The author of the epistle to the Hebrews speaks in a beautiful phrase of the Sabbath rest which remaineth to the people of God.’ (Heb. 4:9) Like many early Christian writers he is weaving an idea out of a series of Old Testament quotations to show that what was promised there is only coming to fruition in the Christian community and the Christian hope. Genesis talks of God resting on the seventh day of creation, which his people have copied in the keeping of a Sabbath day. The law further prescribed a seventh or sabbatical year in which the Israelites were to give rest to the land and release all debtors and slaves. Yet in psalm 95 the Hebrews author notices that God punishes a rebellious people with the words, They will not enter my rest’. On this basis Hebrews deduces that there must be a future reality not yet realized in Judaism which will provide an absolute and final Sabbath rest for God’s people.
The church adopted the idea of a weekly Sabbath but transferred it to Sunday, the day of the resurrection. Canon law in the Catholic church expresses the meaning of Sunday rather well when it instructs the faithful to abstain from work or business that would inhibit the worship to be given to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s day, or the due relaxation of mind and body.’
All of which is a way of approaching both the idea of a holiday and also the sabbatical which I am to start in August and September and complete next January. Clergy are in principle, though not always in practice, allowed a sabbatical every seven years my last was in 1985! The purpose of a sabbatical is to enable a recharging of batteries, time to relax, read, reflect and renew one’s sense of vocation. I shall also be traveling to study and see friends.
In a recent sermon, Fr Jim implied that my absence was well timed to coincide with the Lambeth conference, as if I would be hoping to escape any news of further discontent and division within Anglicanism. As he also pointed out that much of our trouble was due to the global availability of instant communication I would have to go somewhere very obscure to escape such news. As I shall be in Toronto for part of the time I shall no doubt see how another part of the communion is reacting to whatever happens at the Lambeth conference and no doubt their reactions will be similar to ours, since our divisions seem increasingly to focus on the conservative central African churches as opposed to the decadence’ of the English and North American churches.
The Lambeth Conference always happens at this time of year so if the participants were to think of it as an Episcopal theological holiday their discussions might prove more positive for the life of the church a time to meet new people, absorb new ideas, to be refreshed and renewed and not a time to bring along all the familiar baggage to a chaotic transit lounge in which everyone is struggling to lay claim to what is theirs.
We might suspect that at least a part of the press will have an interest in presenting the conference as the latter and no doubt there will be some grounds for them doing so. But because this is the holiday season’ I hope we can treat whatever disagreements, however aggressive, that might emerge, with a sabbatical spirit. The purpose of the sabbatical rest or the relaxation of a holiday, is to enlarge the mind and spirit, not so that we can ignore stress or suffering or controversy, but so that we can resist being taken over and diminished by them. The effect of controversy as of business is so often to shrink the spirit in us and prevent us from asking those questions that begin with words like, But what if ?’ What would it be like if ?’ How else might we ?’ How do we work with ?’ The rest which remaineth to the people of God’ ought to be an enlarging idea, an object of faith which expands the spirit and enables us to see beyond into what truly matters in the midst of confusion and disagreement, and not ourselves to be angered or upset by whatever is said. Radiant inactivity’ is a phrase which I have quoted rather often, perhaps because I am so bad at realizing it. And yet it is applicable here because it implies not a dormant inactivity, but a rest which gives light.
Of course while some of us rest others have to work, and I hope that in my absence you will be able to support, encourage and even feed Mother Sarah and Father Jim as they care for the parish. We shall be putting a small support group in place and if you find yourself both at the 8.00 and 10.30am services you may find that the readings and the sermon are very similar so that the preaching load is reduced. As usual there will be a break in the Bible study groups for August as there will be with the Holy Hamsters Service. I shall be sorry to miss some of the events of September but look forward to taking up the challenges that will await us in October in the light of the Archdeacon’s visitation, the report of which you will find elsewhere in this magazine.
With my love and prayers,
Father Stephen
I write this letter in the midst of preparations for the funerals of Grace Pirie and Stella Greenall. We give thanks for all that they both contributed to the life of this community and we pray for them and for their families. We shall write more about them in the next magazine, though see the items by Derek Spottiswoode and Diana Raymond.
The Vicar Writes
Stephen Tucker