Issue No 163
Magazine for the Irfon and Wye Valley Churches June 2014
DEATH AND RESURRECTION A Call to Return to Our Our Roots Olivier Clement in his great book The Roots of Christian Mysticism which applies the teachings of the Church Fathers and Mothers to the modern world says: There can be no doubt that since the fourth or seventh century our spiritual awareness has changed profoundly. We live in the aftermath of Auschwitz, Hiroshima and the Gulag. Christendom, the society in which Christianity was, to the great detriment of freedom, the dominant ideology, has finally collapsed, and we can no longer talk about matters of faith in the way that we used to do. The living God is no longer the Emperor of the World but crucified Lord This quote seems to us to throw more light on the issue of whether Britain is a Christian country than the recent debates about this contentious matter. What is important is that Christianity is no longer the dominant ideology in Western Europe, but much popular and cultural debate still seems to be dominated by the need felt by many secular people to free society from any hint of domination by the Church or, indeed, any other ‘institution’. Calls to ‘be an individual’ or ‘follow your dream’ are popular and seen to be at odds with a Church ‘telling us how to live our lives’. Some influential Christians such as John Milbank argue that we should be looking for a reintroduction of Christendom by ‘outnarrating’ secular society. We, however, doubt the wisdom of this approach and like Olivier Clement suspect that Christianity might be able to recover its authentic early voice once freed from the shackles of Christendom. But what might this mean for us in mid-Wales? Humility is perhaps the first requirement. We need to accept that the church has had a history of seeking to control people’s lives and has not always been experienced as a positive influence. We need to accept that the church is not as important as it once was and that we are going to find it increasingly difficult to maintain our influence in the way we once did.
by James and Lucyann Ashdown
This means we need to provide services which meet people where they are rather than impose ideas and doctrines which seem abstract and disconnected from real life. We need to understand that fundamentally our beautiful parish churches belong to their communities and their people rather than a distant ecclesiastical hierarchy. Most of all, we need to be a people who are confident in our faith, both individually and as a Christian community. This will require that we become familiar with the bible and able to apply it in compassionate and intellect ways. We need to be faithful in personal and corporate prayer and influenced by the former; we need to live lives active in the service of the poor and oppressed. Then ‘they will know we are Christians by our love’. We believe that only in this way can Christianity regain its credibility and be a means by which people can explore their spirituality and discover a relationship with God. But this does not mean we lose faith in God. Rather we should celebrate our Christian heritage and joyfully explore the riches of our own faith. The Church has gone through many difficult times in the past but we are believers in the resurrection, and new life is always available – even though it might feel very different from the old life which we have come to love and rely on. Christendom may be dying but Jesus Christ is eternal. Whilst initially disturbing, discovering what shape Christ’s body will take in the coming years is an invitation to life and liberation, an exciting journey, ever reminding us of Jesus’ call to ‘follow me’.
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