Who Cares About What

'The aumbry light was on, but the churchwardens didn't know what it was for', the retired incumbent told me of a visit to a church as Area Dean, 'and when we opened it, it was clear the Sacrament had been in there for a long, long time'. I thought of visiting that very church a little while ago and noticing the light on but the door of the aumbry ajar, rather implying that there was nothing in it. What with the new united parish of Hornington and Tophill being handed into the care of the CPAS, it occurred to me to make another little effort to make sure the good people of Swanvale Halt do have some dim idea of what's distinct about the Catholic tradition within the Anglican Church, partly so they can use it spiritually, and partly so that they are on guard if anything happens to me. I began last Sunday with 'The Communion of Saints', to a congregation depleted by illness and torrential rain, but an appreciative one at least.

'Do people really care about this?' Giselle the lay reader asked me. It's a fair question and fair, too, coming from someone who has spent most of her ministry at Tophill but comes from a Roman Catholic background so does at least understand what it's about. If what we are dealing with is simply a set of markers of partisan identity, they probably shouldn't, but equally Swanvale Halt has to think about why it exists at all in these hard times. I think the fact is that a minority do care because they 'get it' and do indeed consciously understand and value what I've been talking about for twelve years. What most people in the church care about is comfort and familiarity, and in a world of hectic change, and a life of inevitable change, comfort and familiarity are not things to be treated automatically with contempt. On a spiritual level, the things they find comforting and familiar about their church life are the ways they have become accustomed to talk to God and to hear him talking to them. What I would say is that they may not realise the degree to which those things depend on the principles and ideas behind Catholic spiritual life. They may by the time I finish!