Rectory Writings 2

We've now been in our new home one calendar month, and it's been busy - village coffee morning (wonderful homemade cakes!); monthly church service (how I love the Book of Common Prayer)  the Book Group - we read this, not a great read, but fun to talk about; and my first ever W.I.  meeting (and no, I wasn't the youngest woman there!)

Yes, this is Village Life :D



But seeping into all this fun busyness are deep questions, ponderings, about Life, and Age, and Purpose... The pulling of the lens from the wide-angle, to tight focus, and back again...



For much of my life, the Anglican Church was a safe place, a sanctuary, a peaceful harbour in the wild sea of my mother's erratic moods... Its rituals and seasons offered a rhythmic stability, an anchored security.


But I became deeply dismayed by the Church's misogyny, bigotry and culture of judgement, and in my early 40s, I left...



And here I am now, a decade later, in this community where the Church is the life-centre, the meeting place, the gathering place... and I'm drawn to the warm comfort, the familiar Known, the liturgy of my childhood.



The immense natural beauty of this place, the warmth of the people, the fact the church building is left open, its treasures on display, in the trust they will remain there, where they belong...



Now, I'm not so naive to think all is loving and harmonious (a village of humans simply cannot be free from petty squabbles and envies), but I am a Romantic Realist and I have deep marrow-sense of coming Home...

I am older, hopefully somewhat wiser, and I'm still disturbed by many of the Church's attitudes, but as I prepare to inhabit an empty nest, I find myself contemplating this...



... and pondering these questions. For now only in the privacy of my journal, but I may share here sometime when I've unravelled my tangled thoughts...



1 comment:

  1. Bless you Claire, 'our hearts are restless until they find their home in You'. Sounds like your move has been a positive one. Suzanne xx

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