How could an all-powerful, all-loving God allow such evil and such suffering in the world? If you have been struggling with this question then don’t feel alone. The question of God and evil has puzzled theologians for centuries and to answer it they have constructed a range of theodicies (explanations or theories as to why God allows evil in the world).¹ To do this they have used the accepted sources of Christian theology: human experience, Scripture and tradition. Over the past few weeks you may have heard elements of these theodicies in homilies, in letters to the editor, or on radio talkback programmes as all of us try to come to terms with what has happened. Unfortunately most of the explanations limp - they leave us without satisfactory answers.

Basically explanations concerning the problem of God and evil may be grouped into four categories. Some theodicies try to explain evil in terms of its causes. They suggest that there are two forces in the world, one good and one evil, and that the world is a battleground where these two forces fight for supremacy. For Christians such a dualistic theory is unacceptable because it suggests either that the Evil One is independent of God (which implies that there is more than one God of this world), or that the Evil One is dependent on God (which shifts the problem of evil from this world to another level). In “the world is a battleground” theodicy, the events of 11 September would be understood as the powers of evil doing battle with the powers of good. Some people of a fundamentalist persuasion would accept this logic.

A second group of theodicies puts evil down to original sin and holds that somehow evil and suffering are necessary conditions of life. Evil is not something in itself but the absence of good. Evil entered the world when humans turned away from God (the highest good) as explained in Genesis 3. The evil itself is not willed by God but is nevertheless permitted by God in that God allows people to choose evil. Many of us probably identify with this position. Thus we explain the evil events of 11 September as the result of original sin, and the suffering of thousands of innocent people as a necessary consequence, not willed but permitted by God. But ultimately this theodicy fails to explain convincingly why a God of love would permit all humanity, especially innocent children, to suffer for something that happened so long ago.

A third group of theodicies tries to get around the problem of God and evil by suggesting that suffering is good for us (the “no pain, no gain” logic), indeed that suffering is essential if we want to be worthy to share life with God. These theories, however make God into a rather harsh taskmaster, almost like a principal operating a school of hard knocks. And we know from our own experience that many individuals do not find that suffering makes them any better. Indeed we find quite the contrary. Thus, in “the suffering is good for us” view we needed the horrifying carnage of 11 September to strengthen our character and to make us better people. Some Christians may generally live out of this stance and find it personally helpful. They may have, however, been struggling since 11 September to relate to a God who could “demand” so much pain. Sin is ultimately an evil and can never be good for us. Furthermore, if sin is a necessary and unavoidable condition of life for humanity, as this theodicy would argue, then what does this say about the God who created such flawed humans?

A final group of theodicies tries to redefine key terms in an effort to get rid of the question about God and evil. So divine power becomes God’s power to persuade or attract. Evil enters the world when people resist the attraction to the good. This implies, however, that God’s goodness can be overcome by evil. In addition some theodicies in this group redefine evil as hidden good and limit God’s love to only a few. The rest get God’s wrathful vengeance. So the events of 11 September would be seen as a failure of God’s power to attract the good or some kind of punishment by God on those outside of God’s love.

Thus all the theodicies, all the attempts to explain the problem of God and evil, though they may have helpful elements, are ultimately inadequate. Some people have therefore given up developing theodicies and instead devote their energies to showing how it is possible to believe both in the existence of God and the reality of evil. Why is this a better way forward? Simply because when we are confronted with the mystery of evil and suffering there are no satisfactory explanations. Evil and suffering can neither be denied nor abolished. Rather they must be faced.

Like Auschwitz and Hiroshima, the “cloud by day” and the “fire by night” which New York experienced were not the great biblical signs of the presence of God which gave solace to the Israelites as they journeyed through the desert. No, they were signs of unspeakable evil etched forever in our memories. Moreover, if anything, they could be understood as signs of the absence of God.

So where was God on 11 Sept? Can we still believe in God? Where has God been since then?

For those of us with faith, on Sept 11 God was where God can often be found - right in the middle of the chaos and horror, alongside those who faced the evil and the suffering. God’s compassionate presence was clearly visible in the actions of so many people. God was in the cellphone voices assuring spouses of their love in the last few moments before they died either on the hijacked planes or in with World Trade Centre; in the heroic acts of bravery of the rescue teams; in the outpouring of grief  which enveloped the globe; in the countless gestures of kindness and solidarity as strangers reached out to one another; in the voices of those Kiwis on their OE who phoned home immediately to assure worried families they were safe; in the record numbers of those (especially men) who felt drawn to churches and church services; in the two Island Bay mothers who organised a peace march to Parliament; in the people who left flowers and messages of condolence at the American Embassy; in the Aucklanders who opened their homes to stranded American tourists; in the people gathered in Civic Square to stand alongside one another in prayer. And the list could go on endlessly. But it doesn’t explain the evil – it explains where God was on 11 September and where God is today. God was and is among people throughout the world who immediately performed and continue to perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy to alleviate the suffering. But what about the evil?

The evil of 11 September and the resulting suffering cannot be rationalised or explained away by theories. Rather they must be faced by all of us. As individuals, as communities and as a nation, we here in NZ have to engage in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in order to alleviate the suffering. Our history has shown that we can be very good at this. But there is more that we must do. We must also admit to our part in causing the evil that led to the suffering. This is, of course, far more challenging because it means we have to change. We have to admit our responsibility as New Zealanders. As a country we have benefited greatly from living in a western democracy. Thus we have played our part in creating and perpetuating the economic, social, political and religious frustrations that have encouraged the flourishing of such evil. It is only by owning our sin, by acknowledging the part which we have played, that we can expect divine forgiveness. Naturally, the temptation is to consign it all to the “too hard basket” as someone else’s problem – especially the US’s. As Christians, however, we can and we must help one another to admit our guilt, to own our sin, and to work more urgently towards creating a climate of justice for all. A climate steeped in the most profound respect for human dignity as well as for a diversity of religious traditions, cultures and economic systems. In a word, we can and we must  “wage reconciliation” together. We can begin to do this right now in countless ways in our own families, neighbourhoods, parishes, schools and workplaces.

It is not “business as usual”. It will never be “business as usual” again. The world has changed forever. We have witnessed on an enormous scale in our global village both the presence of God and the presence of evil. We have had all the proof we will ever need to know that they both exist. As is often said: “The writing is on the wall – how big do we want the letters?” But we cannot leave it there. As New Zealanders together we can and we must make the world a better place. Our Christian hope insists that we can and that we must. Why? For the sake of children throughout the world, for the sake of the children laughing and playing outside my office window, beacons of hope for the future. 

Footnote:

1. Terence Tilley, "The Problem of Evil," on The New Dictionary of Theology, ed. Joseph Komonchak, Mary Collins and Dermot Lane (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1987), 360.  I have used Tilley's description of various theodocies in what follows.

SPIRIT AND SHADOW by John North

There’s something Tolkienish about the first words in the Bible. The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the sinister ocean while the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. There was a confusion of matter waiting to be shaped and formed into order, pattern and have life itself breathed into it. Then came the Word of God: Let there be light and there was light and yet also still darkness. The light was day and the darkness was called night. Darkness was not abolished but became part of the pattern of day and night, not only out there but in our souls too.

It is this mixture which bothers us. We want light all the time and some of the songs Christians sing encourage us to expect this:

“Not a shadow can rise
Not a cloud in the skies
But His smile quickly drives it away.”

Such misleading words can create unrealistic expectations and lead people into a sense of failure and guilt.

It is true that the word “darkness” can often describe negatives like death, ignorance, sin and so on. The paradox is that darkness and shadows come to us all and by the grace of God can bring us to life-changing insights and experiences. It is fascinating to look up the word darkness and discover that it is the very place where humans discover God’s mercy and salvation:

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abraham and a deep and terrifying darkness descended on him.  (Gen  15:12) It was in this unnerving experience that God came close with blessing, promises and a new personal covenant. Jacob was running for his life and slept in a desolate place but awoke to say, Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. (Gen.28:16.) The people of Israel were saved from the Egyptian army in the darkness caused by God. (Ex.15)

The same theme emerges in the passion story. There was darkness over the whole land and Jesus cried out, My God, why have you deserted me? There could be no darker place than Golgotha and yet precisely there, the gates were opening to a new relationship of God with humans. The centurion was the first to realise the new era had begun.

It was St. Paul who linked the creation and redemption stories together.

For it is the God who said; “Let light shine out of darkness” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Of course it is much easier to study the theme of shadows in the Bible than to cope with our own darkness. Maybe our lives sometimes feel like a stormy ocean in deep darkness. But the Spirit is hovering over us too and the Creator is preparing to speak the Word to bring light out of darkness and new patterns of life out of chaos.

Are we not all participating in our own personal creation story?

SPIRITUALITY OF ADDITION, SPIRITUALITY OF SUBTRACTION by Andrew Pritchard

How I came to read Irvine Stone’s biographical novel of Michelangelo “The Agony and the Ecstasy” I don’t remember. Back then as a young engineer art and the humanities didn’t hold much interest for me and spirituality was mostly about right belief and conforming reasonably closely to my good Baptist upbringing. How times change! Anyway I enjoyed the book enormously but at that time had no idea that an image from it would deeply affect my life and form the core of a spiritual formation lecture that students some thirty years later would find so helpful.

From Stone’s account two descriptions of Michelangelo’s myriad of artistic works stood out. Towards the end of the book he describes the painting of the frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Here was a new challenge for Michelangelo the sculptor. How to paint? … and that on a scaffold forty feet high with the paint dripping in his eyes and through his dishevelled beard. The masterpiece he created that has enthralled thousands over four centuries was created in layers - plaster, then layer over layer of paint until he had created “the world on that Sistine ceiling as though it were being created for the first time”.¹

But Michelangelo’s first love was sculpture, transforming multi-ton blocks of roughly hewn marble into a Pieta, an Angel, a David. Here was art, not built up layer upon layer but rather the release of the figure contained within the block, the removal of all that was superfluous until  only the creative, vital life and beauty remained. “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

Each human life is also a work of art and God the artist.

Sometimes God works as painter …

“Whom shall he teach knowledge? … For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”² or as Peter instructs us “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.³”  The spirituality of addition: adding virtue to virtue, steady growth towards maturity. This is a spirituality of success, a spirituality of the overcomer in the book of Revelation. The Conquering King and the Lion of the tribe of Judah are images of God that correspond to a spirituality of addition.

Sometimes God works as a sculptor …

… chips fly, hammer strikes, chisel cuts … dust clouds the air and blocks out the light. Crisis, mess - work of art? - creation of a master craftsman? “Not likely!” “The wages of sin”, “the result of disobedience”, “an attack of the enemy!” or the one who sees the angel in the marble releasing it and setting it free?

Paul’s experience would make anyone think twice about aspiring to Christian leadership.

“Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.”⁴

Christ’s downward progression makes it clear,

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”⁵

Spirituality of subtraction: the removal from our lives of all that is not really “us”. The suffering servant of Isaiah and the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world … images of God that correspond to the spirituality of subtraction.

As I look back over my life it is so often the painful times, the crises, that have brought the most growth. Burnout that helped me to see that people respected me for who I was not what I achieved, the closing of a Bible College that left me without work only to discover a new vocation and freedom are but two examples that spring to mind. A spirituality of subtraction that I have learned to recognise and appreciate alongside the joyful times of addition.

A one sided spirituality, appreciating only addition, progress and victory, though prevalent in many churches in Western society, does not conform to reality or to scripture. Here crisis, set-back, failure is rejected as incompatible with the benefits of being a Christian so confidently promised by enthusiastic marketers of the church. Those who see through this one-sidedness find such churches toxic to growth and faith.

When disaster strikes or crises threaten, be they international, communal or intensely personal in scope,

Jesus the Son of God has been there before us, so let’s hold firmly to our faith. Jesus is in touch with our reality, he’s been through weakness, experienced testing, endured suffering so we can be confident, especially in our time of need, that Loving God is with us in mercy and grace.⁶

Footnotes:
1. The Agony and the Ecstacy, p468.
2. Isa 28:9-10 (KJV)
3. 2 Pet 1:5-8 (NIV)
4. 2 Cor 11:24-26 (NIV)
5. Phil 2:5-8 (NIV)
6. See Heb 4:14-16

DANCING IN THE RAIN by Barbara Sampson

I remember the day the drought broke
after months of below-average rainfall
a long dry summer seemed inevitable and costly
farmers looked heavenwards and prayed for rain

Then it came gentle silent persistent
not stopping for a whole day
next morning every tree was weeping with joy
cobwebs sparkled with diamond drops
the world washed clean

That was the day
war began in Afghanistan
the first bombs dropped on an evil terror
that was the day
an immigrant taxi-driver was bashed to death
that was the day
the little boy down the street was bullied and beaten
in the school playground

The world is weeping God
with bombs and bashing and bullying
yet your cross proclaims an Easter resurrection
surrounded by death you call us to live
in a world gone crazy with hatred
you draw us into your song of love
in a parched and weary land
you invite us to join you
dancing in the rain.

December 2001

ROAD FATALITY CHAPLAIN by Peter Dunn

The Fire Brigade siren sounded followed by a second call. I went into my study and collected my things together. Sun hat, sun glasses, prayer book, bottle of water and bowl. I made sure my shoes were handy and went and got changed out of my holiday clothes. Eventually the phone went. “Car versus car just south of you… There are fatalities and they need you right away.”

I met the banked up line of cars a long way before I thought I would. Pulling out into the right hand lane I continued, noticing a hearse pulling in behind me. I was ushered through the roadblock with a friendly wave and arrived. A local policeman greeted me and gave me a briefing. “She’s still in the car, can’t get her out yet. Anyway, have to wait for the police photographer. Want to see her?”

I was taken to the mangled car in the ditch and left there. I was not prepared. I reached in and pulled the cover back up over the body. I looked up and they were watching me. I knew them by name. One by one they came up and said, “I’m so glad you’re here!” or “It’s about time you were involved.” The firemen had already been there ninety minutes, an hour of that fighting to stabilise the young guy in the Ute before the rescue helicopter arrived. He was gone, but the drip bags and lines were still hanging from the mirrors.

My friends were stressed and troubled. You could see it in their eyes, see it in their movements. I moved around and talked. They were troubled by the senselessness of this accident. They were troubled by the young man and what they saw and suspected. The lady in the car troubled them. The strewn presents collected in a pile. The warm crock-pot with a family dinner that slid along the road intact.

It had been another hour, but the photographer had come and done her job. It was my turn. They all came. Standing in a semicircle around the car. The firemen, the policemen, and the towies. I stood there, my prepared prayers in one hand, the water for cleansing in the other. Those prayers were inadequate, so I prayed spontaneously and sprinkled. We stood in silence, heads bowed. The radio spoke, the boy had died. I began to pray. For the boy’s family as they heard the news and grieved. For the family of the grandmother who would not have the joy of her arrival. For the firemen, for the policemen, for the towies, each in turn.  I prayed for peace, comfort and release from memories and trauma. At the Amen, they still stood, heads bowed, some with tears.

Then they moved, without a word. An order here, an instruction there. I was told to move out of the way. The car was dismantled, the body retrieved. I made my way home wondering. In the days and weeks that followed they told me how much it moved them. Praying for the victims by name, their families. Praying for them and recognising their needs. “It was special.” “It was as though God was looking down.” “I felt anxiety go.” “I went home and didn’t drink like I usually do.” “I slept peacefully that night.” “You’ll be there next time won’t you?” “We’ve had an emergency vest made for you so everyone will know who you are.” In the end, I received much more than I gave. I was amazed to find once more that God speaks powerfully in times of crises, to people in need who don’t go to Church, in a place I did not expect.

FROM THE SHADOWLAND by Bruce Prewer

On the slagheap
of accumulated defeats,
plodding days
of grey despondency,
inhaling the smog
of stale apathy –

Come, Spirit of the Lord,
come and rescue us
from the shadowland.
Come, Spirit of truth.
with your tough grace,
your resolute love.
Come, Spirit of Christ,
and bring us out again
to the land of laughter.

(From Jesus Our Future. Openbooks, Adelaide 1998. P 34. Used with permission)

WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN (Contributed)

A generation ago most people could tell you where they were the day Jack Kennedy was assassinated.     There is a new standard now, with almost  everybody on earth sure to remember for the rest of their lives where they were on September 11.

We were on holiday in Europe, and saw it all on wide screen TV.    Soon the email brought travel warnings from our embassy, then news that many of our good friends and colleagues were amongst the hordes of foreigners fleeing the Middle East.

A week later we got “home” to find a very different place, with some of our best doctors and nurses gone or going.   It struck me immediately that the people first out the gate were the ones I would have rated as stayers in this sort of situation.  True, some of them had had daily phone calls from family begging them to pack up, which must have been hard to deal with.    We did not have that problem, with our children understanding that we were where the Lord had put us, and giving us the credit for being able to make a sensible on-the-spot assessment of what the risks were.

Neither of us felt any urge to leave, especially when we learnt that some of our rather anxious junior colleagues were looking to us for a lead.    And I could not get it out of my head that these days journalists covering the world’s trouble spots have a much more dangerous job than do Christian missionaries.      We must have been encouraged by some senior colleagues’ “business as usual” approach, but we also had personal experience from another country in which the Lord clearly told us to stay put in very unpleasant and testing circumstances where we were given the option to go if we wished.

We also knew that it would be difficult for our national co-workers to accept any reason we might give for a decision to leave them.   They assured us that we were safe, and said that everybody out there knew that we were not part of the problem.     There was, and is, a lot of anti-Western feeling in the community, but we were encouraged by our national colleagues’ assessment of the situation.

The regular security measures around our hospital, unusual by most ordinary  standards, were tightened further, and this on its own probably increased tension for some of our number.   Fiery political sermons from the mosque were rather chilling, but neither my wife nor I ever felt that we were in any real danger.   We were working harder, but had no discussion about the deeper implications of our colleagues’ precipitate departure until one of my wife’s friends remarked how odd it was that the most positive and vocal (if I can put it that way) Christians on the staff had gone.

It soon became apparent that other staff members were having difficulty in coming to terms with the whole situation, made worse by the fact that we were short staffed before all this began.   Much worse now.  Little was said, but it became clear to me that feelings ranged from mild surprise and disappointment to dismay and outright resentment.

I saw that we needed to face this festering aspect of the whole problem, and being rostered to preach late in September I chose to deal with judgmental attitudes.   I told our team that I had to confess to passing judgment on some of those who had left us.     The expressions on some faces indicated that I was far from alone.   I reminded myself as well as them that the indication for St Paul moving on, especially early in his ministry, was usually because he or his friends felt it was too dangerous for him to stay where he was.  Nobody judged him harshly for that.   And we had no reason to suppose that God gives the same leading to everybody in this sort of situation.

Discussion brought out the fact that some of our number had been down this road some years ago, and had taken advice to leave the country during a previous emergency.     To a man (well, to a woman, actually) they now said they had felt so guilty that they had decided to stay put this time.   This was some encouragement to the rest of us, but whether it helped or hindered our efforts to deal with our attitudes is another matter.

Missionaries face many difficulties and temptations not even hinted at in Bible college.    Dealing with actual danger is comparatively simple compared with handling the kind of emotional strain and potential for conflict that I have outlined here.    A man with a gun is one kind of danger, and the fiery darts of the Devil quite another.    If you are our friends, do not pray for our physical safety alone.     Please pray for wisdom and grace for us to handle matters with much greater potential to spoil our work and witness.

DISCOVERING GOD IN DEEPER PLACES by Leslie Hyde

The early days of walking with God can be ‘heady’ days, marvelling at the power of God to heal, to deliver from binding sins and fears, and to answer prayer.  How we worship this mighty God who seems to be there for us in amazing and sometimes miraculous ways!

Even in the hard times and through dark days, somehow God would break through, and in the end things would work out.  With God’s help I could overcome.

It was in this frame of mind that I had surgery for my first hip replacement.  Numerous people were praying for me.  I was secure in the knowledge that God was there for me.  My faith did not waver, even when it became obvious that all was not well.  I knew God could ‘fix’ it; healing was a matter of waiting in faith.

But it did not happen.  Things went from bad to worse.  Rheumatoid arthritis began to affect all my major joints.  The surgeon warned me that I was going to face, in his words, surgery after surgery.  My mobility became seriously impaired, and pain was  constantly with me. Someone among those who were praying for me assured me there was some sin in my life which was blocking God’s healing.

However, I was discovering something new about God! 

Outwardly, my condition is not improving, and I have reluctantly  begun to accept the fact that it will probably go on worsening.  I struggle with that, yet what is happening inwardly is so significant, that somehow it over-rides the depression about my condition, that can hit me from time to time.

There is a radical change in my relationship with God, who is there for me in a very different way these days.  No longer to ‘rescue’ me from pain and difficulty in physical ways, but oh how our God comes to us in compassion and mercy in the depths of our inner being!  I know now why mystics and others have described God in terms of a lover.  I have different names for God these days, intimate and tender.  When things get me down, I have a haven to rest in, where words are not necessary, and where balm is poured into my soul.

St Paul’s words: ‘Give thanks in all circumstances….’ (1 Thess 5:18) make a lot more sense to me these days.

 A POEM  (Anon - Tauranga)

I will arise when I see the dawn

My spirit waits to see its light

This darkness has become my cloak

Its emptiness a pleasant place

I will no longer fear the nothingness

But embrace its chasm within my soul

For in the darkness I begin to see

The ebony eyes of silence.

I will find rest in this place of no feeling

Find solace in my quiet hell.

A diamond spirit still beats within

Pulsating with the rhythm of time

I know its radiance no longer shines

But I am sure the sun will rise,

Its rays will touch my spirit jewel again

And then the darkness will no longer be mine.

I will wait for you as a lover waits for evening

Again you will fill my being

And I will have this longing satisfied.

HARMONY by Karl Barth

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Why is it that this man is so incomparable? Why is it that for the receptive, he has produced in almost every bar he conceived and composed a type of music for which “beautiful” is not a fitting epithet: music which for the true Christian is not mere entertainment, enjoyment or edification but food and drink; music full of comfort and counsel ….; music which is never a slave to its technique nor sentimental but always “moving”, free and liberating because wise, strong and sovereign? Why is it possible to hold that Mozart has a place in theology, especially in the doctrine of creation and also in eschatology, although he was not a father of the Church, does not seem to have been a particularly active Christian, … apparently leading what might appear to us a rather frivolous existence when not occupied in his work? It is possible to give him this position because he knew something about creation in its total goodness that neither the real fathers of the Church, nor our Reformers, neither the orthodox nor Liberals, neither exponents of natural theology nor those heavily armed with the “Word of God”, and certainly not the Existentialists, nor indeed any other great musicians before or after him, either know or can express and maintain as he does.

In this respect he was pure in heart, far transcending both optimists and pessimists. … he heard the harmony of creation to which the shadow also belongs but in which the shadow is not darkness, deficiency is not defeat, sadness cannot become despair, trouble cannot degenerate into tragedy and infinite melancholy is not ultimately forced to claim undisputed way. Thus cheerfulness in this harmony is not without its limits. But the light shines all the more rightly because it breaks forth from the shadow. The sweetness is also bitter and cannot therefore cloy. Life does not fear death but knows it well

Mozart saw this light no more than we do, but he heard the whole world of creation enveloped by this light. Hence it was fundamentally in order that he should not hear a middle or neutral note, but the positive far more strongly than the negative. … He never heard only the one in abstraction. He heard concretely, and therefore his compositions were and are total music.

Church Dogmatics, Vol. III, Pt. 3,  pp 297-298

Faith is homesickness. Faith is a lump in the throat.
Faith is less a position on than a movement toward,
less a sure thing than a hunch.
Faith is waiting. Faith is journeying
through space and time.

Frederick Buechner

Jesus says

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink is the best meal you’ll ever eat.

You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

Not only that – count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens – give a cheer, even! – for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds.

Matthew 5:1-12. The Message

MYERS BRIGGS AND JESUS by Maggie Smith

During the lunch break of a retreat last Saturday, Jesus joined me in a walk - or did I join Him?

“Jesus, One of the things I admire about You is Your sanity Your balance - the way You accept ... and enjoy... and use all the facets of Your nature - a divine capacity for holiness, I guess.

You are “I” - who needs time alone, personal space, reflection in the desert, prayer before dawn, all through the night sometimes, on hillsides, in a garden.....

You are “E” - who teaches crowds, goes to parties, builds community with disciples, seeks the company of the lonely and unloved.....

You are “N” - knowing about people - what makes them “tick” ­an uncanny understanding of their hearts and minds. You see beyond the immediate and obvious to an infinitely wider kingdom. You live Your life from an amazing union with the Beloved.

You are “S” - noticing the wayside flowers, hearing the chirping of sparrows, appreciating the taste of bread and wine, feeling the tentative touch on the edge of Your garment and unafraid, Yourself, to grasp the hand of a leper. Your stories are full of the details of everyday illustrations. You smell the fragrance of nard and recognise the deeper fragrance of love poured out.

You are “F” moved with compassion for a crowd, lost and leaderless like sheep without a shepherd... moved with anger at an attitude that is careful for the law and careless for a woman with a back bent like a staple.

You are “T” - out-thinking your critics, silencing their arguments, loathing hypocrisy and injustice with Your logic and wit and rhetoric.

You are “P” - stopping spontaneously to take children in Your arms to bless them... and to charm a lonely little tax-collector out of his tree; open to receive the teaching of Sophia in the events of Your day, open to new possibilities in the words of a persistent Syro-Phoenician woman, open to the baptism of John...yet...

You are “J” - spending time after that immersion in the Jordan to work out strategies of mission. You planned each new stage - Capernaum to the rest of Galilee, synogogue to open road - and knew when it was time to set Your face towards Jerusalem.

You are all of these, wholly.
You are none of these, completely.

You are Truth - for Truth is not a doctrine or a formula, but is freedom to be fully who You are - fully I Am.

That’s Myers-Briggs, by the way, in case You didn’t know.”

“Uh, uh” He grunts, non-committal - but I’m sure impressed!

“Then,” I continue, warming to the idea, then there is the “Enneagram.”

He groans and chuckles. Perhaps it is just as well that our walk is over.

MOON by Ken Baker

You capture me!

You rise up, up.

Cloud might blot, sleepiness send
me to bed.

Next morning, you draw me again,

voyage across the sky,

morning sun caressing,

permitting life.

Life-giving Spirit, continue to transform,

I need to be captured!

May 2002

O THREEFOLD GOD OF TENDER UNITY  (Hymn)

O threefold God of tender unity,

life’s great unknown that binds
and sets us free:

felt in our loving, greater
than our thought,

you are the mystery found,
the mystery sought.

O blaze of radiance, source of light
that blinds,

fierce burning fire in clear
prophetic minds,

you live in mystery, yet within us dwell;

life springs from you as from a living well.

Most loving Parent, Child of
joy and pains,

Spirit creating, life-force that sustains,

tissue and bone are touches
of your hand,

your face we see in water, air and land.

O threefold God of tender unity,

life’s great unknown that binds
and sets us free:

felt in our loving, greater
than our thought,

you are the mystery found,
the mystery sought.

Copyright – written and revised by Bill Wallace

 THANKS FOR DEPRIVATIONS

Lord, I thank you that in your love you have taken away from me all earthly wealth and that you now clothe me and feed me through the kindness of others. Lord, I thank you that since you have taken away the sight of my eyes you serve me now through the eyes of others. Lord, I thank you that since you have taken away the strength of my hands and my heart you minister to me by the hands and hearts of others. Lord, I pray for them. Reward them for it in your heavenly love, that they may faithfully serve and please you till they reach a happy end. Amen.

Mechthild of Magdeburg (1210 c 1280)

GOD OF DEEP MYSTERY by Colin Renouf

God of deep mystery and surprising newness,

how we fight your coming to us.

We do not recognise you and yet are drawn

irreversibly into your presence.

Like a moth is drawn to a light

or a metal filing is drawn to a magnet,

You draw us and we long to come,

but the mystery and the unknown frighten us.

Who is this God that we now meet?

He/she is not like the God we knew last week,

last year.

Yet we must journey on because are hearts are hungry

and we will never be satisfied until we have

become one with you!

God of deep mystery and surprising newness,

why are you so elusive, so hard to find?

Is it because our feelings betray us,

and we search for the wrong thing?

Search for security and comfort,

when you ask us to embrace risk and abandonment.

Risk and abandonment, embracing the strange and the new,

making discoveries we could never have imagined.

Your love so deep and strong,

it overshadows us and enfolds us.

You gather us like a mother hen

gathers her chicks under her wings.

God of deep mystery and surprising newness,

come to us again today. 

Amen

Tautuku - April 2002

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SGM by Mary Concannon OP

You can’t have a birthday without celebrations. At least that’s what some of us felt when SGM turned twentyone this year. Doubtless there are people who have had their own private parties, celebrations of thanksgiving for what SGM has meant for them. There were also those who partied together.

It was a lovely autumn day in late April when Dunedin spiritual directors met for networking but this time with a difference. We had a celebratory lunch at a café rented by the local Anglican parish. Aptly named Loaves and Fishes it is used for services on Sunday and run as a business during the week. Situated in Macandrew Bay it provided us with a scenic view as we exchanged memories of our experiences with SGM. One person spoke of how her participation in the Clearness Committee discernment process during a training event for spiritual directors had helped her discern the right path in ministry. Others spoke of how their lives had been enriched through the ecumenical education provided by SGM events.

In some way each of us had reasons to be thankful for our association with SGM. Nola Myles, our local co-ordinator, invited us to express our gratitude by writing a word or phrase on a balloon which we then let loose. We stood in the sunshine and watched as the balloons floated away in all directions. The symbolism was eloquent. What we had gained through our association with SGM had passed from us to so many others till like the balloons, gone from sight, we no longer know where the benefits had spread. Perhaps no more fitting symbol could be found to illustrate the significance of SGM for New Zealanders and others further afield.

Lengthier and somewhat more formal celebrations were held in Auckland on the first Sunday in March. A thanksgiving Eucharist was held in the Albany Presbyterian Church . This was the usual  Sunday service which the parish generously shared with us. The service was led by Warren Deason, minister at Albany and one of the newest Workgroup members. It was fitting that Andrew Dunn, the present SGM Convenor, officiated at the Communion and that John Franklin, one of founders and first Convenor, preached. It was also fitting that our celebrations should begin this way since Eucharist and prayer in all forms has been integral to SGM’s work.

In the evening a sizeable group of people who had wide associations with our work shared a dinner at Albany Church. The tables were beautifully decorated by parish members who also served a lovely meal supplied by the local Thai Restaurant.

While there was much informal exchange of memories, at the conclusion of the meal John Franklin, one of the founders of SGM, who had come with his family from Palmerston North gave the early history – the beginnings in Gisbourne, the first retreat held in a farm house at Loiselle’s Beach in October 1981 and subsequent retreats held at the Pastoral Centre in Palmerston North. John is a superb story teller, a gift which enabled us to see the rapid growth and development of something which had started with four people (John, Anne Hadfield, Shirley Pyper and Selwyn Jones) in a small New Zealand town. Andrew and Margaret  Dunn, newly returned missionaries from Papua New Guinea, were among the retreatants in those early days in Palmerston North. They spoke movingly of how the retreat had affected them, a sentiment obviously shared by others present. One of these was John North who told of his introduction to SGM through a suggested retreat to enable him to work with fellow Baptists. Mary Concannon continued the ecumenical story by her account of seemingly accidental meeting with Shirley Pyper and Selwyn Jones (both no longer with us) and Anne Hadfield (unable to be present). Marion Taylor, our first Registrar, cut the cake made by Margaret Dunn and iced attractively by Elaine Maisey.

A special vote of thanks is due to Andrew and Margaret Dunn who planned and organised the Auckland celebrations

Have you celebrated yet and thanked God for SGM’s twentyone years? It’s not too late. Get together with a few friends and say “Thank you, God” and “Happy birthday, SGM”.

THE TAUTUKU WILDERNESS RETREAT EXPERIENCE by Lyn Haines

Lying in bed with my morning cup of coffee watching the sun rise over the hills, bell birds singing to welcome the morning, fantails flitting around in their morning dance; and Silence! Glorious Silence! – what more can one ask for?

That was my morning ritual recently on the Wilderness retreat at Tautuku in the Catlins. My initial attraction to this retreat was definitely the location. Being in the midst of any form of wilderness, in silence, had been a desire of mine for a while, but safety always prevented me from going bush alone. Needless to say when this retreat was advertised I was quickly on the list. I wasn’t disappointed. The location was wonderful. The bush walks, the beach so close, the bird life, all of it beyond description.

To keep the cost as low as possible we stayed in an outdoor adventure centre built by the Otago Youth Trust primarily for use by school children but used by other groups outside school terms. Each of us chose a room which we occupied on a single basis – mine had 16 beds so I wasn’t short on space! Most others were in one or two bed rooms. Needless to say I found my room wonderful. To keep the cost low we also supplied and cooked our own food. I imagined the chaos. 16-20 people cooking their meals in the kitchen, supposedly in silence – not a chance! A small price to pay for the opportunity to go on a retreat in this location. Well I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was silence maintained but the accommodation had three kitchens, so spread amongst us all we hardly saw each other preparing meals let alone getting in each other’s way. It was just not an issue.

After my morning ritual, then what? The only planned activities were spiritual direction and worship in the evenings which varied slightly every evening but included readings, homily, reflection and Communion. My favourite evening worship was on the last evening - low lights, candles placed over a display depicting a rough road  through sand and rocks and bushes! – readings from Scripture, silence and Communion given in a style that we went forward to serve ourselves receiving it directly from Jesus. It was a very powerful and moving worship time for myself and, I believe, for many others as well.

I must mention the focus for many of us – the wonderfully large open fire, with heaps of wood and lots of willing hands to light, to poke, to refuel, and, my specialty, to lie in front of! It was the centrepiece of our worship and, I venture to say, this was not only our planned worship but also our unplanned, in the midst of our silence.

The creativity of the directors, their sensitivity in creating silent worshipful space was obvious. On the opening night the team leader said he hoped that at the end of the retreat we could say we had encountered God in this place. Well we did! To put words on that encounter has the danger of trivialising it, reducing it in some way so I will say nothing else except WE DID!

The venue is booked again for 2003 and I for one am planning to return. How about joining me there?

THE TRANSITION FROM A DISCURSIVE WAY OF PRAYER TO CONTEMPLATION AND THE SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR’S ROLE AT THAT TIME by Anne Oakley

“Among spiritual masters in the Western tradition there is general agreement that perhaps at no other time in our spiritual journey do people need more the assistance of knowledgeable, experienced, and discerning spiritual guides than at the transition from a discursive way of praying to contemplation.”¹

This statement caught my eye and sparked an exploration of this important transition.

Historical context

For the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era, contemplation enjoyed a specific meaning and was viewed positively.  Lectio divina, the main method of prayer, began with reading and listening to scripture or sacred texts.  Reflection on the text  moved easily into spontaneous prayer then simplified into a state of resting in the presence of God.  Contemplation was regarded as the normal fulfilment of prayer.

For various historical and societal reasons² Lectio divina fell into virtual disuse towards the end of the Middle ages and was replaced with systematised categories of “mental prayer”.  Discursive meditation, affective prayer (prayer of the heart), and contemplation (mystical prayer) became distinct, separate forms of prayer, each with its own aim, method and purpose.  By the end of the sixteenth century contemplation was considered an extraordinary grace reserved for an elite few.

Contemplative prayer is receiving renewed attention in our time.  The rediscovery of the integral teachings of John of the Cross and other masters of the  spiritual life, and the post-World War II influence of Eastern spiritual disciplines have contributed to this. Today’s trend towards contemplative prayer and life among people of diverse culture and spiritual background suggests that it is mediating something of immense significance for our times.  Deep silence is emerging as a primary mode of connecting with the Divine.

Clarification of terms

The terms meditation and contemplation are often used synonymously. I am using the word meditation to mean a discursive reasoning process in which words, events, etc., are prayerfully pondered with the object of drawing from them some personal meaning or moral.  It is basically an activity of the intellect and reason, aided by grace.

Contemplation is basically a prayer and experience of pure faith; its central marks are stillness, simplicity, silence, and darkness. Contemplation is the name we put on whatever means we use in order to turn within and go from our conscious, through our unconscious, into the experience of pure truth or God.  It is a transformative rather than a passive experience.

Some people move into contemplation via the  “gentle path” where, by gift or chosen spiritual discipline, they are able to give attention simply and easily to the encounter with God which arises in the emptiness rather than to anything which they may see as missing, taken away, or given up.

However, most people come to contemplation via the more painful and bewildering experience of involuntary loss – the dark night journey.  Sandra Cronk, suggests that the “gentle way” may be a misnomer and that following any spiritual discipline with integrity and consistency will at some stage lead us to confront the broken places in ourselves that block us from loving God, self and others.³ 

“The term “dark night” is often used wrongly to mean any form of dryness. St. John is quite clear that this is not a passing phase, but a definite and irreversible crisis point in the evolution of the spiritual life.”⁴

(See Keating for detail of Dark Nights)

Signs of transition⁵

John of the Cross presents three signs by which the praying Christian can recognise the onset of the transition to contemplative prayer.

1. The inability to meditate as before.

2. Lack of interest in ideas of God.  (because the distinction between God in himself, and concepts of him, is now realised.)

3. Despite the inability to meditate and the lack of satisfaction in anything else, one is still attracted to solitary prayer – attentive, general and loving, but obscure: “passive attention”.  This is the most certain sign, because the first and second might be experienced due to depression or lack of earnestness.

How does this translate to the present day?

Directees in this transition often describe the following aspects of the experience:

•  Distress that something has gone wrong with their prayer. It doesn’t work as it used to - seems a waste of time, boring.

•  Guilt that they must be doing something wrong - backsliding, not trying hard enough.

•  Feel sad, confused and fear losing their faith; tempted to give it all up.

•  Feel lonely; unable to share the experience with church friends; doubt anyone will understand.

•  Disenchantment  and impatience with church life.

•  Deep conflict with past awareness of service and duty to God.

•  Scripture, which in the past was alive, now seems like “reading a telephone book”.

•  Feel a fraud, living a sham; giving impression of spiritual joy but empty inside.

•  Despite all of this they feel strangely “drawn” and “held” and want to pray.

The “right” Spiritual Director.

A major factor for someone in the transition to contemplation is having the “right” director.  One who:

•  Understands enough of the subtlety of the directee’s experience not to misguide them; not necessarily more “advanced”, but sensitive and learned enough to provide patient, prayerful support. “The more subtle and incommunicable your experience, the more intuitively perceptive and empathetic your spiritual friend needs to be.”⁶

•  Is aware of the different spiritual paths and can help a directee move appropriately (without guilt or pressure).

•  Has basic humility (one cannot presume to know more than one does without becoming dangerous), willingness to travel the road regardless of the roughness and a willingness to allow spiritual guidance to come from God rather than trying to engineer it in any way.⁷

•  Respects strict confidentiality and participates in regular supervision.

•  Is qualified by faithful practice of contemplative prayer and regular retreats to deepen their own experience of the path.

G. May states that a director with a solely kataphatic approach simply cannot provide apophatic guidance. Referral to another director should be explored in supervision if there is uncertainty about supporting a contemplative path.

THE ROLE OF THE DIRECTOR

Discerning

The darkness and confusion of the transition can be faced as a challenge to a more mature faith and practice rather than a problem to be diagnosed and solved.  However, careful discernment is required to see if prayer is being blocked because of other factors such as stress, grief, trauma, sinfulness etc.

Distinguishing the “dark night” from clinical depression also takes some sensitivity. (See May for details).⁸ Clinical depression needs professional diagnosis and treatment whether a person is in the “dark night” or not.

Naming the transition; reassuring; listening; affirming; interpreting

The director helps by:

•  Naming the transition for what it is; a time of movement from one stage to another, a time of change and transformation; a time to be still, patient, and open. 

•  Helping the directee to understand absence in the context of normal growth patterns and the context of the Christian tradition.

•  Listening to the experience of loss that accompanies self-transcendence and new growth.  Listening gives the directee an opportunity to express guilt, confusion, fear and vulnerability. Listening also for treasure which will gradually emerge in the darkness: the growing discovery of the expansiveness of God; a deepening sense of life and love as sheer gift; a renewed sense of Mystery; a shift from presumption to reverence; a clearer sense of the interconnectedness of all life; a sharper sense of engagement with life.⁹

•  Exploring ways of being gentle/nurturing and assertive/protective of the directee’s needs.  This is important when moving from busyness into solitude. 

•  Encourage the directee to find their own, authentic voice and language to express their experience. They may use the language of the senses, movement, nature, sexual love, pure meeting, agape love, unity consciousness, or abiding.¹⁰ 

•   Appreciating and “holding” in reverence the art, poetry, music or other creative work which directees use as an expression of their frustrations, desires and experiences.

•   Dreamwork may be helpful.  Dream images at transition times are often those which relate to death, birth, rearrangement and journeying. The image of moving houses is common.  Some images of the inward journey include cave, well, forest, womb, cocoon, desert, tunnel, black hole, underground, seeds in soil, roots of trees. Our images are unique, but common images of coming to wholeness for people in the 2/3/4 Enneagram space include nest, vessel, cup or inner home. For 5/6/7s the image of step by step, day by day journeying is important. For 8/9/1s it is that of yielding to a Being who is clearly in charge e.g. moving one’s hand on the rudder of a sailboat in order to join personal energy with that of the wind.¹¹

•   Through appreciating personality type, directors can gain understanding of the more effective approaches to direction and are better able to avoid those which encourage people in their particular compulsions.  For example, an Enneagram Three whose persona needs to be positive, will resist the dark night process, while an Enneagram Four with a melancholy streak may enter too much into the pain.  Extroverts will come to contemplation via a very different route and rhythm from introverts. Too much silence and  reflection can lead to boredom and emptiness for the extrovert. They need to talk and even more to interact.¹²

Waiting; acceptance; encouragement

The director needs to patiently give time and space to the present reality.

Patterns and rhythms may emerge – often alternation between turmoil and peace.  The director encourages an attitude of availability, following  the attraction to interior silence, simply staying  in loving attentiveness and when it is possible to meditate again to do so.

Kenneth Leech adds that because the mind has become inactive in prayer, it needs to be more consistently nourished outside prayer by study, reading and discussion which build up the contemplative outlook.  “The mind is not abandoned: but in the actual work of prayer it is not central.”¹³

Balance

The director needs to be alert that the directee maintains a balance of inner and outer activities.  A purely apophatic prayer may stagnate without some conceptual input through spiritual reading, liturgy or teaching that speaks to the contemplative person’s state of prayer. He/she encourages a balance of intellectual, affective and intuitive elements in prayer.  “ Contemplative prayer frees us from attachment to the use of our faculties in going to God, not from their use.” ¹⁴                                       

Also, contemplative prayer has to be manifested in daily life. The contemplative dimension of the gospel demands not just prayer alone or good deeds alone.

Guidance

John of the Cross urged directors not to get in God’s way. Less is more. Rather than teaching techniques it is more a matter of encouraging in the directee an attitude of quiet availability, of a gentle continuous desire to be there for God in the silence, of being kind and gentle with themselves, rather than anxious to achieve success in prayer.¹⁵

However, Leech suggests that the rhythm, repetition, and even monotony of chant, rosary, mantra or litany are helpful.¹⁶  Psalms of protest, doubt, waiting and alienation may be useful for directees who are experiencing dark night pain.

Directees may need guidance in finding some practical “methods” such as centring prayer, Lectio Divina or in meditation using art, music or dance. There is a great deal of helpful written material on contemplative practice. (See bibliography of any of the books already mentioned). This assistance is offered while remembering that the first task is to be still, accept the reality and await the word of God.  As Thomas Merton succinctly advises “ keep still, and let Him do some work.”¹⁷

Footnotes:
1. Carolyn Gratton, The Art of Spiritual Guidance, p136.
2. See Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart for details.
3. Sandra Cronk, Dark Night Journey, p35.
4. Kenneth Leech, True Prayer: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality, p152.
5. Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words, p48 (summarised from John of the Cross' The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, The Dark Night, and The Living Flame of Love)
6. Tilden Edwards, Spiritual Friend, p111.
7. Gerald G. May, Will and Spirit, p292.
8. Gerald G. May, Care of Mind, Care of Spirit, p109-110.
9. Andrew and Margaret Dunn Seminar, Deepening Prayer, 12 June, 1999.
10. Andrew and Margaret Dunn Seminar, Deepening Prayer, 12 June, 1999.
11. Suzanne Zuercher, Enneagram Spirituality, p89-91.
12. J. Neraas and H. Applewhite, Extroverts and the Spiritual Life, Review for Religious, May-June 1989, p401-408.
13. Kenneth Leech, True Prayer, p47.
14. Thomas Keating, Intimacy With God, p105.
15. Peter Ball, Growing Into Quiet, Presence 5.1, Jan 1999, p30.
16. Kenneth Leech, Soul Friend, p185.
17. Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, p261.

UNITY & CONTEMPLATION

We believe that welcome progress has been made recently in overcoming the ancient divisions between Christian churches. The power of the Gospel has often been veiled by the failure of Christians to love one another and to celebrate diversity as a sign of the richness of unity that there is in Christ.  We believe however, that a new era is opening. In these times there is less call for words and ceremonies and more need for the authentic spiritual knowledge that arises through the silence of contemplation.

The spiritual hunger and the widespread suspicion of religion in our society firmly points Christians to this depth dimension of their common faith.  The contemplative dimension of the Gospel is not a speciality of particular churches or groups.  It belongs to all and summons us all, through the signs of the times, to recover it. Nor is this contemplative dimension of faith to be identified only with the vocation of some to solitude & quiet.  It applies equally to the life of good works, prophetic protest against injustice and the patient labour of peace making.  Indeed, the integrity and vigour of the Christian life and its witness to the world depends upon the marriage of contemplation and action in the full experience of the mystery of God that passes understanding but is intimately known in daily acts of kindness.

If we cannot understand the silence of Christ we will not be able to understand his words, as an earlier Christian teacher asserted.  Because we are convinced of the urgent need to recover the contemplative dimension in our prayer, worship and ministries, we have committed ourselves to search for ways in which this can be better appreciated by all Christians and by the whole of society.  The new Christian Meditation Centre at St Mark’s Myddleton Square is an ecumenical sign of this resolve to co-operate at that deeper level where unity in Christ is already achieved.

We invite our brothers and sisters in all churches to reflect on and join in this contemplative endeavour and so enrich its vision with their own special insights and traditions.

We believe too that in this age of violence and terror, friendship between the world religions is an indispensable foundation for the work for global peace and justice.  If this friendship is to be sincere and transformative it also must be rooted in that experience of silence, stillness and simplicity that is the common ground of contemplation.

If we really can achieve a fuller harmony between contemplation and action in this way we will surely better fulfil the greater desire of Christ that we “may all be one”.

Signed by:

•           The Rt Hon &  Rt Rev’d Richard Chartres, The Anglican Bishop of London

•           Dom Laurence Freeman OSB, The World Community for Christian Meditation

•           His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster

•           Rev Dr Leslie Griffiths, Supt. Minister of Wesley’s Chapel and Leysian Centre

•           Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateira and Gt. Britain.

CONFESSION

Say to our Lord, ‘Penetrate these deep murky corners where we hide memories, and tendencies on which we do not care to look, but which we will not disinter, and yield freely to you, then you may purify and transmute them. The persistent buried grudge, the half acknowledged enmity which is still smouldering; bitterness of that loss we have not turned into sacrifice, the private comforts we cling to, the secret fear of failure which saps our initiative and is really inverted pride; the pessimism which is an insult to your joy. Lord, we bring these to you, and we review them with shame and penitence in your steadfast light.’

Evelyn Underhill

Book Reviews

WHEN GOD DOESN’T HEAL NOW
by Larry  Keefauver
Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville. 2000

Reviewed by Lionel Brown