Transfigured in Joy

Like so many of us in the Salisbury Diocese, I have a heart for the people of Sudan. We have collected money for the church in Sudan, enjoyed two-way exchanges, been challenged by their faith and fortitude and engaged in supporting both the diocesan medical link and the specific local link between Poole hospital and the hospital in Wau. So I rejoice that the Spirit has moved Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul to ordain Elizabeth Awut Ngor as a bishop in the diocese of Rumbek. This move has not gone without some adverse comment. Peter Jensen has commented on behalf of GAFCON. He speaks of this consecration as an anomaly and he manages to avoid any mention of her name. She is just ‘a female bishop’. He states that this issue poses a threat to ‘the unity we prize’ and he concludes that further discussions are needed ‘as we seek to find a common mind, looking to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’.

I have to say that all this is a far cry from my understanding of what unity in the Spirit means. Unity that comes by discussion, agreement and finding a common mind is the sort of unity that might be sort in a dysfunctional government, trade union or country club. People are arguing with one another, so a means must be found of reaching a settlement so that, even if some form of compromise is needed, an understanding is agreed, which holds people together, even if it is an uneasy peace that has been achieved. I wonder where the word ‘Spirit’ comes into all of this. The capital S indicates that what is in mind here is nothing less than the Holy Spirit. Does the Holy Spirit guide the process, or does she await the human activity of coming to a common mind before putting her stamp of approval on things?

My own adult faith dawned after a prolonged period of contemplative prayer, as I found myself transported to the foot of the cross and I saw the depth of love that had led Jesus to give his life for me. My heart has never been moved by doctrines of atonement. I can only say that at that moment my heart was melted and I found myself, not only blown off my feet by the experience, but my heart set on fire with a love that was all consuming and totally transforming. Nothing in life was ever the same again. It was a new birth. I was filled by the Spirit and brought into a new relationship both with God and with creation. It also totally altered my perception of what it meant to belong to the Church. No longer was it a dusty old institution to which I might belong. To be part of the Church was now to have been swept into a new family of people for whom standing at the foot of the cross and having been transfigured by the Spirit was the shared defining moment in our lives. It is this that is the ‘first order’ issue for me. It is not something to be defended, but rather an exuberant joy to be shared, not least when we are bound together in celebration at the Eucharistic feast.

It follows that everything else is a second order issue. We will profoundly disagree about what seem to be the big issues of our day, but such differences, however irreconcilable they might seem, are somehow diminished in the light of the exuberant joy of the life of the Spirit and the sense of unity that sharing in that life brings. In other words, it is the reality of sharing Spirit filled lives as children of God that we find the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. It is something given to us by God, which supersedes any earthly differences. That does not excuse us from seeking resolution to whatever issue might predominate in our present time, but we can live with difference and agree-to-disagree, for these issues are not what define us. What defines us is our shared joy that has transported us into the life of the Kingdom.