Green Patches

Franciscan joy, foolishness and daring

"People think St Francis was about the bees and butterflies, and charming birds and taming wolves; but that’s the smallest part of the story. He was a monumental figure in his humility and littleness. He has so much to tell us in this modern age…

 

The Third Order has grown and is very autonomous now. It used to be very much run by the First Order, but as that has shrunk, as most reli­gious communities have, it has had to sort itself out and run its own affairs.

 

It has tended to become full of older people, and is starting to get top-heavy; so we’re trying to address that. As it grows and gets more organised, there’s always the trap of falling into an “organisation” spirit — as against the Holy Spirit — but people in the Third Order are far too individual for that to happen. I don’t think we’ll lose the sense of joy, foolishness, and daring that Franciscans have always had a reputation for. "

 -  from Church Times Interview: with Paul Alexander, Franciscan tertiary and actor

(for the full interview go here - online edition subscribers only) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Green on Staffa

 

or to be strictly accurate - a whiter shade of pale.  Eagle-eyed readers with 2o/20 vision may just be able to identify the faint blobs in the water as puffins.  When the time came, and after one posponement of the trip - from Iona to Staffa, the sea was so rough that the boat owner decreed that it wasn't possible to land. Happily, we were still able to circle round the coastline to view Fingal's Cave and umpteen types of seabirds, including these cheerful little stripey chaps, with the emphasis on the little. 

 So, yes, I did fulfil my ambition, albeit not quite in the way I'd expected. In the event, I spent most of the trip down in the hold throwing up, as did a growing number of passengers as the trip went on. At one point I raised my head for air to find myself surrounded by silent, grim-faced teenagers, (we were sharing the trip with a school group staying at the McLeod Centre), paper bags held to their mouths, looking for all the world like some new and weird species of elephant.  You'll have to forgive me the hyperbole; after downing enough travel sickness pills  to fell your average pachyderm, my imagination was running along strange lines indeed.  Never mind, in true Blue Peter tradition (Here's one I made earlier), Mr GP rose personfully to the occasion and conducted a mini-photoshoot with one battered 'Old Teddy,' who, after the best part of 200 miles spent stuffed into my rucksack, was brought out to strut his stuff and model his owner's original Puffin Club Founder Members Badge . 

We rolled back home to Iona after that, and, this (still somewhat wobbly) seabird was plunged straight into lunch duty, followed by daily chores - cleaning the loos! 

Was I glad I went on the trip? From a safe distance of over a week...yes.   And the whole holiday/pilgrimage - a hefty 200 miles or so winding our way from Durham to Oban on foot? A definite yes! Which is just as well, after three years in the planning. (It's amazing what daft things one can think up on a rainy week in Cornwall over a pint!).  At time of writing - over seven days since we returned home, I'm still processing it all.

To the last section of the trip, one of the gathering weeks spent with the Iona  presence in the Abbey, again, I'm still pondering what was (for me anyway), a very new, and often challenging experience of living in and building community. If you're not familiar with what staying there entails, this blogger here gives a good account of a typical week.  [would have commented, but this Puffin is technically challenged and wasn't able to get my id to work].

As a member of a dispersed community myself, (TSSF), I was particularly interested in the various takes on living out the Iona Community's rule and purpose out in the world, particularly as to how this works out in practice, and, in retrospect, would have liked to have asked far more questions on the topic: Does it really operate 'as it says on the tin?' Like TSSF, the community has a small, local  group structure  which is intended to serve as a member's primary support structure. What are different peoples' experiences of these? On paper, we appear to have a good many similarities, with maybe a slightly different nuance placed on some forms of service. Overall, I got the impression that that Iona membership is more of a tough call than TSSF; it's ecumenical in name as well as in spirit, and, that  concerted (and unlike tertiaries, group ) social and political action is more than just an obligation for Those Who Like That Kind of Thing , it's an imperative. 

Both communities are growing, evolving and constantly trying to work out how to live as an example of authentic Christian witness 'in the world.'  Both are - or should be, profoundly countercultural. Tertiaries share a common spirituality; but looking at the order through a more sociological lens as in the examples here it's plain that members' experiences, expectations and sense of vision vary enormously. As I expect will be the case for any community or association.  With the rapid growth of  dispersed communities of all kinds today, I guess we can all learn so much from each other. 

Little did I know, over forty years ago that I was effectively, making out a community rule of life! 

 

 

 

 

Franciscan Spirituality

Podcast from mootuk. Brother Samuel SSF talks to Ian Mosby about new monasticism and Franciscan spirituality's contribution to the Christian tradition. Challenging stuff : Br Samuel doesn't mince his words regarding woolly thinking, superficiality and generalisations. Quite a reality check for those of us who tend to an overomanticised view of community life in all its forms.

Round the World in 80 Faiths

 Recently  Mr GP and I have really enjoyed following the travels of Anglican vicar Peter Owen-Jones in the BBC's Round the World in 80 Faiths. Educated as we both were back in the dark ages (aka the Swinging Seventies), and in my case, at a Church of England school, comparative religion didn't exactly figure on the curriculum. In the realms of multi-faith knowledge I'm entirely self taught. Never mind, this last has helped fill in  a few gaps. And atheist and committed Christian both, its provided us with some good talking points. As Mr GP points out, he may not be 'religious' however, he's definitely a spiritual person.

I spotted a good crit of the programme this afternoon.Over at the moot community you can read  Ian Mosby's reflections with his telling conclusion:

So it is not surprising, that all over the world, all sorts of old and new forms of spirituality have arisen in a time of cultural plurality, and that with out power and control, religion is finding it hard to compete in the market place when it doesn't have the privilege to dominate.

 

So we return to why I believe that New Monasticism, Christian contemplation, and a rhythm of life are so important for new forms of church in this new context, because it is how we live that matters.  The greatest sadness for me, in all the programmes, is how 'aggressive' the forms of Christianity are, or where they are deliberately targeting desperate people.  We really do have power issues in many expressions of the Christian Church, many of which I could never participate in, let alone if I were de-or-un-churched.  We really need to get back into the inspiration game, and choosing powerlessness as modelled by Francis, Benedict and other Monastics.

Sad but true. Even allowing for editorial bias and selective filming, there were points when I felt torn between throwing a brick at the screen or crawling off behind the nearest sofa in total embarrassment. Sad indeed. Next week's  (final)  episode features a whistle-stop tour round Europe,

and judging  by the BBC's blurb I guess there could be some extremely uncomfortable moments.