Ysterday I had the pleasure of leading the morning of the retreat for our London staff and volunteers at West Malling Abbey.
The picture shows ‘the journey’ a prayer activity that I orignally experienced when Jonny introduced us to this when he had this YFC role in London. It always strikes me how honest people are in this simple activity and the result is always exciting – in that it becomes clear that we are all at different stages of our Christian journey – some in the desert, some on the mountin tops, some lazing in the lake for refreshment … and so on.
Too often we think about arriving, and having to achieve, and the need to be sorted. I think this results in us denying the reality of our situation, and consequently missing out on any blessing that God may have for us, or any lesson he may want us to learn.
Today I hope that we were able to show these young leaders that it is ok to struggle, it’s ok to not be enjoying your calling at this particular time, it’s ok to doubt God, its ok to be wherever you are – these are normal parts of our Christian lives where God wlks alongside us which we need to acknowledge so that we can continue on the road rather then get stuck somewhere.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 
There is such a restless striving in so much of what you have written over the last few weeks as you have moved through a sort of ecclesiastical pick-and-mix of ministry and theological training. In some ways, your writing suggests that perhaps God is a bigger and better Mr Scally, and it is your task as a keen supporter to help build him a bigger and better stadium for the future. Maybe this comes from all the work you have been doing in the past. But to read that you think you spent too much time on God at church the other day and not enough time on other people is pretty daunting. Holiness is what is needed in the ministries of bishops and priests. That is why arrangements like SEITE are very poor substitutes for the quasi-monastic institutions like the old Chichester Theological College. The grounding of holiness is the formation that comes through the discipline of the offices and learning respect and forbearance in community living. What can you learn in community from the use of the prescribed services of the church and devotion to the sacraments? You can learn to pray without striving, opening your soul to the open-handed grace that God is offering and yearning. You can learn to be open to the movements of God’s Spirit through the words of scripture, psalmody, and liturgy. You can thus become a fertile ground for the growth of the grace that is planted through the sacraments. From that then will bloom a ministry that brightens and encourages the lives of others. I know this all sounds very traditional. Yet it is tradition – or recent Anglican departures from it – that leaders in the church must look to. In the Medway towns there are so many closed and delapidated Anglican churches, yet there are people living, often in isolation, who feel their age and their spiritual simplicity bar them from corporate worship. They have learned the words of morning prayer and the holy communion and the traditional hymns, and they have a simple spiritual depth. They do not want issues-based night-club experiences, they want to hear that still small calming voice of the loving assurance of God. How can a priest minister to such as these towards the ends of their lives, or when they are hurting on a ward in Medway Hospital, or bewildered by the criminal treatment they have experienced on a Twydall or White Road housing estate from tear-away girls and boys? Being still, being formed, is not lazing in lake for refreshment. It is a step towards realising one’s reality as creature of the one omnipotent God. Maybe this is the choice that you have to face now: to minister like a supporter of Mr Scally in his restless striving to remake things in a more profitable way, or like one who has learned from Bishop Lindsay that through trusting prayerful openness to the sacraments and the scriptures one might become transfigured as an image of Christ in the world.
Woooh! I don’t know where that came from. But thankyou for such a long comment – its always cool to see someone out there taking time to comment.We do have great priests in our hospitals and prisons and churches who minister to the elderly and isolated as you mention – my ministry is more towards the young people and those on the edge of society – those you call ‘tearaways’.I will answer some of your points:God as a Scally – what a thought! nope would be my response to that and I do not know where you get that impression. I don’t think I need to do anything for God, other than worship him and develop my relationship with him. I don’t wish to build anything, but I do want to join in with what God is doing in certain places with people.Yes, holiness is needed – but you are speaking of only one type of holiness – a type of holiness through discipline of office (incidently I follow Northumbria daily office as my standard and have done for 4 years) – but what about the holiness of the world around us. God created where we are, God has walked this earth, so in that sense all ground is holy, creation itself is sacred. If I do have a task – it is not to build stadiums but to help people see where God is in their normal (and holy!) everyday lives.To knock SEITE is, I think, very unfair – unless you are a student there but I am unaware who you are as your profile is not visible. I chose SEITE as instead of retreating into a Christian ghetto for 2 years and train in isololation, I wish to train and engage with real life and culture as we progress through modules.In light of this your ‘restless striving’ may be accurate – but why do you see that as negative? If we are searching for truth, and as Chritians we should be, then we need to re-examine everything and actually consider that we may be wrong.SEITE is good at throwing up questions of this nature which will result in, I think, priests who have thought through issues contextually.I agree with your liturgy comment – but what about a visual people who are unbooked as well as unchurched? Liturgy is more than written word and we have lost sight of this.Finally – why do so many people react and say you have to do this or that? It’s not a choice of ministering like this or ministering like that – its a choice of doing what God is calling you to do in a particular time, culture and context .The very reson why so many churches lie empty, or even near empty, in Medway is partly a result of this – people with a strong view of how things should be done despite what they see happening around them. The church has declined due partly to fear of changing a model that no longer works for all (it works for some which is why we look for a mixed econonmy church, not an either or as you seem to be suggesting)I’m not interested in more profitble ways of beingor building- I’m interested in an authentic expressions of church which means taking from all of our tradition and creating something that will enable people who are not the ‘trditional’ you seak of above to be able to connect with God.