VARYING STYLES of spirituality – what we might call “approaches to God” – are the focus for this issue of SEARCH. And while the pilgrim paths up the mountain may appear initially to be many, readers may nd they turn out to have more in common than expected. On the evidence of what follows, one pilgrim will easily recognise another on the interweaving way.
We begin with an approach that may be unfamiliar, chosen for that very reason, ‘Walking the Labyrinth’. Written by Lauren Artress of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, it encourages us to share in the deep spiritual nourishment to be found through this ancient practice. To come back home, we join Bishop Richard Henderson, that acclaimed leader of retreats, to share his preparations for such an event, opening us to God.Joining Anne Thurston as she explores three Seamus Heaney poems in relation to a Gospel story may seem rather di erent: in the absence of traditional piety, it is the poet’s sensitivity to God at work in human goodness, that o ers us food for thought. Further awareness of the place of the arts in our search for God comes from Br. Cyprian Love of Glenstal, in “Music as watching for Christ”.While it has been impossible to cover all styles of spirituality in this issue, the aim has been to o er as wide a variety as we can. We wander as far as the Eastern Mediterranean to learn from Patrick Comerford of his experience of the Orthodox tradition, and then return to Northern Ireland for articles related to both New Wine and A rming Catholicism from David McClay and George Irwin respectively.Then voices in Dublin chip in from our National Cathedral and New Expressions, speci cally from Eimhin Walshe and Greg Fromholz, both deeply concerned in their own settings to draw seekers alienated by institutional church life into a transformative experience of worship. Our concluding article on Centering Prayer by Carol Casey relates helpfully to the earlier contributions. We hope for further contributions in the area of spirituality for future issues of SEARCH. Do please send them in to the editor!Sad to say, we are losing our book reviews editor, Stephen Farrell, who other duties have become to onerous for him to continue. Thank you, Stephen, for all you have done for us!
Contents
Walking the Labyrinth – watering hole for the Spirit
“THERE ARE no days in life so memorable.” Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination.” For me, that day was August 5th, 1991 when our band of six congregants from Grace Cathedral entered Chartres Cathedral in France. We removed the chairs from the long forgotten labyrinth. Unable to secure permission from the cathedral officials, we nervously cleared the then 276 chairs from the labyrinth, held hands in a moment of prayer and entered the singular circuitous path to the center and back out again. About twenty-five curious tourists joined us in this pilgrim’s experience in conspiratorial silence.
I GAVE this title a subtitle - A Personal View - because I have considerable diffidence about prescribing anything for anyone, knowing that my own way of doing things is error-prone and quirky. So what follows is a mostly practical account: what has so far worked for me; a confession more than a prescription.
EAMON Duffy in an interesting essay entitled “Seamus Heaney and Catholicism” attempts to delineate the pervasive presence of the world of Catholicism in Heaney’s poetry and make sense of that, together with the record of Heaney’s distancing himself from the faith of his childhood in his adult life. The ambiguities remain, not least in the fact that the Heaney family chose a Catholic Mass and burial for his funeral.
Striving for the Still Centre – reflections on prayer
I WELL remember the earnestness with which Bishop Arthur Butler delivered his exhortation on prayer to me and the three other deacons in the Diocese of Connor away back in 1981. He said, “ Prayer must have a central place in your personal life, and one of your prime responsibilities is to teach other people to pray.” Over the years I have often revisited this apparently simple but profound and challenging exhortation, not least because it raises two questions which are bound to come to the fore, especially in the carrying out of a pastoral ministry: what is prayer?, and how do you go about teaching it to other people?
40 YEARS or so since the Charismatic Renewal Movement took o in Ireland in the mid-1970s, how has the charismatic style of spirituality developed in the Church of Ireland? In search of some answers to this question, SEARCH editor Canon Ginnie Kennerley visited Archdeacon David McClay at Church House in Belfast, to nd out how the leader of New Wine Ireland experiences the legacy of the movement.
Space to Explore: Cathedrals and Contemporary Mission
CONTEMPORARY Christianity faces challenges on multiple fronts. Not only is there a decline in religious belief generally, but even amongst adherents of the Christian faith, there is a decline in participation in traditional church life. The abuse of power by institutions of religion has led to churches being labelled untrustworthy and hypocritical. The progress of secularisation in the realms of education, healthcare and political life has seen religion retreat from being a public activity, binding nations and societies together, to a private pursuit occupying an exclusively private sphere.
DO YOU remember this childhood rhyme? Your fingers contorted to facilitate the hand origami:
This is the church; this is the steeple;
open the door; here are the people.
Orthodox Spirituality as experienced by an Anglican visitor to Greece
THERE IS a story in the Orthodox Church that when Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, was still a pagan at the end of the tenth century, he sent out envoys to discover the true religion and to advise him on what should become the state religion.
OVER 150 years ago, John Henry Newman wrote:
Now I consider this word watching, first used by our Lord, then by the favoured Disciple, then by the two great Apostles, Peter and Paul, is a remarkable word, remarkable because the idea is not so obvious as might appear at rst sight, and next because they all inculcate it. We are not simply to believe, but to watch; not simply to love, but to watch; not simply to obey, but to watch; to watch for what? for that great event, Christ’s coming... Most of us have a general idea what is meant by believing, fearing, loving, and obeying; but perhaps we do not contemplate or apprehend what is meant by watching . . .
CENTERING PRAYER is a form of silent prayer that helps us grow in our relationship with God. It is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer; and it is only one of a number of styles of Christian contemplative prayer which have been made more widely available over recent decades. The regular practice of Centering Prayer promotes growth in grace and inner healing.
