Northumbria Community

Wednesday 17^th February

I’m not here in this blog to comment on the advertising campaigns that will bombard the media over the next few months nor am I here to reveal my political convictions and prejudice against the Conservative Party albeit to say that I witnessed the destruction of communities in the North East of England in the 1980s as a result of Thatcherite economic policies that prospered many but left others, many from socially deprived areas, with the experience of long term and massive unemployment (over 60% on the estate where we were leading and serving a church) which robbed whole communities of any sense of dignity, worth, value or significance.

Spare a thought and offer a prayer for the people of Teesside where today a steel mill will close and thousands of people will lose their jobs and the area will once again be devastated economically and socially.

I feel great sympathy and share some anger with those who will be made redundant and others, whose businesses will fail because of the poor state of the local economy, who must look askance at the bonuses paid to bankers who gambled on the money markets, abjectly failed yet whose greed and avarice was rewarded with a bailing out by the Government and who have lived not with sack cloth and ashes but with bonuses.

Where has morality gone in the markets and when will we see a greater measure of justice and compassion in economic affairs that works for the common good?

Sunday 14^th February

I’ve just spent a really enjoyable 24 hours in the Midlands.  Sarah and I had a good meeting with those whom we are partnering with on the Crucible Course.  It is good when you do business with people who you can regard as friends.  Folks from Urban Expression, Salvation Army, Workshop, BMS, Café Church and ourselves ~ a very creative mix of folks predominantly serving in urban contexts.

I was lecturing on the module Becoming Human and enjoyed the experience of researching and delivering two papers on following the incarnate, holy but beautiful Christ and what new monasticism has to say to disciples in a changing urban context.  It was also very challenging and the issue of how we relate our vocation, our way for living in urban contexts is a complex but vital area for us to explore and deepen.

It was really good to have Companions like Marg, who is pioneering in the very urban environment of Stoke on Trent, on the course.  She is a wonderful blend both in personality and calling of prophetic, creative, pastoral, stimulating and irritating, someone who carries a real love for God, an angst with much of church life yet with a passion for people.  I am glad that we have characters like Marg as part of our Community whom we need to listen to lest we lose our heart for the poor and limit our ideas of Community to country houses and retreat programmes.  The Christ to whom we pray to be our light is the incarnate God who came and dwelt among us, identifying and engaging with people and situations, not from a distance but involved. The same Jesus who commissioned his disciples with the injunction, as the Father has sent me so I send you.

Let us not forget the poor in spirit.

February 1^st

It was lovely to be back at Saul, one of the first places that we ever took a Community team to, the place associated with St. Patrick.  The day before I’d put on the appropriate clerical garments and preached and shared at the Candlemass Eucharist in Down Cathedral and now Shirley and I joined the growing Community of Prayer which meets at Saul every Monday to share Evening Office and pray for people and the issues that God lays upon their hearts.  A simple commitment to pray for half an hour every week.  Of course people have wanted to add to the simplicity of the call to prayer but thankfully those of us who laid the foundations and who continue to guard its ethos have resisted such moves that would deflect from its raison d’être.

So much of life is beautiful because of its simplicity.  The temptation and allurement to add to, to garnish, to embellish can actually detract from the essence that is found in simplicity.  Long may the simple gathering of people on a Monday night in Saul to pray a simple Evening Office continue.

As I led a short reflective piece on Brigid during the period of reflection in the Evening Prayer, I looked out upon a delightful group of believers, some of whom were once strangers but who have now become dear friends.  Catholics, Protestants and a few neither clear or bothered about which camp they came from; more men than women, the prayer group is a sign of the Kingdom of God in itself.  Saul, a holy place, a sacred place of prayer.

Wednesday  27^th January

Back in Ireland produced mixed feelings. It’s a place that I both love and loath.  Its positives far outweighing its negatives. I continue to care deeply for this land and its people which I have carried in my heart for over 20 years and which won’t go away.

My first night here and I am back in the company of some great friends.  Ken and Claire have organised a gathering of people in Belfast who are interested in the Community and its way for living.  We took over a café near the university and a delightful 2 ½ hours was spent sharing and engaging with one another on issues of faith, Community, culture and church.  I see and sense very clearly that here is a vibrant, stimulating and serious minded bunch of individuals, the majority of whom are much younger than me.  Their love of God is undiminished but their struggle with the church and unease with what is happening in society needs a safe context to explore these things in.

As I reflect on the delightful evening together, seeing the lights go on in people’s lives when I share the Community’s story and the values that have shaped our vocation, I sense that here might be the beginnings of something significant.

For many years, our Community’s presence in Ireland, North and South, has been one of quietly praying, visiting, sharing and serving together with supporting individuals and groups.  But here in this group is the potential for an authentic and creative new expression of what the Northumbria Community might look like in Northern Ireland.  Not wishing to raise a false dawn of expectation (which Northern Ireland has been plagued with for years) I nevertheless feel that there could be some real connections and the forming of an expression of Community with these folks.

22^nd January

I love living in the country; being so close to nature, seeing the unfolding of the countryside through the seasons, being in a place where so many people know your name is a delight. Even in the depths of winter, when because of the snow you are cut off for several days, it’s a good place to be living.

But I do miss the city and those aspects of urban culture that bust the parochialism of rural life and remind us that the Bible pictures heaven as a city and not as a rural picture postcard scene.

Shirley and I visited Adam our friend and one of the new novitiates within the Community who lives in Kilburn, London, recently.  Walking around in the area I was one of the few white faces and within the space of one hour shopping on Kilburn High Street, I was served by Africans, Asians and Eastern Europeans.  We went for a meal at one of Adam’s favourite haunts and enjoyed the hospitality and banter with the Kosovon restaurant owner.  Bring on diversity, I say.  The cultural mix may bring its tensions but it can also give us a foretaste of heaven where the redeemed of every nation, tribe and ethnic group will be as one.

Sunday 17th January

I am deeply touched by the care, support and prayers that we have received following my Dad's sudden death.

Coming to terms with the sudden loss of someone who has always been there for you is fairly devastating. I am walking slowly with grief and feel very consoled and comforted by great memories and his going from us with nothing unresolved. Whilst pretty devastated at his going, exacerbated by the suddenness, I am hugely consoled by the knowledge that he was ready to go, he'd been with all of his children, grand children and great grandchildren within his last week and the full results of the post mortem that we have just received indicate that he went out like a light not long after he rang me to say he'd called the doctor. The Wool Shop next door to us is owned and run by Ann, a lovely lady who lost her mum last week. In sharing a kindred sense of loss we reflected that it is the loss of both parents which carries that extra sting.  They who have always been there for you are no longer around and it is a salutary reminder of the circles and patterns of our mortal life span that I am now part of that senior surviving generation.

Dad was a genuinely good man. He has struggled since my mum died. He was very much in the shadow of her who had a very gregarious, outgoing character.  He was the model of selflessness and was both gentle and humble.  I'm reminded of his slightly obsessive compulsive tendencies in the amount of junk, [sorry - detail filled information!] that he kept on so many unnecessary things but nevertheless probably helpful in all the legal stuff that has to be sorted out.

It’s also fascinating to gain a deeper understanding of the kind of person my Dad was.  From my Mum, I learned about hospitality and generosity and from my Dad, gentleness and selflessness.  Going through my Dad’s papers it’s been heartening and challenging to see what they’ve revealed.  Partly because of his selflessness, my father hardly ever indulged in anything for himself.  The only exception to this was his interest in photography.  Following his retirement, he upgraded his camera and bought himself a very nice Olympus SLR which brought him much pleasure.  For those who sat through his slide shows, [a few interesting minutes and hours of boredom or in my mum’s case an opportunity to cat nap!]. 

As for other things, it puzzled me that he didn’t spend more money on himself.  He had good clothes but a very limited wardrobe.  He loved driving but after some quality company cars for years he ended up buying some ordinary motors in his retirement.  I have a better car than him!  However, reading through his correspondence and going through his bank account you see that he understood what Jesus talked about when he said it is more blessed to give than to receive.  My parents together supported over 30 charities on a regular basis.  My Mum would offer a heart response to situations that she felt compassion for and therefore her giving was generous but erratic.  My Dad’s giving was more thoughtful and considered and his breadth of understanding about the charities that he supported was quite comprehensive.  There are many causes that are poorer for my Mum & Dad’s going.  Now, part of me says, I could have had the money, but a much larger part of me says 'good on them'.  Whilst we have been the recipient of their help from time to time they clearly never lost sight of others who were in greater need.  So whilst I am poorer materially by their actions, I am richer by far spiritually and really proud of my parents. 

As I’ve said, on a number of occasions they have been amazing parents.  They went through a difficult stage during my mid-teenage years but they grew out of it by the time I was 20! 

Philip Larkin famously wrote in his poem on parents:

“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.”

No they eff’ing didn’t!  Quite the contrary. Now I am not oblivious to their faults and failings but my parents overwhelmingly blessed me and whilst heartbroken at their going from us, I am profoundly grateful for them and the good inheritance of values and experiences that have moulded and shaped me for good.  I’m also aware that sadly, for a lot of people, poor parenting has damaged their lives and contributes to the lack of wellbeing in society.  It’s hard work, it’s a joy and privilege, we make loads of mistakes but good parenting is so important. 

Of course, the reward for attempting to parent well is being a grandparent.  I absolutely love being a Granddad and can honestly say that it is one of life’s greatest pleasures.  A special bond can exist between grandparents and grandchildren which is wonderful.  Shirley and I went to Oxford to be with Jessica, Nick and our latest grandchild, Gabriel, on Jess’s birthday at the weekend and we attended church together on Sunday morning.  Talk about making an entrance.  It had been our intention to slip in at the back unnoticed, only for the church to be packed and, you’ve guessed it, the only spare seats were on the front row! Luminous green buggy and all the paraphernalia that now accompanies babies and their parents, which was never the case in our day, we provided considerable entertainment or irritancy, as we shed our coats, hats, gloves, baby carry, nappy changing bag etc, etc.  Anyway it was a lovely to be together but a poignant reminder of the circles of life and death.  For there we were with young Gabriel but mindful that his Great Granddad had died and now I belonged to the older generation.  

It's been a difficult start to the New Year, after what was what for us as a family a really good Christmas at home and a delightful, restful three days at my cousin's in Norfolk. 

It is an eventful year for us all and one of many challenges, encouragements and opportunities which will demand much of us and what with my Dad's death and what has been up till today appalling weather conditions for travelling it has not aided a smooth start to our year.  Nevertheless I am looking forward very much to the coming months and am profoundly encouraged and grateful for great friends and good companions with whom we share our lives together.  
Take care,
Roy