|
Periodically we produce a
newsletter called "God Squad" with articles of interest to our team of
chaplains and their clients the latest copy of which can be viewed by
clicking here.
Our latest Annual Report
is also available and can be viewed by clicking here.
Faith at
Work!! ~ A Reflection for WMIMA Wed 22
Nov 2006 by Graham Hardwick
|
This is
probably my last chance to reflect in this way with you all as I face a
radical change in work life balance at the end of 2007!
I think I
am in paid work until then.
I thought
I would share something a bit different.
I arrived
in Coventry joining the cathedral staff in 1975. I was their youth and
community chaplain.
|
 |
Within
weeks of arriving Chrysler shut the Ryton plant and many were suddenly
redundant. This was pre MSC and much of teh more enlightened way these
things appear to be done now. Although I cant say Peugeot have handled
the recent phased shut down any better. I cant say because although we
have offered support sent the revised leaflet to Union offices and
Management, and it has been in the Resources Centre, we have not been
invited/allowed on site!
All those
years ago we converted the day time use of the city centre community
centre which I managed into a drop-in centre for workers from the
Chrysler plant. Hundreds came through that centre and with support
from trade unionists, community workers and some avowed communists we
developed a very enthused, supportive and successful project.
At the
same time in the other sphere of my split identity I was a member of the
staff team at the cathedral. As part of that team I engaged with the
rich mix of work then done by it.
At the
heart of the cathedral’s life was something called the common
discipline. It was based, as indeed the original foundation of the
medieval cathedral had been, on the “Rule of St Benedict.”
In 1981
Pope John Paul 2 wrote an encyclical entitled “On Human Work.”
The
turbulent times of Benedict and the formation of his rule and his order,
in some way mirrored the time in Coventry, the Pope’s rather good
encyclical, and of course our present day.
At the
heart of the Rule is as he puts it “To put the love of Christ before all
else.”
He taught
a genuine sincerity of Spirit and so of all life. Integrity, something
he had found sadly lacking in political and religious leaders of his
day, was the measure of the religious, and indeed, of course, the
Christian life, wherever it was lived.
He taught
a balance between religious observation that fed the whole of life, and
work, the actual duties of daily life required by any functioning
community.
As I
picked on this theme to begin my little reflective journey today, I was
then moved to the Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. I was taught some years
ago of their great value and relevance as we sought to give life to the
Word of God by seeking to enter the life of those writing written about
in the books of our Bible and especially those encountered by or
described by the Gospels. The other side of this approach, which I have
done no real justice to, is to look at those with whom we share life in
a similar way. Again surely this speaks to us, our work in the working
world and our attempt to speak to those that cannot or will not hear
(The Churches?).
A third
voice that has long inspired me is Theresa of Avila. Her “Interior
Castle” seemed to me always something that the likes of Brian Keenan and
Terry Waite must have been inspired by in their long incarceration in
the Middle East. She speaks of the place where we can go to meet with
Living God we all crave to know, to understand, and perhaps even to
serve!
Encouraging people to look in this inward
direction was part of her
gifting to the Christian Tradition.
I used
what was for me a modern application of this approach in prayer
workshops in my local church ministry through a now much battered book
called “Centering Prayer.”
So why
have I taken you on a rather patronising (silly old B****r) sort of a
journey? It’s a kind of fortune-cookie version of the wonderful depths
of Christian Spirituality.
WHY
Graham?
Because I
believe this is what we are about fundamentally in our activity.
Pioneers of radical mission with those in prison, forces, hospital and
educational chaplaincies we have the jewels that we, well I anyway,
rarely if ever actively seek to share, promote or deliver to those
locations where we have access.
Why not?
Many workplaces are paying large sums of money to consultants who come
in wearing our spiritual clothes and selling these teachings.
Why aren’t
we?
Instead of
apologising for all that we are out there, instead of defending all we
are IN HERE, maybe we have to rediscover what it was that inspired and
inspires us still.
|
