was the first contemplative prayer session at grace/st marys last night which had about 25 people come along. the focus was on centring prayer… it’s happening 8pm on the first sunday of each month.

this coming saturday it’s grace – following on from benedictine spirituality last month, this time discipline will explore what we can learn about developing a rule/rhythm/way of life that fuels our faith individually and together. seems to be quite a few groups exploring this kind of new monsatic stuff at the moment. we’ll never get our act together enough to have an order or a rule i’m sure but looking forward to it. on that subject moot are posting their explorations in this area on their blog. and i enjoyed reading the thinking of alan roxburgh and chris erdman following their pilgrimage to the uk on missional orders where they identify the combination of abbot, monastery and ethos as being at the heart of what a missional order is. i liked this on the ethos…

The Celts formed their communities beside the water because the
tides continually reminded them of the rhythms that are essential to
life. The coming in of the tide is the inward journey with its primary
encounter with God and the self. The going out of the tide is the
outward journey into and for the sake of the world. The ethos,
therefore, is this rhythm of the tides, the inward/outward journey. The
ethos is to continually cultivate the rhythm. If we are trying to
create an environment in which we see everything as a gift from God
then the rhythm is essential – this focal recognition of the
inner/outer journey going on in our lives continually.

There is a tension in this journey. If it is made into a
prescriptive set of actions that all must follow all times then it
becomes a new legalism, a new technique and program. If this is the
case then we will always be recruiting people into something rather
than inviting them on a journey of exploration and discernment for
themselves, personally, and as a community of God’s people.

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