Caveat Emptor

The Deanery Chapter Christmas Lunch wasn't something I looked forward to, but then I got into a conversation with Rebecca who has been incumbent at Charlington for a couple of years. Obviously much of this time has been abnormal; I asked Rebecca whether she'd found Charlington has been a good fit for her, spiritually. What I found is an unusual picture these days of an incumbent trying to move their church further into Catholic life rather than away from it. 

'I've learned,' she said, 'that because a church reserves the Sacrament and so on it doesn't necessarily tell you anything real about its spiritual life. "Liberal Catholic" really describes a church that's got a Eucharist on Sunday where the celebrant wears vestments, and that's it. There's not necessarily any sense of anything bigger or wider. I've made sure we celebrate Holy Week and they think it's all my idea rather than mainstream Catholic practice. That Tenebrae is something I made up. "Open Eucharistic" would be a better description.

'I tried to encourage sacramental confession by calling it a "Spiritual MOT" but the people who take it up are usually former Roman Catholics. I can introduce little bits and pieces, but what most of the church lacks is an awareness of how it all fits together, that this is a way of living life and making sense of it. If, when I leave, a few people have managed to grasp it, that'll be success.'