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 Journal Number One - Autumn 1994
EditorialLate one afternoon in September 1981,1 broke the news to my long time mentor, friend, and spiritual director Anthony Damron, OSB, that I was planning to enter what we now call the ordination process sometime in the next year. There was a longish silence while Anthony gazed out the window and absentmindedly stroked his lips with his fingers. Then he turned to face me and said in apparent dismay, "You don't want to do that! It's so lonely. Why, when I was in St. Thomas' I preached utterly scintillating sermons on prayer to a glassy eyed congregation. Then when I paid parish calls, I discovered Rosecruscian books and magazines on their coffee tables!" It would seem that many of us have been in that place Anthony described so interestingly or that is what I heard again and again during the Living the Catholic Mystery Conference. The sense of not communicating the wonder and expansiveness which the life of faith and prayer in the ecclesial community brings and which is the Church's greatest yet most hidden treasure can be most distressing in an ecclesiastical climate which seeks certainty and clear definitions in all matters. For the clergy, at least, that sense of failed communication coupled with the present emphasis on unambiguous moral pronouncements and the need to "grow the church" can call into question one's vocation. Many lay persons feel isolated and adrift in parishes in which the catholic tradition has become static or is not valued. Often both lay persons and clergy for whom the catholic tradition has been a gateway to a more open and risky life find themselves misunderstood and seemingly quite alone. There were many hopes the members of the steering committee had for Living the Catholic Mystery in the Twenty First Century Conference and one of them was that those who either were isolated or felt isolated (laity as well as clergy) would find refreshment and community. We did nothing consciously to address that concern other than recognize it as a concern and remember it in prayer. On the last morning of the conference, Patrick Twomey stood and spoke of the feeling of being alone in the parish, of being foolish and not on board with the church in a time when success is equated with a sort of ecclesiastical inventory of persons and programs. I thought of my talk with Anthony. Patrick then spoke of the recovery he had found in the talks given by Bill Franklin, Chip Gilman, and Christina Brannock of that hidden life of prayer in our parishes in the daily round of office and eucharist which calls us all to share in the work of Christ. He has subsequently told me that this was for him, "...the rediscovery of my own vocation to the parish as the place where the catholic faith is lived." Therese Saint Andre wrote me to say that she and her husband, Robin Dodge had regained "the courage to speak confidently about our catholicity." Neither the Living the Catholic Mystery Conference nor Affirming Anglican Catholicism came into being to make us feel good, but to assist us to be faithful to our heritage, not as a static thing, but as a vibrant life which is ever increasing in Christ's ministry of reconciliation. Park McD. Bodie
Affirming Catholicism is an educational charity involved in various initiatives: publications, seminars, shared worship, retreats, pilgrimages, conferences. Most dioceses have their own local groups to undertake similar projects themselves. Address: St Giles Church, No. 4 The Postern, Wood Street, Barbican, London EC2Y 8BJ. Telephone enquiries to+44 [0]171-638 1980; fax: +44 [0]171-638 1997. Registered Charity No. 1007291
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