Dear Friends
I am writing this letter to you from a haven of peace and tranquillity at the Retreat House in the quiet little village of Wenhaston, (quite close to Blythburgh). I am here with a group of a dozen friends from Framlingham Church who form the Wholeness and Healing Ministry Team. We are here to reflect on what we have been doing recently, to recharge our batteries and to plan our next steps forward.
We have agreed to keep silent for the whole morning, while we are led gently and skilfully in our reflections by Revd. Harry Edwards (the Rector of Marlesford.)
So what am I doing here, when there are so many other things that need to be done (including writing this article for you)? Yes, I am working through the guilt trip, thinking ‘I have left undone those things which I ought to have been done’…and yes … ‘done those things which I ought NOT to have done’.
But it has been a gruelling week, one way and another, including a very distressing and painful meeting on Wednesday evening in Debenham, when the revised Deanery Plan was presented to the Deanery Synod. Distressing? Painful? Yes, and very much so!
Over the last months, the plan for the reorganisation of our Deanery has taken so many hours of my and other people’s time with drafting and redrafting, long discussions, seemingly endless meetings, close scrutiny of figures and then a lot of heart searching – are we doing the right thing? But on Wednesday evening the plan was adopted by 29 votes for and 1 against. A victory! It seems that most people within the Deanery are happy with the re-organisation of the Benefices, and the deployment of the clergy is to their satisfaction. Oh, if it were only as easy as that.
I fear that I have no cause for celebration. Why? Because it was in the Benefice of Earl Soham, Cretingham and Ashfield that the vote was cast against adopting the plan. It is within this benefice that so much hurt and anxiety is being expressed so vociferously and so forcefully.
While Cretingham thought that it was the right path to tread, Ashfield and Earl Soham thought otherwise. They would have preferred to advertise for a half time post to replace Revd. Clare Sanders now rather than wait until such time as the next piece of the reorganisation jigsaw can be put in place. The arguments against this idea have been rehearsed at length, we do not need to revisit them.
The amount of distress and upset and anger shown at that meeting on Wednesday was obvious and deeply felt. Arguments ranging from the philosophy of Joseph Locke to the demise of the Church in Ashfield were expressed. After considerable time and many words however, the vote was taken….end of story.
No, this is not the end of the story. It is the start of as new chapter in the life of the Benefice here in Earl Soham, Cretingham and Ashfield. It is a chapter, which will need to confront difficult issues, and to do them without a priest in post to help. My feeling (and this is a personal view only) about the situation is that we find ourselves in a period of change, which can be so difficult. It is about ‘bereavement’. When Clare left the Benefice we all lost a fine parish priest, and a good friend. It is about coming to terms with a changing society, which doesn’t want to come to church much on Sunday any more. It is about fairness and justice plus a whole load of other baggage, which will need unpacking as well.
So here I am at Wenhaston on Saturday thinking about Wholeness and Healing, and about people who feel damaged, despondent and without much hope I do this with a sinking feeling my stomach worrying about how the Benefice will fare over the next months.
We live in an age where change has never been faster. No sooner does one initiative get adopted, than another is waiting round the corner to overtake it. We surely want the church and our faith to be the steadying factor in our lives, not the one which keeps changing. But it does change, and some change is for the better. Take for example, one of the bright spots in my dreadful week. On Thursday I presided at the Eucharist at Bridge House in Earl Soham. A group of a dozen parishioners get together to share in the Eucharist. It was a prayerful and joyous occasion. This is an expression of a way of ‘being church’. Brilliant. Just one tiny example, but one of hope and encouragement for the future.
Back to my time at Wenhaston. Harry has just been speaking about how we must all be channels of healing to each other. We each have a responsibility to each other – to look to each other’s well being, and to recognise the hurt and injury we can so easily inflict on others by careless words, the odd e-mail flung into the ether in haste, the reluctance to see situations from others point of view. One thing is certain though - something else we are reflecting on this morning - We may be troubled….Christ was too. We feel misunderstood…Christ was too. We feel neglected….Christ on the cross was too. No one said our faith was going to be easy.
Now we have listened to Harry, we are all going to quiet for a bit. Not say a word, but to offer our thoughts and concerns to God for his healing. Maybe that isn’t such a bad idea to do that in our Benefice now. Just wait on God; be still in his presence; commit what is hurting in our lives to him; be very careful with one another. We then will be in a better position to do the task God has set us to do, which is to be a faithful witness to his son Jesus Christ in our villages today.
Yours in Christ,
Graham Owen