Re-orienting ourselves towards God’s Vision

At the recent August Discernment Summit, I shared an icon with the participants. It’s an image of St Hilda, founded and first abbess of the monastery of Whitby and one of the convenors of the Synod of Whitby in 664. The main item on the agenda of that Synod meeting was to resolve the date of Easter which Celtic and Roman Christians celebrated on different days.

It’s fair to say that outcomes from the Synod of Whitby shaped the church in the British Isles and beyond. Although having been born near Whitby in Yorkshire, I would quite like to claim Hilda as an ancestor, I can’t quite do that, I did adopt St Hilda as the patron saint of my term as General Secretary. The woman with a shepherd’s crook in one hand and the church cradled in her other arm has always struck me as a profound and important image. It is particularly pertinent to our own times.

It's important to me as a reminder that the church is not a problem to be solved and it’s certainly not our problem to solve in any case. The church is a gift to be gratefully received and lovingly cherished. Sometimes, in the face of change and disruption, both within and without the church, it’s very easy, very tempting, to forget that and apply our energies instead to problems that we think are manageable and within the compass of our own limited imaginations. It’s also easy to reach for the tools of the secular corporate world to address the problems we think we have or to justify our own preconceived solutions to those problems.

The Summit journey that we’ve taken together over the last two years has enabled a very different perspective on the life of the church in this Synod. The journey began in 2023 when the ex-Moderator, Rev. Simon Hansford, convened a meeting of Synod and Presbytery leaders to consider the wellbeing of the church in this Synod. That meeting began with lament and confession – a mutual recognition and acknowledgement that we had ‘not done what we ought to have done, and done what we ought not to have done’. It’s hard to over-estimate how important this was and is for all of us – to relinquish all of our firmly held, correct opinions, to surrender our pet theories and our pat wisdom and to remember that we are all God’s creatures gathered together for God’s purposes, purposes which encompass nothing less than the transformation of the world.

In the realisation of God’s infinitely compassionate forgiveness, we can again open our ears to the Word and re-orient ourselves towards God’s vision. It’s very clear that that first Summit set the scene for all those that followed and enabled Presbytery and Synod leaders to work together differently. It has led to renewed relationships, a deeper understanding of the importance of ‘inter-conciliar’ in UCA polity, a transparent sharing of information and agreement about shared challenges. Is everything now perfect? Of course not – we are all still very ordinary humans.

There has been lots of talk, lots of reflection and, thankfully, we appear to have moved beyond ‘consultation’ (a weasel word if ever there was one!) into genuine collaboration. We labour together because we treasure the church and are committed to sharing that gift with the world. As I said to the Summiteers at the last gathering, I feel quite fizzy when I think about the journey that we’ve been on together – it can only be the work of the transforming Spirit!

This blessing is attributed to Hilda of Whitby. While I think the provenance is unlikely, the words capture the spirit of hopeful joy and purpose that I see reflected in the icon:

Trade with the gifts God has given you.

Bend your minds to holy learning that you may escape the fretting moth of littleness of mind that would wear out your souls.

Brace your wills to action that they may not be the spoil of weak desires.

Train your hearts and lips to song which gives courage to the soul.

Being buffeted by trials, learn to laugh.

Being reproved, give thanks.

Having failed, determine to succeed.

Although having been born near Whitby in Yorkshire, I would quite like to claim Hilda as an ancestor, I can’t quite do that, I did adopt St Hilda as the patron saint of my term as General Secretary. The woman with a shepherd’s crook in one hand and the church cradled in her other arm has always struck me as a profound and important image. It is particularly pertinent to our own times.