Much is happening in our community now. We are recalling the centenary of the birth of the founder of our worldwide community, John Main – and how much has changed since his remarkable initiative to bring contemplative spirituality right into the heart of Christianity. It has remained a spiritual force for transformation. Although it must be said that this practice of meditation has hardly penetrated into the everyday of Parish life of Christianity.
So much has changed and continues to change at breakneck speed in the wider world. This is a time for launching a new ‘Four Week Introductory Course’. The emphasis is less on facts and information and more on how to experience meditation and the feeling of it in the body. Fr Laurence Freeman is presenting the new 4-week Introductory Course more suited to our times with broader appeal to speak to both Christians and followers of other traditions and seekers from none.
The question of new, more inclusive language is raised.
Such a question could never have arisen in the days of our founder John Main who referred to the ‘transistorised’ culture he inhabited which was the last word in modernity in his day! The succeeding era has been one of unimaginable change which will be reflected in some of the articles in this edition of the UK newsletter.
The life of Christ is a manifestation, extraordinary manifestation, of someone who could feel able to utter these words, ‘the Father and I are One’. Up to this time God dwelt in inaccessible light, a Sky God, at the top of the mountain. Or remote from human beings in a special sacred place such as the Holy of Holies or the Tabernacle.
Moses encountered God in a blazing Bush. He is advised, ‘Take off your shoes, this is Holy Ground’. This was the first dawning Realisation of God among us – that God could be one of us. Until Jesus of Nazareth no human being could presume to say: ‘The Father and I are One’. The life of Jesus Christ marks a great evolutionary moment.
And yet one of the great masters of prayer John of the Cross tells us that the language of God is silence. This is what we practise in meditation sharing silence and stillness. We have come a long way from the transistorised culture of the mid- 20th century!
The pace of change, with the evolution of a digitalised global culture, has brought unimaginable change. No wonder Fr Laurence Freeman has raised the theme of the future of Religion for us to ponder this year. The latest speaker, Iain McGilchrist puts it bluntly: Without Religion, No Future.
I was invited recently to offer a ‘Learn to meditate course’ for a mixed group of interested people who had encountered meditation and felt frustrated at not being able to do it!
I pondered what to call it. And in the end came upon ‘Christian and Universal’.
Christianity is very familiar and connected to other great world traditions. I feel justified in calling our course Christian and Universal. People attending are very accepting of this and interested.
It was helpful in making this claim to point out the fact that John Main was taught to meditate by a Hindu swami! Similarly another of the founding fathers of our tradition Bede Griffiths who left his Benedictine monastery to go to India in search of ‘the other half of his soul’. He spent the second half of his life in India living a tradition that is both Christian and universal Hindu.
He founded an ashram called Shantivanam which is still functioning today. Many of us have practised Zen and borrowed or adopted some of their practices brought from the Far East, first encountered in Japan.
In our tradition some are questioning traditional language which we have historically used and some are seeking a more universal rather than specifically Christian language. Much fruit has been found in exploring the Aramaic language that Jesus spoke, so different from traditional Western left hemisphere dominated way of thinking and speaking.
So we came into being as a community in a universal context. We are comfortable and inspired by it. We stretch out to embrace all living traditions: we are Christian and Universal. Christianity first arose in the Middle East amid the temple worship of Jerusalem and Judaism.
Finally it seems to me that it was no accident that the day of Pentecost and the influx of the power of the Holy Spirit happened at a time when there were ‘Devout men of every nation living in Jerusalem and at this sound they were bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language’ (Acts 2)! There was a universality in the very origins of Christianity.
Notice that Jesus came from Galilee, it was called ‘Galilee of the nations.’ Galilee was on the Silk Road and was an international hub from the beginning.
The empty tomb presages an evolutionary moment with the impact of this extraordinary life of the man who could say: ‘The kingdom of heaven is within you.’
The moment of recognition came when the closest follower of Jesus of Nazareth, Mary Magdalen clung to this mystery of the risen Christ and began to live out the impact and evolution of this one extraordinary life.
Shelagh Layet – Editor