Tag: Piers Northam

Camino Communion

This poem, by my friend Piers Northam, takes its inspiration from a Pilgrimage to the Shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela. The poem is written at the beginning of the Anglican Lambeth Conference. The Conference gathers Bishops and others from member churches of the Anglican Communion. It is a diverse group with differing opinions on many issues. It can be viewed as a ‘scattered family’ which gets together to celebrate a fellowship which is best described as Koinonia – a fellowship with each other brought together by the Holy Spirit and held by that same Spirit in a Communion with each other.

Sometimes, because of its diversity, there is disagreement and some heart-searching as a compromise is sought. Sometimes because of our separate cultures, it isn’t always possible to agree, at least not at present. The member churches seek to listen and keep talking and praying together under God’s guidance until a new understanding is reached.

Another way of seeing things is as a Pilgrimage to God’s Kingdom which we approach from differing directions – as with the Camino where pilgrims walk from many different places. Conversations, prayers and walking together produces many experiences as we share in the common adventure. Finally each of these ‘ways’ converge. The Camino symbol, tracing the cockle shell (emblem of St. James the fisherman) shows us the paths converging to the same point.

Piers reflects on this as he thinks of what is the nature of the Anglican Communion. There are parallels to be discovered between the Camino and the Anglican Communion. Might it, therefore, be possible to see a positive way forward, not just for Anglicans, but also for Christians of all denominations. Could we be even more brave and see some way forward for inter-faith friendship.

The Anglican mystic and teacher of prayer, Evelyn Underhill, had a belief that our differing views and beliefs are as Chapels in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. It is both a lovely and dynamic thought !

Hospitality

My friend Piers sent me this poem and reflection drawing on the Rule of Saint Benedict and its relevance to the Lambeth Conference of the worldwide Anglican Church.

I was drawn to dwell on hospitality by recent events surrounding the Anglican Lambeth Conference which began on 26 July 2022.  Anglican Bishops and their spouses from around the world have been invited to Canterbury to worship and pray together and to explore a range of topics.  I was saddened that partners and spouses of gay and lesbian bishops were not invited and this set me thinking about what true hospitality looks like.  St Benedict writes about hospitality in his Rule: in Chapter 53 he says,

‘All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35).  Proper honour must be shown to all, especially to those who share our faith (Gal 6:10) and to pilgrims.  Once a guest has been announced, the superior and the brothers are to meet him with all the courtesy of love.’

I also found this useful commentary by Jerome Kodell, OSB in which it becomes clear that, for St Benedict at least, there is a lack of pre-judgement and a defencelessness about true Christian hospitality.
So my poem comes not as a rebuke, but as a plea – that we welcome others with true generosity so that all may feel settled and at ease.  Only then can we feel safe enough to speak and to explore together.

My prayers are with all involved in the Lambeth Conference over the next few days.

Piers Northam
July 2022

Deep Dark

In response to Mr G’s earlier piece, Dispelling darkness with light came this.  When asked how I imagine God, the sensation that always forms within me is of deep, rich, velvety darkness – an enfolding – and a profound sense of safety.  There’s something a bit imperceptible about it: neither warm nor cool, but at blood heat, meaning that at times you have to pay attention to notice God’s presence.  A bit like a second skin….  It’s strange in a way that this image or feeling should have formed for me because as a child I was scared of the dark – but maybe that’s telling too – something about trust, perhaps. 

And at times, when things seem bleak and dark and starved of light, it feels as though God might be absent too.  That primal fear of the dark night and what it might contain surfaces in us and leaves us feeling alone and anxious. 

So much of our language revolves around the notion of light countering the darkness.  Yet it was God who said ‘Let there be light’ – God, who existed before the light came into being.  So seek and know God in the darkness too…

Piers

Pride

Rainbow over Telly Tubby Hill Newhall, Harlow. posted by Steve Townsend on his Facebook page.

Pride

After the rain
we trooped with rainbow flags
past buildings spotlit by the sun
against the dark smudge of loaded clouds.

A straggling, motley bunch,
we gathered in solidarity
to share, to encourage
and to remember.

As we listened to rallying words
of inclusion and love
and the diversity of creation,
a seven-hued arc
flamed against the charcoal sky
– each colour distinct, yet
joined in song,
without need of borders or hard edges.

Making our song,
against the dark clouds of hate and menace,
more vivid and more resolute.

poem by Piers Northam
after a gathering in Harlow to mark the end of Pride month
30 June 2022