God | The Australian Friend

Musings on Quaker Spirituality and Earthcare.

1306 June 2013, Issue No Responses »

May 142013

Robert Howell, Canberra Regional Meeting.

A few years ago when I was in Indonesia as part of the project on introducing non-violent conflict resolution training for the Indonesian Police [1], I was introduced to a Dutchman, a senior official working for the European Union. He wanted to know why I was doing what I was doing. I said “I am a Quaker”. “Oh” he said, “I understand –say no more”.

He knew that for Quakers, peacemaking is part of our history. Peace is part of Quaker ‘DNA’. We have a long history of working to prevent war and the threats of war, to resolve conflict non-violently, and to ameliorate the consequences of violence. It goes back to George Fox’s time and there is a steady stream of stories in every century since. They appear in all the Quaker histories, in the stories of our role models such as John Woolman, in the academic literature (examples: Kenneth and Elise Boulding), Advices and Queries, in the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. My EU official in Indonesia knew enough about this to open his door and offer to do what he could to help. I was able to draw on the efforts of many Quakers before me to give me credibility and status because that is what Quakers are and do.

If I had been on a project to do with earthcare rather than peacemaking, what would have my EU official have said? Most probably something like “Well that’s interesting, I didn’t know Quakers were into that sort of thing”. Quakers are not known for their concerns for earthcare. Anne Adams in introducing an anthology of Friends’ writing on earthcare stated that:

There is a huge gap in Quaker writing about the earth between the seventeenth and late twentieth centuries (apart from the remarkable John Woolman in the eighteenth)[2].

So if we believe that the crisis of energy, climate warming, and ecological degradation generally is at heart a spiritual one, what can Quakers bring to the efforts to deal with this crisis that is inherently spiritual and Quaker?

Ninian Smart in his book The World’s Religions describes seven dimensions of religion [3]. One of those is an experiential or emotional dimension. This dimension deals with what Smart calls “the perception of the invisible world” and involves personal experiences often containing heightened feelings. An oft quoted example of such an experience is described by Wordsworth in his poem, Tintern Abbey[4]:

And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused. …

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things.

… well pleased to recognise

In nature and the language of the sense,

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul

Of all my moral being.

John Woolman stated:

There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath different names; it is however pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no form of religion, nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what nation soever, they become brethren.

In his career as a tailor, he refused to use or wear dyed fabrics, because he had learned that many workers in the dye industry were poisoned by some of the noxious substances used. He was concerned about treatment of animals. In later life, he avoided riding in stagecoaches, as he felt their operation was too often cruel and injurious to the teams of horses. Yet for many years Quakers had similar spiritual experiences that did not necessarily (or often) lead to a recognition of pollution or the pain experienced by animals (like Woolman), or respect or reverence for nature where the oneness of the world becomes a spiritual anchor (like Wordsworth).

Rex Ambler has written:

We learn to sense God’s reality by paying attention to what happens within us, by listening for a voice or becoming aware of a light that can lead us to what is ultimate for us because it is the source of all life and all being. But having sensed that and having learnt to respond to it we can then discover it in other people also. Taking that further, but with a slightly different sensibility, we can learn to sense it in our fellow creatures, in animals and plants, but also in mountains and seas and the whole vast universe. What we can sense here – when we are open enough in ourselves to do so – is not the voice or presence of an invisible person, but the mysterious reality indescribable in itself, which sustains all life and all being as we know it. …

We seek to realise in practice the deep bond that we can dimly perceive holding us all together. In the new situation of environmental crisis we can surely perceive another bond between ourselves and the earth. The life of the earth, because it is now vulnerable to our power, is part of our life. Our life therefore can be realised and fulfilled only if we commit ourselves to the care of the earth. Making peace with the earth is now, or should be, part of our spirituality [5].

For Ursula Goodenough, a scientist, it is the mystery of why there is anything at all, the mystery of where the laws of physics came from, the mystery of why the universe is so strange, that generate wonder, and wonder generates awe [6].

Our Earthcare Statement of 2008 said that we must listen to the call of creation, recognise and respect the profound wisdom of indigenous peoples [7]. Karl-Erik Sveiby and Tex Skuthorpe in their wonderful book Treading Lightly [8] tell the Nhunggabarra stories and their lessons for sustainability. Max Dulumunmun Harrison (Uncle Max) in his book My People’s Dreaming writes:

I am trying to raise awareness of Aboriginal spirituality and to explain how we connect to the land. I am trying to capture in words the beauty of the land I see around me. And seeing is so important … really seeing what the land is telling you. Seeing what the land is offering for you to take [9].

Gael and I recently joined a group with Uncle Max on a bush-walk near poet Judith Wright’s former home near Braidwood. He encouraged us to look and listen and observe what was happening over time to the land, and to reconnect.

We also need to draw on Quaker stories about earthcare spiritual experiences. I have told one of mine called The Lighthouse and the Tree [10]. It is not a Wordsworth experience. I did not come away feeling an inter-relationship with and dependence on all life, both seen and unseen. So I have more questions that answers about how to evoke the bond recommended by Ambler between ourselves and the earth.

§ Does a spiritual experience that evokes a reverence for the earth have to come from a realisation from within us first, then others, and then the earth?

§ Does a reverence for the earth depend on having a spiritual experience? If not what are some other paths?

§ Can we facilitate a spiritual experience or does it just happen?

§ Is an earthcare spiritual experience more likely to be mystical than transcendental?

§ Do earthcare spiritual experiences have to happen in rural and wilderness settings, or are built environments also able to evoke reverence for nature?

§ Have we understood our peace tradition too narrowly and excluded peace with the earth from part of our peace leadings?

§ Where does our leading on simplicity fit in?

§ What can we learn from Australian Aborigines?

§ Do you have any personal stories that you can share?

[1] http://quaker.org.nz/indonesia-police-training

[2] Adams, A. 1996. The Creation Was Open To Me. Quaker Green Concern. Suffolk: Lavenham Press.

[3] The World’s Religions: Old Traditions and Modern Transformations. 1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[4] http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww138.html

[5] Written in 1995. Quoted in Adams, A. 1996. The Creation Was Open To Me. Quaker Green Concern. Suffolk: Lavenham Press.

[6] The Sacred Depths of Nature. 1998. Oxford University Press.

[7] http://www.quakers.org.au/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=296

[8] http://treadinglightly.sveiby.com/

[9] Harrison, M D.2009. My People’s Dreaming. Sydney: Finch Publishing.

[10] http://australianfriend.org/af894

Backhouse Lecture Overview.

1303 March 2013, Issue No Responses »

Mar 012013

By Julie and Peter Webb, SANTRM.

The 2013 Backhouse Lecture was delivered at Australia Yearly Meeting, University of Canberra, on 7th January by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a professional astronomer and life-long Quaker.

The lecture was presented in a way which reflected Jocelyn’s long experience of, and love of, teaching and lecturing. Although the lecture had been prepared (and adapted for publication) many months in advance, there were topical references which helped to engage the audience in what could have been merely a technical scientific discourse, but was in fact an engrossing journey, even for those, like us, with little scientific knowledge.

After talking about the Quaker-astronomy connection in the early days of Canberra Regional Meeting, and her own background growing up in a Quaker family in Northern Ireland and moving to a Quaker boarding school in England at the age of thirteen, where science and, eventually astronomy, became her passion, she warned her listeners that some may find her conclusions about science and religion difficult to accept.

Much of the lecture concerned the growth of knowledge about astronomy, particularly over the last fifty years or so. We heard about scientific theory, stars, planets, moons, galaxies, the universe, dark matter and dark energy. We heard about the widely-accepted Big Bang at the beginning of time and the likely future of the universe.

Jocelyn then explained her personal theology as it stands now. She cannot accept a “God of the Gaps” as the explanation for everything that science cannot explain. In weighing up her scientific understanding and her spiritual experience, she sees the existence of human suffering as one of the keys to her understanding of God. If all-loving and all-powerful, why did God create and allow suffering? Either God is indifferent to our suffering, or the universe creates it independently of God’s power. Jocelyn’s conclusion is that God is a God of love, not of omnipotence, and not able to control the laws of the universe.

She quoted from the Quaker Advices and Queries 5 and 7 (BYM)…..Take time to learn about other people’s experiences of the Light…. Appreciate that doubts and questioning can also lead to spiritual growth… Spiritual learning continues throughout life, and often in unexpected ways… Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come?

Jocelyn has shown us one way forward in our spiritual beliefs. While some may have been troubled by her scientific or theological conclusions, we were delighted to hear such clarity and heart-felt expression of her beliefs and some of her reasons for them. She accepts that, as science discovers more truths, she may have to re-assess her religious beliefs. She was also clear that even people with similar scientific background may draw different conclusions about religious beliefs.

This lecture stimulated much discussion in the following days of Yearly Meeting and it was a delight to see Jocelyn immerse herself in the gathering, talking with Friends over meals and being a “microphone-runner” at one of the formal business sessions. We hope that the printed version of the lecture will be a stimulus to further rich discussion and consideration in meetings throughout Australia.

from left to right:
David Carline, Queensland RM, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Backhouse Lecturer and Maxine Cooper Presiding Clerk at YM 2013.

Providence and History.

1303 March 2013, Issue 2 Responses »

Feb 242013

By Reg Naulty, Canberra Regional Meeting.

Does God intervene in history? According to the doctrine of Providence, God does intervene.

Providence means that God provides for our good. This doctrine is implied by Jesus when he tells his disciples that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God`s knowledge (and presumably, consent), and that every hair on our head is numbered.

The doctrine existed in ancient Stoicism. Marcus Aurelius wrote “Whatever happens, happens rightly. Watch closely, and you will find this true. In the succession of events there is not mere sequence alone, but an order that is just and right, as from the hand of one who dispenses to all their due.”[Meditations. Penguin. 1964. P66]

Let us consider some examples from World War II. Firstly the officers plot to kill Hitler in July 1944. The room in which the bomb was to be planted was originally an underground bunker, which would have concentrated the blast and killed everyone. But it was a hot day, so the venue was changed at the last minute to a light wooden hut with all the windows open. Von Stauffenberg and his assistant took two bombs with them in the briefcase which was to be placed on the conference table underneath Hitler’s nose. They armed one, but just as they were about to arm the other, an aide opened their door and told them it was time to take the briefcase in.

So they went in with only one bomb. During the conference, one of the participants moved the bomb with his foot, so that an oak trestle effectively shielded Hitler from the blast. The outcome is well known. Hitler escaped with a shaking, more than ever convinced that Destiny (Providence?) was supporting him.

What interest did God have in foiling the Stauffenberg plot? A convincing answer was given by Field Marshall von Manstein when von Stauffenberg approached him and asked him to join them. If they killed Hitler, von Manstein argued, German resistance on the Russian Front would collapse. Russian armies would then flood into Europe which would come under the control of a dictator every bit as bad as Hitler. There would be nothing gained. The best thing that could happen, he said, was that the German Army might delay the Russian Army as long as it could, so that the Allies could control more and more of Europe. Von Manstein had a case.

Consider another example from World War II. D Day had to be postponed from its original date to the following day because of bad weather. On that day the weather was also bad, so D Day was put off till next day. On the morning of that day, the weather had not changed. Rommel travelled back to Germany for his wife’s 50th birthday. However, that afternoon, the weather lifted and the Allies advanced. It was too dangerous for Rommel to return to Normandy by plane, so he had to drive across France. By the time he arrived at the Normandy coast a beach head had already been established.

One more war-time example: Once Operation Barbarossa had been launched against Russia the German Armies advanced with spectacular speed. However, the Russian Winter arrived a month early. That slowed them down and gave the Russians time to respond more effectively to the Blitzkrieg.

Was this Providence or chance? Well if it were Providence, why didn’t Providence intervene to stop the Holocaust? Or stop Stalin trucking out the grain from the Ukraine which caused a mass famine and millions of deaths? Perhaps there was no way for Providence to stop these disasters without making it obvious that this was divine intervention.

Well, what would that matter? It will be asked, “Wouldn’t it have been better to demonstrate intervention from God than let millions of people be slaughtered?” It would have shown that God cared. At last, demonstrable evidence of divine concern for humanity!

But perhaps it would matter. Once it had become obvious that God intervened to prevent disasters, we would wait for that to happen, and thus stop managing our own world. Perhaps it would be better for us if we went all out as masters of our own fate, with some unseen help from Providence where that was possible.

It will then be argued that is always possible, since God is all powerful and all knowing.

Why didn’t Hitler have a heart attack or stroke, thus getting him out of the picture entirely? Let us say that he died. What would the outcome have been? His lieutenants, Goebbels, Von Ribbentrop, Goering and Himmler all hated each other. The Nazi Government may have collapsed. Good thing? Not necessarily. There may have been extended crises in government in Germany, thus giving Stalin an opportunity to expand westwards. As with such possibilities, we just don’t know that the outcomes would have been better.

So despite appearances, it is still possible that Providence intervenes in history to provide for our good. We should also bear in mind that though death may be the end of earthly life, we may survive the death of our bodies and live on through different stages, so that life here is just the first chapter of a book whose last chapters shed a new light on the whole story.

The suggestion here is that Providence acts unobtrusively. It may be that history is a combination of our own actions and unobtrusive acts of Providence.

Of course, the Dawkins forces will say that Providence acts unobtrusively because there is in fact nothing going on. However, there are two imperatives here: First, that we continue to strive to master our world, and that God helps us in a way compatible with that. So God has to be a hidden provider.

Which voice?

1209 September 2012 No Responses »

Aug 202012

David Johnson. Queensland Regional Meeting.

The voice of the universal wisdom, the eternal, anointing, Divine Presence, the perfection of Truth, the ultimate, inexhaustible and unconditional source of all Love, the supernatural revealing, reproving, guiding and healing Light, the mysterious presence unknowable, unfathomable yet truly the only reality, unchangeable and ever reliable, the initiator of all that has been, is and ever will be, the ever-present, the source of all creative life and power, independent of gender yet also Mother, Father and Abba, for me in a word God, calls us into two main places.

The first is aloneness, in places of solitude, perhaps wandering in the natural world; or in solitary prayer during the night hours. At times this is a barren wilderness, at times a humble searching, at others a rich pasture with refreshing waters. The message may be either for our own spiritual journey, perhaps only an intimation of change, or a direct instruction for work to be undertaken.

The second is in practical and spiritual community where the voice of the Spirit comes through the words of those around us, in the work we do with them, and during the experience of shared worship. The gift of another’s words or actions, the clarity of sudden understandings, the arising of compassion, or the inward encouragement to continue working for reconciliation can be fruits of the Spirit’s voice in community.

The oscillation between solitude and community happens on a daily or a periodic basis, and if I am responsive to the inward urgings of the Spirit I can move freely between these two places. For the Spirit will call me aside in prayer for instruction or replenishment, and then send me forth with work to do. The alternation, as others have said, is between the desert and the marketplace. The Grace given is preparation for the work allotted. Not uncommonly such work is enabled by giving each of us a new voice, whether as ministry in worship, as a witness against injustice, as the counsel of an elder, or as a friend in community.

Yet there is a second voice within us – the voice of the Self that strives to counteract the divine voice. I recognise the voice of self-centredness and self-interest in myself. This voice can also be very subtle and appealing to our ‘better’ nature. Which do we choose?

Holy obedience is asked of us. Early Quakers knew full well the sense of being subject to the “cross”. We cannot expect that God will always ask for things that happen to suit our own comfort and desires. Our task is to not only hear the divine voice but also to do what is asked of us. Moses laid this out after wandering with the Hebrews in the wilderness. Though the Ten Commandments had been handed down for daily and judicial guidance, Moses described the real guide (Deuteronomy 30:11-14) in words that bespeak a future Quaker spirituality:

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Margeret Fell understood immediately George Fox’s words at Ulverstone in 1652:

“…but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of the Light, and hast walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?”

I cannot promise as Co-Director at Silver Wattle to perfectly hear every voice that is present. I do hope our work will enable Silver Wattle to continue to develop as a place where each person who comes can hear the inward voice more clearly, and be given the strength and voice to act upon it.

David Johnson and his wife Trish, will be Co-Directors at Silver Wattle Quaker Centre from 1/1/2013.

Pelagius; a Celtic Christian & Quaker Forerunner.

1209 September 2012 1 Response »

Aug 042012

Helen Gould, NSW Regional Meeting.

Karl Barth the German theologian once described the British as ‘incurably Pelagian’. And indeed, as I have learned about the Celtic Christian Church of which Pelagius was an early Father, I have found much in common with Early Friends. This is what I intend to focus on in this brief piece.

Firstly, a brief comment on the man. Pelagius was born in the latter half of the fourth century and was, by tradition, the son of a Welsh bard. He was a contemporary of Augustine of Hippo (yes, the man who did more than anyone to make ‘original sin’ official Church doctrine) and was eventually exiled from the Roman Empire and excommunicated from the Church as a heretic. He returned to Wales, and possibly Ireland, and his teachings, which expressed values of his Celtic culture, continued to influence the developing Celtic Christian traditions. I have drawn my information from J. Philip Newell’s book Listening for the Heartbeat of God: a Celtic Spirituality[i]

Like Fox and other Early Friends, he was concerned about justice. He even called for the redistribution of wealth – he said, “a person who is rich and yet refuses to give food to the hungry may cause far more deaths than even the cruellest murderer.”[ii] “Wisdom’, he wrote, ‘consists in listening to the commandments of God and obeying them. A person who has heard that God commands people to be generous, and then shares what he has with the poor, is truly wise.” [iii]

Pelagius drew much inspiration from John’s Gospel (which is sometimes called “the Quaker gospel”) and he drew similar conclusions to Early Friends from John 1:9 “the light that enlightens every person coming into the world.” Like Quakers, he concluded that all persons received this Light of God, so it included non-Christians, women and babies. Hence he willingly taught women how to read and interpret Scripture. He asserted that in the birth of a child, God is giving birth to God’s image; humanity is essentially good. Creation, and procreation, are God-given and good. Deep within each person, at the heart of humanity, is the goodness of God.

Yet evil-doing is real.

He writes of “the long habit of doing wrong which has infected us from childhood and corrupted us little by little over many years and ever after holds us in bondage and slavery to itself so that it seems somehow to have acquired the force of nature”[iv].

Early Friends emphasized that we must come to the teaching within our own hearts, and so did Pelagius. He wrote that if we desire to find the light by which to live, we should look within our own hearts where we will read the living Word of God; he instructs us to ‘write down with your own hand on paper what God has written with his hand on the human heart.’[v] In a letter to a young woman, Demetrias, he suggests that she ‘approach the secret places of her soul’ and there be attentive to the ‘inner teaching’ that God has placed within her, regarding what she should do, and then do it[vi].

However, he advises us to compare what we hear in this way, with what Jesus taught. “If you have formulated principles which are contrary to his teaching”, he says, “then you have misheard your conscience and you must listen anew.”[vii] Similarly, Early Friends believed that true guidance would not contradict Scripture. Yet Pelagius also wrote, “You will realize that doctrines are inventions of the human mind, as it tries to penetrate the mystery of God. You will realize that Scripture itself is the work of human minds, recording the example and teaching of Jesus. Thus it is not what you believe that matters; it is how you respond with your heart and your actions. It is not believing in Christ that matters: it is becoming like him.”[viii]

On Scripture, compare George Fox ; a characteristic statement is: “I did not understand these things with human resources, or with the help of books… but I understood them in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ and by his immediate spirit and power, as had those holy people of God by whom the holy scriptures had been written. Yet I had no little esteem for the Holy Scriptures; they were very precious to me. For I was living in that power that led them to be written in the first place. And what the Lord opened up to me I found later to be consistent with them.”[ix]

Celtic Christians like Pelagius affirmed the goodness of nature. He wrote, “Look at the animals roaming the forest: God’s spirit dwells within them. Look at the birds flying across the sky: God’s spirit dwells within them. Look at the tiny insects crawling in the grass: God’s spirit dwells within them. Look at the fish in the river and sea….There is no creature on earth in whom God is absent… his breath had brought every creature to life… God’s spirit is present within plant as well. The presence of God’s spirit in all living things is what makes them beautiful; and if we look with God’s eyes, nothing on earth is ugly.” And again, “when our love is directed towards an animal or even a tree, we are participating in the fullness of God’s love.”[x]

Fox too knew the original goodness of nature. He writes, in a magnificent and famous passage, “I now came up in the spirit past the flaming sword into the paradise of God… And the whole creation gave off another smell… I knew nothing but purity and innocence and rightness as I was renewed in the image of God… But as people surrender to the spirit of the Almighty, they too can receive the word of wisdom that opens up everything, and they too can come to know the hidden unity in the eternal being.” [xi] He also understood “how every creature occupies the space given to it so that together they can maintain their unity.”[xii]

Yet most of us have largely lost sight of the goodness of the natural world and the Celtic Christian deep knowing that through nature we can glimpse the divine living being. Friends, this is, for most of us, not something principally grasped with the intellect, but through participating in nature, by meditating, and by other characteristically right brain “doing” such as ritual, art, music… The right brain is “Integrated/ holistic… it takes the component parts and organizes them into a complete image or concept (gestalt)”; it is “diffused or divergent in that the right brain’s attention is on the entirety. It integrates that component parts and organizes them into a whole. It looks at all aspects simultaneously rather than in isolated detail.”[xiii]

No, I haven’t “lost the plot” at this time when Quakers are particularly focused on Earthcare. In the wider society at this time, there is no need to emphasize the value of analysis and rational linear left-brain processing because this is “the” way that Western people value. Rather, we need reminding that if we are to survive the here-and-future chaos, we need art, music, time in nature and above all worship, meditation, letting-go so that we can let God.

[i] J. Philip Newell Listening for the Heartbeat of God: a Celtic Spirituality 1997 Paulist Press, NY.

[ii] Newell p12. All quotes are reproduced in Newell; they all come from Robert Van de Weyer (ed.), The Letters of Pelagius Arthur James, 1995, and from B.R.Rees (ed.) ‘Letter to Demetrias’ in Letters of Pelagius and His Followers, Boydell 1991.

[iii] Cited Newell 22.

[iv] Cited Newell 17.

[v] Newell 16

[vi] Newell 15

[vii] Newell 19

[viii] Newell 11-12

[ix] Ambler, R Truth of the Heart: an anthology of G Fox 2:48 modern English.

[x] Newell 10-11

[xi] Ambler R 3:1

[xii] Ambler R 3:2

[xiii] A Parker and M Cutler-Stuart Switch on your brain 1986 Hale & Ironmonger, Sydney p13-14.

Julian of Norwich, a True Friend.

1206 June 2012 No Responses »

May 022012

Barbara Lumley, New South Wales Regional Meeting.

In 1910, in London, during the transfer of the Sloane Collection to the British Museum, a book was discovered which caused great excitement. It was very old, being a copy of a book written by Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress of the 14^th century, the first book written in English by a woman.

It had, no doubt been hidden at the time of Henry VIII’s destructive onslaught on religious property.

The find attracted much interest. Over the years there were many publications written about it, from devotional books through to Ph.D.’s. An Order of Julian was established in America, numerous Julian Groups focusing on silent prayer, sprang up over the UK, USA and as far as Australia! Julian’s cell, attached to St. Julian’s Church in Norwich was reconstructed, having been badly bombed during WWII. This became a shrine, looked after by members of the Julian Centre. An annual lecture on Julian is given there each year. Men and women have come from all over the world, to sit quietly in her cell, to pray, to be healed and to receive help. I was one such woman back in 1989.

It had all started ten years before when I was reading Medieval History at the ANU in Canberra. Sitting in the quietness of the library, a reference to the English Fourteenth Century Mystics, especially a Julian of Norwich, jumped out at me giving me an unexpected jolt, and I knew this was something I had to follow up.

There was no one else there the day I visited St. Julian’s church in Norwich. I let myself in and sat in her cell trying to imagine what it must have been like for her. What had prompted her to take on this unusual way of life? Medieval society would have understood that an Anchoress, after a requiem Mass and extreme unction by the local Bishop, was now dead to the world and ‘entombed’ for the rest of her life. Julian lived there for over forty years. It was also understood she would devote her life to prayer, especially for the local community. The original cell would have had two windows, one allowing access to the services held in the church, the other facing the main road to the coast. Contemporary accounts reveal that Julian was widely respected as a holy person who offered counsel and comfort to many people who came to this window in those very troubled times. On leaving the church, I bought a copy of her book, “The Revelation of Divine Love in Sixteen Showings made to Dame Julian of Norwich”.

It took me some time to come to grips with the contents. Six and a half centuries separate her world from mine. To begin with, hers was a sacred world whereas mine is very secular. Women then had very few rights or freedom. Some daughters of wealthy families might be lucky enough to receive an education but it would never be as comprehensive as that of sons. A more obvious difference was that it was a world dominated by suffering and the theology of the time very much reflected this reality.

All we know of Julian is what she chose to write in this book. She tells us she had been a devout lover of God from an early age and prayed that she might enter into a deeper intimacy with Christ and share his suffering. On the night of 8^th May, 1373, at the age of thirty, these prayers were answered. It was believed by herself and those of her family and friends present that she was about to die, and a priest was sent for. Instead, over a period of perhaps 24 hours she experienced what all mystics struggle to adequately express, a direct experience of the divine presence which changes lives forever.

This encounter was in the form of sixteen visions, or ‘showings’, with the suffering of Christ having central place. At the end of the showings, Julian was healed. She wrote down these ’showings’ in what is referred to as ‘The Shorter Version’. The ‘Longer Version’ of her book was written after 20 years living as an Anchoress where she had time, solitude and silence to search for meaning and what it was that God was trying to teach her. It became clear to me that living as an Anchoress was the only way, as a 14^th century woman, Julian could convey through prayer, discernment and the written word, God’s teaching on love which she felt He had called her to do.

Both Thomas Merton and Grace Jantzen, the feminist theologian and Quaker, believed her to be a theological genius of ‘astonishing complexity’. Jantzen concluded that Julian was an ‘integrated theologian’, in that daily life, religious experience and theological reflection were all part of the whole. Julian’s criteria for understanding doctrines had to include natural reason, the Church’s common teaching and Grace, and that God was the source of all three. Experiential encounters with the Divine were important but no more important than the other two. It was a safeguard against fanciful thinking.

Julian remained a faithful daughter of ‘holy Church’ for all her life. However, it does become clear that by teachings she meant those from the monastic spiritual tradition rather than the Scholastic philosophical system of the universities and clerical elite.

In her long search for meaning, she ‘saw’ that God had no ‘wrath’ in him and therefore no blame nor punishment were attached to his creatures. Nor did she ‘see’ hell or purgatory. In God there was no anger, instead only love and compassion which we too must practice. The practices of the church however, must have troubled her greatly and much time was given in asking God for an explanation of sin which was only ever partially answered. She came to understand that sin is a’ blindness’. Prayer was the key to transformation making the soul one with God and His will and it is God who teaches us to pray.

Julian was the first theologian to understand that the Godhead was both Father and Mother.

However, the overriding message of the Showings was that God’s meaning has been and always will be love. She finishes her longer version with these words:

“I desired frequently to understand what our Lord’s meaning was, and more than fifteen years afterward I was answered by a spiritual understanding that said, ‘Do you want to understand your Lord’s meaning in this experience? Understand it well: love was His meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did He show you? Love. Why did He show it? For love…’ Thus was I taught that love is our Lord’s meaning and I saw most certainly…that before God made us He loved us.”

It does seem to me that my life would have been the poorer without Julian as a friend and companion for all these years.

References.

Grace Jantzen, Julian of Norwich, SPCK, G.B. 1987

On Reading the Mystical Way.

1206 June 2012 No Responses »

Apr 302012

Drew Lawson, Victoria Regional Meeting.

on reading of the mystical way

speak these words

with the voice

of your soul

feeling the sound

vibrate

your being

listen

with the ear

of the heart

leaving the work

of the mind

until the infused silence

has revealed

what is

beyond

these mere words

allow

these doors

to open

upon

your own bliss

which will

reveal

a thousand thousand

blessings

enabling

you to embrace

bodhichitta

and bathe creation

in an ocean

of great good

where does it come from

this book you have made

with pages of fear

constraining your heart

proclaiming

what your life is not

the cannots and impossibilities

the demeaning smallness

denying your nature

in the image of alaha?

this tomb of a tome

fences you in

with blindness to the truth

of your being

encouraged to wither

its existence becomes

an unseen mystery

an itch

scratched with the wrong hand

irritating

instead of healing

whose voice

has captured you?

and with your allowing

sent you to the hell

which is the denial

of the long, long, list

of alaha’s graces to you

the long, long list

of alaha’s gifts to you

the long, long list

of the diamonds shining

in your heart

when did you learn

to say no to alaha?

when will you say yes?

with no answers

you sit in the unending

stream of love

in a landscape

where there is no drought

but unceasing baptism

this water does not

clean you

for you are

this water is empty

of gifts

for you have everything

this turbulent water

is alaha’s dance of joy

at your existence

the roar of universal communion

singing the song of greeting

to their blessed sibling

polishing the preciousness

you have always been

scrubbing away the moss of lies

to reveal

yourself

to yourself

divine and infinite

being of alaha

blessed beyond measure

generous beyond weighing

loving as the depth

of the cosmic ocean

look in the mirror

of alaha dearest one

and be flabbergasted

by reality

centuries

of small theology

have left us

harming christ

by refusing

to embrace

the gift of our being

made in the image of god

encountering the divine

we rear away

like a startled horse

whose staring eye

has seen

the consequences

our own divinity

which threatens

to break us

open

into the endless

blessing

we have

unknowingly

always

been

i stand

facing countless blessings

incarnated

as hedge leaves

a vibrantly green choir

singing

in the spring air

prayerful silence

a demolition ball

pounding

all constraints

into a mountain of rubble

to be cleansed

in the flowing river

and recycled

into a temple

of adoration

of our bridegroom

who came

to set us free

from all

inhibitions constructed

from the bricks of fear

anger and guilt

releasing

a monastic enclosure

whose limits are

a torrent

of edgeless love

yes

a monastery

without walls

containing all

of the impermanent

evolving cosmos

constantly baptised

by the living stream

which is

the eternally infinite

mystical ocean

welcome to your being

blue

hangs

in the air

serenely

present

a divine

infusion

rising

from the earth

to attract

our attention

reminding

our heart

each step

is enfolded

longer and longer

i sit in silence

until i am

no longer waiting

alaha speaks

release your song

let your mystical being

live

as a fully open door

a wind of love

infusing the cosmos

with song

sung through your being

into the ears of all

mystics

throughout eternity

the lintel

gives the clue

when we look

with our heart

rather than

the mind

which only sees

a bricked-up doorway

stopping

our desires

the seemingly vertical

and blocking stones

are

the welcoming path

waiting for us

to allow ourselves

to believe

our vision

caressed

by the spirit

which is

forever opening

what we think of

as closed

the song of my heart

a doorway

filled

with shadow

inviting me

into

what i cannot

see

in the land

of the spirit

the grass

still

singing

a thousand songs

of green

drawing us

into

the incarnation

of love

un-noticed

when

our outer spontaneities

are

disconnected

from

our being

the stone walls

cold and moist

with morning rain

touch my hand

entrance my eye

bend my knee

and i sit

leaning

against the upholder

of my being

as the baptismal spring

begins

again

silently

i sing

with the joy

of the pilgrim

at home

amidst ruins

alive with the lineage

of all contemplatives

on top

of a mountain

vision

blinded

by the insistent

blue

prising open

the eternal

eye

of the soul

waiting

for the descending

cloud

of unknowing

to baptise

with sight

the window

beckons me

to fly straight

as a meditation

into the mystery

of the source

unconstrained

by materiality

each vibrant colour

of the hill-side and sky

fruitful

emanations of the beauty

of the unseen

silence

singing

at the centre

of each geographic moment

arising

from the divine emptiness

infusing

yet beyond

the seen

and unimagined universe

flying

soaring

the ever open

window

disciplines the flight

into the infinite

space

encompassed

by the eternal hermitage

walls glowing

with the darkness

of all meaning

hidden

in clear sight

to be found

by the faithfulness

of the bride

amorphous forms

of words deceive

with dictionary definitions

that cannot

explain the i am

of colin mccahon

or the swirling

letters and words

of aida tomescu

we use

a million pieces of rope

in a deluded attempt

to tie life

to a mythology

devoid

of the human heart

and end up

nowhere

this is

the nowhere

of confused lostness

not

the nowhere

of everywhere

given as our birthright

of connectedness

infusing

all with all

and from the silence

of nowhere

which is

everywhere

light

spoken

on her first

much longed for

pilgrimage

to iona

the abbey church

disappoints

the sadness

filling her

like a wave

flows

down her cheeks

and reduces her

sprightliness

to the walk

of the living dead

the living stone

that had uplifted

her heart

over the miles

of her geography

turned out to be

merely

a museum

so much she couldn’t see

through

her tear filled eyes

yet on entering

the pale

of the nunnery

she finds

the nuns waiting

for her

the lintel

large

and heavy

to pin

all

in place

like a key

turning

in a lock

it floats

into place

on a cushion

of divine silence

releasing

the compassion

of the mystic

heart

flowing

mystical

essence

unlocks hearts

and is

my doing

by being

in disappearing

i struggle

as tentacles

of the worldly desire

to be seen

tug me out

of the awareness

of the divine

entrancing my mind

with seductions

of the temporary

i hesitate

at the choice

between death

and the eternal

the window

which is

my soul

looked out

from my cave

on the mountain of god

and saw

a space so enormous

that my being

as naturally as breathing

expanded

into union

with the divine

and the valley of my illusions

fell away

revealing

god’s constant call

to rebuild

the nunnery on iona

with blocks

of silence

earthquake

of my heart

you sit

so still

under a celtic cross

while facing

the abbey

on our iona

marvellous music

sings

through our conversation

of silence

interspersed with words

as exclamation marks

on our voyage

that never ends

for it is

always

just beginning

my being

a hermitage

cathedral

expanding

all notions

of inner-space

until all is

beyond

all notions

my hermitage

a cave

on the mountain

of god

firing

clouds

of unknowing

into hearts

confused

by certainty
*

dancing

through the cloud

of unknowing

reveals

a sacred arch

framing

the ancient tree

of wisdom

planted

in our own soil