Wandering

Dear Benedict

The season of wandering is nearly over for this year. We are back on Greenwhich Mean Time and the evenings are now darker as the light part of the day shortens. I’m back to my thoughts about wandering.

I think you took against it because by the time you came to found the community for the Rule that bears you name, you’d done your bit of it and were happy to settle down. God help the rest of them. You wanted them to experience stability and that’s all very well but it can be stultifying.

A goose in Longdendale

Of course I understand that wandering has its downside too. No roots, shallower relationships, a whole host of questions. But maybe this was just what your community needed. I’m back in the valley after my final wanderings of the season and I’m full of observations, questions and feelings of being unsettled. Maybe that does make it harder to re-integrate into a solid settled community. I can imagine the whispering: ‘Who do they think they are, coming back here with all those ideas?’

Of course most of our communities are not that settled these days. Poverty and inequality, for example, are unsettling. Newcomers need attention and understanding. What should we tackle first?

More soup

I settle back to the tasks I’ve taken on; a bit of soup making, reusing and recycling unwanted items, and observing the changes that the seasons bring to the valley. About now many more geese are on the move, from their summer to their winter nesting round. Hundreds at a time fly high overhead to find the right place to spend the winter.

I will spend the winter here. It’s my winter nesting ground. I’ll walk and write and pray in this valley for a few months. I think about the observations and questions that came from wandering. This week I think of the souls and the saints, old and new, their stories of wandering and stability, their homecoming. May they rest in peace and rise in glory.

And more soup

From my remembered bible: I will walk through the valley without fear.

I am thankful for all the saints, even the most unlikely ones.

From a Friend of Scholastica living in Longdendale, 3rd November 2023

Geese

Dear Benedict

This is called ‘Ordinary time’ but then time is itself ordinary. Now we call it Creation Time, although I’m not sure how much time we have for creation, or how much time creation has left for that matter.

I read about a creature from the deepest ocean, found by an exploration team, one never before seen by humans. It was bought up out of the depths and put in a jar. Dead of course. What if it was the only one?

In ordinary time in your Rule, the early morning worship gets a whole chapter 13 to itself. It’s proceeded by chapter 12 which is for Sundays. This morning I lay in bed and listened to the geese again. They flew past my window and made themselves known in their distinctive way, their calls sounding up and down the valley. They don’t know any numbered psalms, just their own. I’m not sure what an Ambrosian Hymn is (sounds like custard) but if it means sweet and musical every bird I know has a version.

Geese flyby

A group of wildlife watchers in the valley, message each other daily on the progress of creatures great and small, sometimes a rare one, sometimes a well ordered flock, sometimes good news, sometimes not so good. They keep alert.

The sun rises and sets, and the valley continues to be the holy space it is.

Geese

This morning my copy of your Rule fell apart when I picked it up. I’m not yet sure if this is a good sign or just carelessness.

For now I’ll listen to the geese.

From my remembered bible: Look at the birds…..

A Robin in the valley

Your call comes with the birds. I am glad.

From a friend of Scholastica in Longdendale, 10th September 2023

Humility

Dear Benedict,

I walk a lot and you write a lot. In chapter 7 of your Rule, you write that there are 12 steps to humility. It’s certainly a long chapter and one, as you might imagine, I have issues with.

Walking one step at a time.

I’m not sure how many people would regularly use the word ‘humility’ today. Like some other words in your Rule it has been left on the sidelines and replaced by more modern concepts. Self awareness is perhaps the most obvious because being humble is not just about imagining ourselves lower, but perhaps more about enacting equality.

Would you wish to be kissed after football match? It’s caused quite a row in Spain who won the cup but not the issue of equality. Of course, I’m not sure any country would be able to claim it had got that fully worked out, but in some ways, the issue of sexual harassment arising in Spain has granted it more exposure than if it was Iran or UK, for example. It’s now a year since street protests began in Iran over the death of a young woman considered to be wearing the wrong clothing, or rather not wearing the right clothing. In that year many others have been killed and injured in the resulting protests. Some consider what they wear to be a sign of humility but surely that is only true if it is freely chosen. Equality is based on informed choice.

In the UK various events across the summer have celebrated Pride, often seen as the opposite to humility, but in this case the capital letter denotes a particular kind of Pride related to identity. Even though now acceptance of LGBTQ identities are more widespread in the UK this has not stopped violence against those embracing such identities. In a country of choices some choices are still considered more equal than others.

Pride

Times change and 5th century Europe was a different place to the one of the 21st century. And so humility was the word you choose for your 12 steps. Self awareness seems to balance both humility and pride saying ‘I am not greater than you but I am your equal’. In that equality I can be gracious, grateful, and generous. I cannot be these thing freely if I am forced to do them from a down-trodden position. As it is I can choose to do them from an equal position. We are not forced to follow poor leaders but welcome the chance to travel with our equals.

‘Follow me’

And so, if I might suggest a rewrite, the 13th step is equality, faced full on.

From my remembered bible: Jesus said ‘Come with me’.

Let us start from a position of equality, one step at a time.

From a Friend of Scholastica, in Longdendale, 03.09.2023

Benedict’s Raven

Dear Benedict,

I hear that you knew a friendly raven. Various saints are linked to animals: there’s St Cuthbert and his otters and St Oswald is also linked with a raven. In Wales, St Melangell is the patron saint of hares. I’m sure there are many others though I’m not familiar with which saint is linked to the Lesser Stag Beetle, the Gannet or the slow worm. I did once know a child who was very fond of slow worms so perhaps it’s him.

Benny’s raven at Stanbrook Abbey, Wass

It’s interesting that we link holy people to animals in the wild and then promptly forget about them ourselves until it’s time to print another Countryfile Calendar or we see another bit of road kill. Some of us feed birds or count butterflies but it is our general disengagement with the natural world that contributes to our climate crisis. We have forgotten, in our rush to make as much money out of it as possible, that we share the planet.

You never mention the raven in your Rule. Probably it was one of those tales that got expanded later. The faithful raven and the humble monk make a good story, although I can imagine that you had much wild company when you were hermiting. I saw a young jackdaw in the valley recently, but I’m not very good at identifying corvids, except for the raucous magpie in the blue-black and white suit. There are quite a few of those.

Geese in Longdendale

My favourite avian companions are the geese that make their calls in the morning and evening, on the way out or on the way home, commuting up and down the valley. Unfortunately, the avian ‘flu virus has been seen in the valley again this year, especially amongst gulls.

Sea bird cliffs in North Yorkshire

If I was going to add a chapter to your Rule it might be one about recognising the holy space all around us. About how the creatures that also occupy it are holy too as is every species of plant, fungus and bacterium. Some people point to parasitic wasps as proof against God but there’s no need to do so. They all have their own beauty and honouring the place of each one doesn’t mean we have to behave like parasites. It’s only 40,000 years since the earliest painter of Indonesia drew a pig on a cave wall. How long before there are no pigs to draw.

We have forgotten our first vocation, to name and care for our companion earth-dwellers. We need to remember before we all fall asleep on the job and there are no ravens left to guard us.

Lesser stag beetle on the Meridian Way at Greenwich

From the remembered gospel: God does not even forget the sparrows.

May the Creator of slow worms bless you;

May Christ, the counter of sparrows accompany you;

May the Spirit of the wholly connected mycelium bring you together,

That together we may grow in wisdom and understanding and know that all things count.

A Friend of Scholastica in Longdendale, 20.08.2023

Planks constant

Dear Benedict

I’m back from wandering for a bit so perhaps I’ll manage to get back to blogging about your Rule again. How frustrating it must have been to have monastics in the community who seemed to loose the point so often. There’s more than one way of wandering in community.

I’ve never managed to write about chapter 2 of your Rule, which is about the leadership of a community. Partly because I didn’t feel equipped to do so and partly because, whatever the community, it’s a tough subject these days. So I’ll try to give it a go now, although I am an imposter myself.

I haven’t been for an eye test for a while. I remember when I got one in my teens and spectacles were first prescribed. I said to my mother from our kitchen ‘So that’s what the end of our garden looks like’. Even with spectacles, I have for a long time, been aware of the planks and I’ve got good at squinting round them as we all do. They are a constant.

The eyes have it

So how will anyone lead with a massive great beam projecting from their eye? You must have found this to be a hindrance too. Your Rule is said to have been a departure from the usual power play of the post-Roman world, reminding the community as it does of the leadership of Christ. Of course that’s not easy to adopt either. Western Christianity is full of examples of leadership that claim to be Christian but what sort of Christ do they reflect?

For example, recent attempts to amplify the voices of survivors of Church Abuse are to be commended, but quite frankly why is this taking so long?

Chapter 2 is a long chapter. It wanders about, and includes all sorts of stuff like physical punishment ‘for those that err’ and I don’t think you meant hesitate. Such action would be unthinkable in our own context. Yet stories still emerge of those who have endured physical assaults by bad leaders. In such cases it is the bad leaders who need rooting out.

Ribbons on Roughfields

It seems to me it’s easy for bad leaders to fool people. This accounts for some of the imposter syndrome in any humble would-be leader. We look at others and too often our own sense of inadequacy comes flooding back. To tell us to ‘lead like Christ’ is small encouragement in a setting that has Christ emblazoned in glory on the ceiling everyday and only on the floor with a bowl and towel once a year.

The community that yearns for Christ like leadership needs to keep up the search for Christ in the everyday. Christ in the kitchen, Christ in the cleaning, Christ in the listening, Christ in the welcoming. If a would-be leader cannot translate this into Christ in the meeting, Christ in the negotiating, Christ in the board room, Christ at the dispatch box then that’s not Benedictine leadership.

The real response to the call to Benedictine leadership is to be good enough. There’s probably no such thing as the perfect leader. But there is real leadership in owning a sense of inadequacy, a real discussion of feelings and reactions and in celebrating the success stories of the community. There’s always a need to keep on travelling.

Bowl at Stanbrook Abbey, Wass.

From my remembered bible: The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Grant us all a holy life.

A Friend of Scholastica, writing in Longdendale, 24th July 2023.

Hope for the cenobites

Dear Benedict,

I usually start with one word, but this phrase caught my eye this morning. The cenobites are the chosen when it comes to your Rule. It might be argued that the Rule is hope enough, but then ….

Many people eat potatoes (if they can afford them) but few people have a diet made up entirely of mashed potato. Of course even mashed potato can be dressed up as bubble and squeak but however much you like mashed potato from time to time the urge to break out for a chip or roastie will come upon even the most dedicated mashed potato lover.

So too with cenobites. It’s not now a word in common use but it refers to those monastics who live under a rule and the leadership of an Abbot in a stable community. Your Rule is for them.

Having tried the solitary life yourself you advocated for communal life. I’m pretty sure you must have wandered about a bit too, but you advocated for the settled life. You promote a path of stability lived in common with others.

I’m not all that fond of mashed potato but I’ll eat it. This week saw the #nationalfishandchipday and that’s something I’d celebrate any day of the year (suggestions for a Saint of fish and chips welcome). I wander from one fish and chip shop to another and particularly enjoy visiting those that have won awards from Shap to Kilmarnock. But I do usually wander back again and settle in the valley and listen to the geese.

Good food for wanderers

I’m not a good cenobite. But I’m getter better at being an anarchist, at least being a follower of Holy Anarchy. My friend, Graham wrote the book and talked about it on line a week ago. You can watch it here.

So why do cenobites need Holy Anarchy? Because they need a change from mashed potato. I can admire cenobites but I still need a more varied diet. Mostly I need to live with those who are committed to recovering nonheirarchical affirming and creative forms of community in which everyone can flourish, that uses language creatively, that is willing to unpack the abusive aspects of past behaviour, that isn’t bound by the ‘that will never work here’ creed, that doesn’t consider my body parts an obstacle to my calling. I’m looking forward to the #NationalFishandChipAwards and I hope you are too, you lovely cenobites.

Food of the gods

From my remembered bible: Jesus said ‘I will show you how to fish’

Give hope to the cenobites!

From an Friend of Scholastica living in Longdendale.

Language

Dear Benedict

In chapter 6 of your Rule you commend silence and even go as far as to say that ‘good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.’

If you have a mouth, what next?

I’ve made it clear before that there are many kinds of silence. As a speech therapist I’m familiar with some. Imposed silence, silence that seeks to silence others with whom we disagree or that we have abused is not the kind of silence anyone should commend. Of course you were probably not doing that in chapter 6. You, and many other monastics, think that silence freely chosen and followed with care and joy, is at the heart of the life of a faithful community. It was probably a valuable idea when you advanced it and many in such orders value it now.

That was before enforced silence became the trademark of domination and abuse in many denominations and in secular contexts too numerous to list. That was before language chosen by dominant groups to silence some and divide communities became such sharp weapons.

This week we are once again faced with the use of divisive and corrosive language. Once again it is in respect of immigration, an area in which language has played a crucial dividing role for a century of more. An area, in which I would argue, any Good-enough Benedictine cannot be silent.

One of the other hallmarks of Benedictine spirituality is hospitality. All are welcome. I wonder what you think we should do when two parts of the Rule come into conflict with each other. Is there are order of precedence?

If we, as a society, are to be welcoming to the most vulnerable should we keep silent about the language used to demonise such people? The answer surely has to be no. Whatever our role in a community, from the least well known to the celebratory we need to register our opposition to lies and exaggeration that lead to negativity and hate being directed towards those who seek refuge. The roles of ‘teacher’ and ‘disciple’ do not work in such a context.

Small boats in Longdendale

Listening remains vital. We must listen especially to the weakest and quietest voices. We must understand the unspoken hierarchy of silencing. When a person sees their role as the silencing of others, that’s a dangerous route. Anyone who needs to tell someone else to ‘be quiet’ or to ‘give them a good talking to’ in order to keep them quiet should be questioned. Why does the breaking of silence seem threatening?

When a disabled person first gets a voice through an electronic communication aid they should not be told to ‘stop playing with your toy.’ When an abused person finally gets enough courage to name their abuser they should not find their testimony tied up in red tape. When a survivor finds the words to sing of their salvation we should all cry Magnificat!

And when politicians show sings of forgetting the pattern of history by which people were ‘othered’, demonised, segregated and taken away only half a continent from here, they should listen not to their own voices but to the voices of those raised on behalf of the weakest and most vulnerable. It is not Benedictine to keep silent in the face of oppression.

Lighthouse

From my remembered bible: Your speech has the power to cut people dead or give them life. Use it wisely.

May my voice be used to support the most vulnerable.

Written in Longdendale by a Friend of Scholastica. 10.03.2023

Struggle

At times I find it a struggle to read the Rule. It’s long (even the short bits) or at least longer than my attention allows, and boring. It’s easier to go out into the valley and look for fungi or geese or something unexpected.

I know that Benedict’s Rule is followed by a lot of people and at its most basic level I follow it too. I stick to the bits I remember and come back time and again to ‘Listen’. The rest of it I dip into now and again but sometimes I just leave it.

A table prepared in Roughfields, Longdendale

I first encountered people who did Liberation Theology in South Africa in the 1980s. I was visiting my brother, a mining engineer in the Transvaal. I went to see some people in Gaborone, Botswana, and they gave me the Kairos Document, a landmark in the opposition of the churches to Apartheid. I was hooked. My wishy-washy white liberal theology couldn’t stand the onslaught of the argument. It wasn’t just a case of not eating their apples, I found a much more political and justice orientated faith in South Africa, and I went back for more several times.

Eventually, after 1994 (we were there for the first democratic elections) I came back to UK determined to use my understanding in ministry. I practised contextual bible study using the remembered bible here for over 20 years, despite of vocal opposition and, more commonly, apathy. I wrote about my encounters with people using the remembered bible. I got on with the struggle.

These days my journey is gentler. I’m not so busy but I am still frustrated and angry with churches and church people who seem to think justice is optional, which is why these days I avoid them more. Justice is a still a fundamental aspect of my faith, and these days that means justice for those forced to live in poverty, for women and for those working to limit climate change. So, can you find this sort of stuff in the Rule of St Benedict?

I’ve not studied it as long as some people so I’m not an expert. I’m an ordinary person when it comes to the Rule but one with a background in Biblical Studies and Theology so I know something about critical questioning and interpretation. Even so, I’d say it’s not easy.

Benedict was writing in the 6th century for what were essentially self-sustaining local communities living together. Most of the time he’s concerned about what psalms to sing day and night and not about carbon footprints. Most monastic communities would have used local supply chains or grown their own produce. This was a pre-industrial age so no one was exploiting oil or discarding plastic willy-nilly. So of course, he couldn’t have written about that specifically.

The idea that a community should be self-supporting and engaged locally is now more popular again. So that does seem relevant even if other parts of the Rule are less easy to apply. Excommunication may mean something different now (say some) but it’s never meant much to me. Other say that they are able to apply the Rule to both men and women, but again it’s a struggle to see it in feminist terms. But it is particularly the lack of referents to justice that erk me. Leadership under the Rule is considered largely benign. It doesn’t self-promote, grasp, lie or abuse or do any of the negative things we equate with leadership failures today in both Church and State. Unrealistic you might think but then remember, this was the age of the saints. Benedict is writing about ideals. Everyone has a beam in their own eye.

Now we know that leadership easily opts for the self-promoting way and abuse of many kinds is a common coin across many contexts. This makes it impossible for some to engage with faith based communities at all.

In our own village, people from different churches and faith groups co-operate on a local level to support their neighbours with food, warmth, company and such like. This has been the winter of Warm Space in which a small bunch of those who are not economically active support other who are less economically viable by using free or reduce price produce from supermarkets owned by billionaires to make meals that our neighbours couldn’t afford to buy or cook for themselves.

Soup

There are those who ask me if this is real. Are their really people who can’t afford to live on basics, heat their homes and so on? Are they not just taking advantage of our generosity? When that happens I invite them to visit this village, just one small place in NW Derbyshire. I also suggest they try to get to know they people they live alongside better.

For me the Rule is not my basic document when it comes to my response to issues like this. I’m a biblical scholar and my go to faith resource is the bible. ‘When I was hungry you fed me’. I’m not saying Benedict wouldn’t do this too, although you might have had to wait outside for a few days before you got let in. Benedict often quotes the bible in the Rule, but he’s not a critical bible user. He’s not concerned about who wrote it, when and with what agenda. Psalms are for worship not political propaganda as far as he’s concerned.

Even so, it’s at a practical level we co-operate across faith divides in our village. We can serve bread with our soup but some wouldn’t take it from my hands if I blessed it and called it the body of Christ. Around the communal table everyone present agrees they don’t support this divide and want an end to it. What do I make of that? Why is the continuing authority of a few denying food to the majority, in both Church and State?

Making bread

This morning I made some more soup. It was from left over stuff billionaires could afford to pass on. The struggle is still in me, the struggle for justice I mean. Will the Rule help me sustain it? I’m still not sure about all of it but I will go back to basics and ‘Listen’.

From my remembered bible: This is what God requires: do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.

May everyone be fed.

Janet Lees in Longdendale, 04.03.2023

Soup

Begin with something to make the soup base. The way I prefer to do this is with chopped onions and a little garlic. Fry these gently in a small amount of vegetable oil until they are soft and golden. Then add the chopped vegetables you are going to use in this week’s super soup. This can be anything at all – although watery things like lettuce and cucumber are not so good in this kind of soup (but can be fine in lighter summer soups). Remember that what you choose will affect the look of the eventual soup. Carrot makes most things orange, or brown if with something green. Some people like brown soup. Potato will thicken most things but other vegetables will have a similar affect, like sweet potatoes, squash or similar. Stir the chopped vegetables around a bit. Consider the seasoning options. Ground turmeric is nice and goes well with some ginger to make a warming soup that is bright and encouraging. Ground coriander also goes well, and fresh coriander can add a green finish to a soup if you add it at the end. Cumin seeds or ground cumin give a lovely flavour but experiment with things a bit and see what you like. This can be fun but bear in mind that not all members of your community will agree. Add vegetable stock or water and simmer for 20 minutes or so until the vegetables are soft but not soggy. I usually use a blender to finish the soup because I like a thick velvety texture. Some prefer not to do this or to leave some chunks in for guessing games.

Soup in Longdendale

I have been performing this litany once a week since October. Due to the cost of living crisis we can get free vegetables from supermarkets who can’t sell all their vegetables. With these free vegetables we can make free soup to serve people who can’t afford to buy vegetables. We serve it at a small village church that is heated by the giving of people who can only just about afford to keep warm to people who can’t afford to turn on their heating. Some people call this progress. Others call it charity. I call it a disgrace.

But I’m loathe to waste good vegetables or have people go cold and hungry. Unfortunately Benedict doesn’t really do this kind of politics in his Rule. He does commend kitchen service (Chapter 35).

From my remembered bible: Hurry up and help us God!

Soup makers creed:

I believe in God, creator, ingredients maker of all things heavenly and earthy,

And in Jesus Christ, food multiplyer, crowd feeder,

Born of the homemaker Mary of Nazareth, getting by on the basics.

This soup was made with love and free vegetables.

Janet Lees, Living in Longdendale, 03.02.2023

Marys

Four Christmas cards……

From Nazareth

The cold, still, starry nights remind me of Bethlehem. Glory to God in the highest. See you in Jerusalem for Passover.

Love from Mary of Nazareth.

From Magdala

The cold, still, starry nights remind me of our journey through Galilee. Give us this day our daily bread. See you in Jerusalem for Passover.

Love from Mary of Magdala.

From Bethany

The cold, still starry nights remind me of the waiting when Lazarus died. Only the grave is more silent. See you in Jerusalem for Passover.

Love from Mary of Bethany.

From Emmaus

The cold, still starry nights remind me of everything we shared. When I bake bread I remember. See you in Jerusalem for Passover.

Love from Mary of Emmaus.

The Love of God comes close where stands an open door

Janet Lees in Longdendale: 14.12.2022