The very landscape on my recent visit to Northumberland spoke of a place at once open and challenging. The community I stayed with there offered a generous and easy invitation and you were bound to feel accepted and supported by such a simple, contemplative environment, yet one also always willing to go out of its way to help.
A number of words recurred:
Journey: The travelling and not the arriving, always moving yet refusing to obsess over any destination as an ‘answer’ or reward.
Ordinariness: An awareness of everyday presence, a simplicity and down-to-earthedness in prayer and action.
Rhythm: More musical than boring, a regular consistency, a faithful dependency, a habitual momentum.
Blessing: Unashamed and explicit words, and prayers, of encouragement. Simple, generous and brave.
Bamburgh;
A castle over-looking a Holy Island. What does it take to live well in such proximity to power? Close enough to influence yet far enough away to be distinctive.
Holy Island:
One of the cradle’s of English Christianity. It’s a place full of stories, of cutting edge mission and inspirational spirituality. An evocative place, not least because of its nature as a tidal island, cut off at high tide yet connected via a causeway to the mainland the rest of the time. The Celtic saints of old saw that as a metaphor for their task of faithful discipleship. Profoundly connected, never aloof nor distant, but engaged, relationally, with the whole world around them. But also taking some time to withdrawal, reflect, pray, seek God without distraction, that they might be better fitted for the task.
Sculptures:
‘The Journey’, Aidan and Cuthbert - rough, powerful and strong, tender and honest. Real people in a real place creating a legacy.
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