Month: September 2022

Pilgrim

Dear Benedict: One thing that has characterised this phase of my life is being on the move. I keep walking, even if it may not be as much as in 2019, when I completed the End to End. Each day includes, where possible, the little end to end. To embark on pilgrimage, first go up the High Street as if it’s sacred ground: the butcher’s is closed, the baker get’s up at 3 am, they still sell candles in a couple of shops. In a holy valley like Longdendale, what ever the weather, something is trickling down one gulley or another, from the top reservoir to the bottom. But here like other places in England, there’s a partial drought and the behaviour of reservoirs is not a good image for how to treat real people when it comes to economics.

This week has been another of my roving weeks. When on the move I take a few things with me: my phone stands in for many things, but also a paper map for backup, and my remembered bible and remembered rule. Days away from home are different from days at home. Here I’m sat down writing. There I’m on the move, observing and reflecting. A balance between these is my current pilgrim life.

My adventures took me to Angelsey, Yns Mon, across the Menai Bridge where only bicycles can overtake bicycles. I visited four small churches on the island, sometimes on islands next to the island. These probably all began life as hermit cells and are not often used today, though each is still a part of a local group of churches.

St Tysilio’s Church on church Island, Menai.

St Tysilio’s near Menai Bridge is on Church Island which is joined to the main island by causeway. Lit by candlelight, an open door explained that it was founded in 630AD. These are churches of the Celtic version of the faith that was circulating in the West well before Augustine, a Benedictine, turned up in Canterbury (597AD). Simple, less heirarchical and misinformed (according to Rome) about the date of Easter, these small hermitages have been visited by local people for centuries. The early Celtic saints were often on the move and Tysilio is said to have died in Brittany, where the great western seaway took him.

Inside St Tysilio’s Church Menai.

The Church in the Sea is also linked by a causeway to the main island, but is only accessible at low tide, the journey made over a trail of rocks.

St Cwyfan’s Church in the Sea, near Aberffraw

A simple building, services are still held during the summer. Through the window I could see the font surrounded by sea shells, sign of the pilgrim’s baptismal vows renewed.

Sea shells surround the font at the Church in the Sea.

Lligwy Chapel, built in the 12th century, is now a ruin, its community having moved away. There’s no note of it being dedicated to any saint, but all saints came here and in the 16th century at least some were buried here. It stands within a circle of boulders in a meadow not far from an ancient settlement that dates to the Roman occupation and a Neolithic burial mound, all of which indicates this ground has been considered holy since at least 2,500 BC.

Ruins of Lligwy Chapel.
Lligwy Neolithic Burial Chamber.

The final one of the four is dedicated to St Seiriol and is a small well chamber alongside the ruins of the Augustinian Abbey at Penmon, proof that one St Augustine did finally catch up with the inhabitants of Angelsey. But it was the other St Augustine, this time from Hippo who’s writings date to about 400 AD. St Seiriol is remembered as one of the early Welsh Fathers, and his occupation of the site dates to the 6th century.

Abbey window at Penmon.

The Penmon cross now housed in the Abbey, 9th century, is incised with simple Celtic patterns.

Penmon Cross, 9th Century.

I’ll end my pilgrimage at St Seiriol’s Well, which is behind the Abbey. This well probably has, like most holy wells in Wales, pre Christian origins. Wells have been sites of pilgrimage for generations and the water here still runs clear.

St Seiriol’s Well, Penmon

I love to visit the homes of the saints, ancient and modern. Each spot reminds me that at sometime someone else sat here and prayed. I join in the timeless action.

From my remembered bible: The swallow makes its nest near your altar.

Note that swallows are migratory birds even now leaving Britain until next spring.

May my prayer migrate as I pray for the migrating ones, all who are travelling beyond borders.

From A Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Angelsey, 17-24 September 2022.

Leadership

Dear Benedict

Although I started writing to you nearly two years ago, there were bits of your Rule that I missed out. I’m now returning to chapter 2 which is quite long so this is only about the first paragraph. It’s about leadership and especially the qualities of a good leader.

The Ruthwell Cross, an Anglo-Saxon sculpture remembering the ways of the Cross-Wise One

With Queen Elizabeth II having died three days ago, there’s a lot of talk around about leadership and especially about hers. This makes it timely to talk about the kind of leadership proposed in your Rule. Commentators agree that it wasn’t the kind of leadership that would have been familiar to folks in 6th century Europe. Look at it carefully and we can see it’s not the kind of leadership familiar to people in 21st century Britain either.

Community leaders are ‘believed to hold the place of Christ’. That takes me to the Jesus of the gospels, our human entry point into seeing God at work in the world. It’s a fair step from 1st century wandering Aramaic preacher to 21st century leader, on either the local or global stage. We talk about Christian values but often shy away from the radical nature of their demands.

Stone cross in field boundary, probably dating from 6-7th century, Cornwall.

Jesus was not upholding the status quo of the religious institutions of his day. He did not point to local or global political leaders as heralding the reign of God but to another kin-dom based on the activity of the seeds of small plants. Most of what is remembered of what he said (and it would have had to have been remembered before it was written down) turns the human ideas of that day and this upside down. He was regularly criticised for hanging out with the wrong people, often those on the margins of the the society of which he was a part.

We on the other hand take a pick and mix approach, choosing the bits we like and leaving the rest under the carpet. Former Primer Ministers may praise the late Queen’s honesty and humility and conveniently overlook their own lack of either of this qualities, for example. Or the new Home Secretary might say too many people claim state benefits in support of income whilst herself earning a six figure sum. These ways of speaking and acting are not, it seems to me, at all Christ-like.

Seen in Caithness, 2003

The leaders of the community you describe do not get praise heaped upon them, but neither do they get trolled. They are not expected to make a fuss but just get on with the role God has called them to. There is some similarity between this interpretation and the life of the late Queen Elizabeth, except for the reported 500 million pound fortune and the multiple large mansions. A Queen is after all a queen and inherits all the baggage of state and history into the bargain.

The monastic leader is not in this league, although eventually of course there were monastic leaders who got the wrong interpretation of leadership roles in the past, accumulated too much wealth or abused power in other ways. Some of these have been unmasked and the abuse of religious power was one of the things that contributed to the Reformation in Europe. Unfortunately too much of the Church is still rich making it difficult for some to see it as on their side of those on the social margins. It may be understandable to think that the worship of the Triune God requires our best; huge wealthy buildings and posh clothes, but there’s nothing in the gospels to suggest this and everything to indicate it wasn’t the way Jesus lived his life.

Closer view of the Ruthwell Cross, Dumfries and Galloway

When leaders are ‘believed to hold the place of Christ’ we might imagine him washing people’s feet, touching lepers, eating with excluded people and the like. These are not just things he did for photo opportunities. He actually lived like that: no home base, no comfortable existence. Most of our leaders, local and global, would not embrace such conditions.

It is said of the late Queen Elizabeth that when Pope Francis asked her to pray for him, she said she would. It’s the very least we can do and it’s an important beginning. If we want to see a greater Christ-likeness in our leaders then we must pray for them.

From my remembered gospel: The kin-dom of God is like …..

Pray for me as I pray for you.

From a Friend of Scholastic and the Member of the Lay community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Longdendale, 10.09.2022.