30 Jul Religious Communities Day at Lambeth Palace
On Thursday 4th July, Br. Adrian and I joined a group of about 60 people from a whole variety of communities at Lambeth Palace for the day.
The day began with refreshments and a chance to ‘meet and greet’; it’s always lovely to have a chance to get together as Religious from different communities, and to catch up with both individuals and their communities. We were welcomed by Tosin, Archbishop Justin’s chaplain, and by Amelia, who had done much of the administrative work to prepare for the day.
Following this, two members of the Chemin Neuf community gave us an opportunity to begin the day in prayer, with the invitation to spend 25 minutes or so reflecting on John 15:1-11, which explores the image of Jesus as the true vine. I personally enjoyed the opportunity to wander in the beautiful Lambeth Palace gardens as I reflected and prayed, using both the labyrinth and the swing(!). We then took some time in small groups to share the fruit of our reflection.
Our next task was a somewhat convoluted journey to the crypt chapel for Eucharist, presided over by the Archbishop. There is a lot of building and renovation work going on at the Palace currently, hence the adventurous journey through several storerooms. The Old Testament reading was from Amos 7, and Archbishop Justin drew on the phrase “the land cannot bear the words” in verse 10 to reflect on the ‘heaviness’ of some of the public discourse in our country. The General Election was being held that day, and many of us were shocked to hear that every single candidate (some 1600 in all) had required some measure of police advice and support with regards to their security and safety.
Eucharist was followed by a delicious lunch, and then an hour or so of Q&A with Archbishop Justin. The first question had been pre-submitted, and invited Justin to reflect on what progress he felt had been made with the first of his priorities, set when he first became Archbishop, around the renewal of prayer and Religious communities.[1] He was quick to offer an apology that he had not achieved as much as he had perhaps hoped on this front, which seemed to be welcomed by those in the room.
There then followed a series of questions around various topics; I didn’t manage to make a note of every question that was asked, but what follows are a few notes on the discussions:
We spoke about the importance of the witness which Religious Life in its many forms offers to the church and to society; Justin talked about our example of living together in Community “without killing each other”, and the way in which we manage to worship, live and work alongside one another despite (because of?) our many differences. It was pointed out that the members of any one community are not a homogenous unit but can be very diverse; the simple fact of our ongoing life together has an impact. Bp Christopher shared some wisdom from his training incumbent, saying that “we live in a culture where everyone wants to see the harvest; content yourself with sowing the seed”.
There was some conversation around the changes in our society which have generally seen the idea of a job for life disappear; what impact might this have on people’s willingness to consider life vows in a Religious community? There was mention of the model of the Melanesian Brotherhood[2], where a shorter term commitment is more usual. Archbishop Justin spoke of the need to live within the mores of our culture, without allowing the mores of the culture to live within us.
Adjacent to this was some discussion about various year-long schemes, such as that offered by the community at Hilfield SSF, or the Community of St. Anselm at Lambeth Palace. Important here for those wishing to start something similar was to be clear about their ‘offer’, knowing why they are doing this, and what the year (or other time period) will look like.
Archbishop Justin spoke of the value of teaching people to feed deeply within a given tradition; even if they do not then stick with that tradition long-term, the tools they have learned to use, and the experience of deepening their spirituality and their relationship with God will be of long term, even life long, benefit. Archbishop Justin was also clear that such schemes are not a solution to a ‘problem’, but rather an ongoing development of Religious Life.
We were also reminded – to approval from those present – that every Christian should be part of a praying community, and that our first call, our first vocation, is to love and serve God in Jesus Christ.
At this point, I had to leave to catch a train, but Br. Adrian was able to stay for the whole day, and so takes over the narrative!
The final plenary session of the day was a discussion on the Sabbath Rest. Small groups were formed to discuss some set questions, one was what we considered the sabbath rest to be and it’s importance in relation to our faith, our lives? The challenges of keeping the sabbath, for both small communities with tasks to do or for dispersed with pastoral support etc and the technological distractions? And thirdly what extra support can be shared to encourage fruitful use of the Sabbath/ rest days? it was a good and fruitful discussion.
These groups discussed individually but did not feed back to the wider gathering as a whole so the following feedback is only my experience of the discussion that took place in the group I was in.
Traditional Monastic, emerging dispersed communities, apostolic communities and lay clergy were all represented in the group that I was part of. Our group discussed what the sabbath rest was in our different contexts and agreed that it wasn’t just rest but intentional rest in as much as it is time out to observe and celebrate God and his works among us, whether that be in creation or in each other and to build up a mindset of gratitude. One point that came out from this was around providing guidance for clergy who haven’t had a quiet day or retreat before on how to use them in an intentional way, this could be extended for support to new clergy and how they use their rest day. We also agreed it wasn’t always possible to completely rest on a sabbath day but that in cases where we needed to do some work, the mindful manner in which we performed the work was of central importance so focus on gratitude was maintained. It was felt that to build up a discipline or indeed to have self discipline in maintenance of a sabbath in this vein was important and we should encourage one another to maintain this.
We also discussed digital sabbaths and their benefits for the new generations coming through and their value for all of us in this social media age where distractions and possible addictions are plentiful.
The day closed with 1662 Evening prayer in the main chapel at Lambeth Palace, which was an appropriate and prayerful ending to a glorious event with the Magnificat sung to the tune of Woodlands (Tell out my soul).
[1] https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/priorities/prayer-and-religious-life
[2] https://www.mmuk.net/, https://arlyb.org.uk/community/melanesian-brotherhood-mbh/