial, religious, political, intellectual, gender-based or personal does the cause of our humanity absolutely no favours. It is the greatest and perhaps the longest lived of all the world’s myths.

However long it takes we have to learn to live without war - national, parochial or domestic. We must learn to live in and for peace. All women and men of goodwill must be seen to be people perpetually unwilling to engage in hot-headed, ill-informed opinion swapping. We can and must begin afresh (new every morning) to

“put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us”

- Ephesians 4.31

 

We don’t even have an accurate figure of how many Lebanese, Israeli and Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent weeks. More than 900,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon, and citizens of the Gaza Strip have little access to essential supplies. Thousands of Israelis have had to leave northern Israel to escape rocket attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon. Aid agencies are working in the heat of this situation amongst all affected peoples. May there be generous response to the urgent need for further gifts to support and sustain this vital ministry. And daily prayer is surely amongst the most important gifts needed — for that blessing that the world and each and every one of us needs more than anything else: the desire for, and the will to work, by word and quiet domestic example, for PEACE.

I HAVE BEEN ABSORBED by Tony Hendra’s moving and un-put-downable Father Joe. The late Dom Joseph Warrilow, Monk of Quarr Abbey, was for Hendra, and for countless others, “the man who saved my soul”. Hendra recalls that Father Joe, wonderfully warm, wise, present and humane, had said that “the only way to know God, the only way to know the other, is to listen. Listening is reaching out into that unknown other self, surmounting your walls and theirs; listening is the beginning of understanding, the first exercise of love.”

None of us listen enough, do we, dear? We only listen to a fraction of what people say. It’s a wonderfully useful thing to do. You almost always hear something you didn’t expect.

 

There’s no alternative to listening. The best debating listens; the best diplomacy listens; the best friendship listens; the best learning listens; the best loving listens; the best praying listens; the best teaching listens; the best worship listens. But none of us listens enough. None of us listens enough - whilst longing, in the midst of the perpetual noise of this world, to be warm, wise, present and humane. Tony Hendra’s story, and Father Joe’s example, encourage me to keep trying.
 

 

“let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love: let it be rather a moving sea between the shores of your souls”