Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Kingdom of God, poetry, RS Thomas, strengthening estates ministry, urban ministry
One of the real pleasures of my work is spending some time convening Strengthening Estates Ministry, the group for clergy and church workers in the Diocese of Birmingham who minister in outer housing estates (you can find more details and explanation of this here). I’m just back from a wonderful 24 hour conference of SEM where 24 of us gathered for a structured conversation based around stories of ministry in these wonderful and tough areas of multiple deprivation. This was excellent theological reflection and comradeship, really grounded, inspiring, humbling, challenging and tiring. It will be fascinating to try to catch the difference this makes to me and the other participants and to see what effects this has on our ministry and parishes.
My mind is full of a huge wodge of stuff that I need to spend time examining and to let sink in and to sift, but two things shine out for me, things I had not really noticed before or which have been brought much more to the fore. One of these is that in amongst the darkness and difficulty we see glimpses of God which we must pay attention to and which can give us the strength to keep going. The other is that sense of call that many of us felt to our particular churches and communities, something else that makes it possible to stay and flourish when things are against us.
This brought to my mind RS Thomas’s poem The Bright Field:
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
Plenty here for me to reflect on about how it applies to the difficult and complex life of the city and to the deep, quiet joy of ministry here.
Like this:
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
