Wednesday 25 March 2020

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It has been good to hear from many of you via email, phone call, or even through 'zoom' for our Lent discussion group! I am encouraged by the resilient spirit of so many people, the desire to make more time to pray, meditate on the Bible and deepen our faith, and the commitment to support one another even at a distance. Let us also look out for our neighbours and, if we can, offer them practical help. But please do not put yourself at risk if you are in the especially 'vulnerable' group. If you need help or support of any kind, please do get in touch with me.

I hope you are finding the church website helpful; you will find a variety of resources there for reflection, prayer and worship. The material for the Mothering Sunday service is still there if you have not yet had time to look at (and listen to) it. The final Lent session, reflecting on Psalm 22, is now on the website. I hope to organise another 'zoom' discussion session on this material next Monday evening.

You will also find on the website a wonderful photo of Samuel with a cross he made of lego. I'm sure it will encourage you all to see this. Thank you, Samuel!

*****

In this time of insecurity, confinement, widespread anxiety and illness, I have found myself often thinking of Mother Julian of Norwich and I would like to share some of my thoughts with you.

Mother Julian lived in Norwich in the 14th century and I first came across her writing when I was a student in Norwich. She lived in a time of even greater insecurity, fear, and sickness than we face at this present time. She lived during the Hundred Years' War, and she also lived through the Peasants' Revolt and several bouts of the Black Death, the plague which devastated much of Europe. The Black Death was a much more deadly plague than COVID-19 and huge numbers of men, women and children died.

She also lived in a confined situation; though her confinement was chosen. After a near death experience, she became an Anchoress, meaning she was confined to an 'anchorage', a small bungalow, in order to dedicate her life to prayer and the spiritual life. Although once she went in she never left her anchorage, she nevertheless provided rich spiritual support to others. She had a window in her little house which opened on to the street and people would come to talk with her for spiritual direction, guidance and wisdom.

Mother Julian lived at a time of fear, instability and violence, when sickness and death claimed the lives of so many people. Nevertheless her Revelations of Divine Love is one of the most powerful, hopeful and theologically rich spiritual classics of all time - as well as being the first book written in English by a woman. It records sixteen 'showings' or visions she received from God and her subsequent theological reflection and prayer based on them. Although everything around her was insecure, some of the most frequently used words in her book are seker (Old English for 'secure') and sekerness (Old English for 'security'). For Mother Julian, in the midst of the fragility and insecurity of this life, the only security was to be found in the love of God.

Some of her most well known words are: all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. By these words, Mother Julian didn't mean that things will always work out exactly as we would like them to; God does not promise to 'fix' everything to our liking. She knew enough of the real world and had seen enough of trouble, suffering and death to know that this was not always the case. However, she believed that ultimately all things shall be well. She was an optimist, but her optimism wasn't based on wishful thinking, neither did she have a particularly optimistic view of human nature; her hope was based on the love of God. Indeed, at the end of her book she affirms that God's love is the foundation and meaning of everything:

So it was that I learned that love was our Lord's meaning. And I saw for certain, both here and elsewhere, that before ever he made us, God loved us; and that his love has never slackened, nor ever shall. In this love all his works have been done, and in this love he has made everything serve us; and in this love our life is everlasting. Our beginning was when we were made, but the love in which he made us never had beginning. In it, we have our beginning.

All this we shall see in God for ever. May Jesus grant this. Amen.

May we learn from Mother Julian that same deep and seker (secure) trust in God. Ultimately, 'all shall be well' because of God's love for us. As Paul says in Romans:

'For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

May these words comfort and strengthen us.

I will be in touch again soon.

With my love in Christ,

Helen

A Poem - Mother Julian of Norwich

Show me, O anchoress, your anchor-hold
Deep in the love of God, and hold me fast.
Show me again in whose hands we are held,
Speak to me from your window in the past,

Tell me again the tale of Love's compassion
For all of us who fall into the mire,
How he is wounded with us, how his passion
Quickens the love that haunted our desire.

Show me again the wonder of at-one-ment
of Christ-in-us distinct and yet the same,
Who makes, and loves, and keeps us in each moment,
And looks on us with pity, not with blame.

Keep telling me, for all my faith may waver,
Love is his meaning, only love, forever.

by Malcolm Guite.