Well, it's College Quiet Day and I'm not sure whether doing a Blog post is sort of breaking the rules by communicating with you all. I've decided it probably isn't because a Quiet Day is a time to reflect and that is precisely what I am doing.
So, what's happened since last we spoke? As predicted I didn't get Common Room President, the rather wonderful Josh who is marvellously charistmatic and approachable did, and quite rightly too.
The Presidential results aside, last week was pretty quiet. Everyone was tired, everyone waiting for a break at half-term. I had a lovely weekend. I managed to see all the people I planned to, had several lovely meals, was amazed at the new speaking abilities of the only child I know (Tabitha, who is almost 2) and watched 4 hours of 'Steps Reunited' with my Mum. Good stuff all round!
I went back to Stoke St Gregory Baptist Church on Sunday morning, which was very nice indeed. It's my Mum's church, which I attended up to the age of 19 and haven't been there properly since. I was pleased to see quite a lot of people there that I don't know, reassuring that in 6 years it hasn't just been the same old crowd. I'm told that the current Minister is superb with schools and families which I think is great news. Everyone was very friendly and interested in what I was getting up to.
My morning at the Baptist Church, as well as my conversations with the Baptist ministerial candidates in my MTh group at Regents Park, has led me to reflect on why I am training for ordination in the Church of England. In some ways, my coming to Anglicanism feels a bit random. My Dad is C of E but the Sunday School at the Baptist Church was always better, so that's where I went as a child. Then, via a number of free churches, I started going along to the University Chapel in my second year at University, attracted, initially at least, by the simple fact that most of my housemates went there. This journey has meant (much to the horror of many of my fellow students here!) that I was both baptised in the C of E and blessed in the Baptist Church as a baby, then baptised again in the Baptist Church aged 14 and confirmed in the C of E aged 21.
So why Anglicanism? Just because my housemates at Uni happened to go to an Anglican church? What if they'd gone to the local Baptist church?
Between you and me, I'm not particularly hung up on denomination. Were I not being ordained, I would quite happily attend - well - whatever demonination of church I lived near and seemed to feel 'right' whether it was Anglican, Baptist, URC or whatever. I've no beliefs about the Eucharist which would stop me taking it in a church of any denomination, no beliefs about the nature of priesthood that mean I wouldn't regard a Minister of any Christian denomination as equal to an Anglican Priest.
As a matter of fact, I'm not entirely sure why I'm training for ordination in the Anglican Church and not another denomination. There are many things I love about the C of E - the weight it gives to scripture/reason/tradition, its regard for the Eucharist, the variety of traditions you find under its umbrella. I'm happy to be here. And I know God is calling me to be here rather than elsewhere. But I feel my experience of other churches stands me in good stead for ecuminism. The moment we forget that Anglicanism is not the only way to be church is the moment we miss out on a lot of the richness of church experience elsewhere. There's an exciting world out there!
And, not that it follows the line of my argument, more that I feel the need to quote him wherever I can, here's John Betjamin.
But still it gives the chance to me
To praise our dear old C. of E.
So other Churches please forgive
Lines on the Church in which I live,
The Church of England of my birth,
The kindest Church to me on earth.
There may be those who like things fully
Argued out, and call you “woolly”;
Ignoring Creeds and Catechism
They say the C. of E.’s “in schism”.
There may be those who much resent
Priest, Liturgy, and Sacrament, Whose worship is what they call “free”,
Well, let them be so, but for me
There’s refuge in the C. of E.
(From Septuagessima)
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