Jean Vanier

Like so many people, I have been deeply affected by the news about Jean Vanier and the report that, over many years, he systematically subjected six different women to sexual abuse. Our thoughts and prayers must go out to those women and to the world-wide communities (L’Arche) that he founded. For them, this revelation has involved deep wounding, either through the revelations themselves or (in the case of the women concerned) though the longstanding experience of being the victims of abuse at the hands of one who was held up by many as a modern-day saint.

My mind goes back to May of last year, when Jean Vanier died. I remember using him as an illustration in a sermon I was giving. I spoke with approval of the impact he had had on the warring Primates of the Anglican Communion and how he had led them in washing each other’s feet. I quoted things he had said. To love someone is to show to them their beauty, their worth and their importance. We are not called to do extraordinary things as Christians, but to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.  I said that he lived the Gospel message and challenged the world to do the same.

I wonder now what to make of that foot-washing and those quotes. The image of the Primates washing each other’s feet remains a powerful one. The two sayings I quoted still speak powerfully to me of what it means to seek to live by the values of the Kingdom. Yet I can no longer quote them. They are words that have somehow been soiled by the actions of the speaker. Vanier did not behave in a way that showed those women their beauty, nor did he act with extraordinary love. I can no longer look up to him as someone who lived the Gospel message.

I see no difference between Vanier and the likes of John Smyth, Jonathan Fletcher or Peter Ball. Each was an outstandingly charismatic leader, and each achieved a position of power and influence that made them untouchable and (seemingly) beyond reproach. I wonder if such ‘saints’ always have clay feet. Perhaps the danger lies in the way we place others in such high esteem, until they find themselves in a place of unaccountable power. To say that is not to excuse or explain away the wicked things that such men of power have done, but it ought to act as a warning to us not to put our faith in such people. They have exercised a worldly power (dressed up as spirituality) which has dazzled many, although not their victims.

Perhaps real saintliness is to be found in ordinary people who, without public acclaim, simply get on with the business of living out lives of selfless love and compassion for others. There are many such people in our churches and perhaps, if we feel uneasy or despondent abut church numbers, we ought to celebrate and support their ministry with greater enthusiasm. When Bishop John Baker (of Salisbury) visited a hospice for men dying of aids, he said, “In the love I have seen those men give to their dying partners, I have seen the face of Christ!” To live in a way that shows the face of Christ is what we are called to do, both as individuals and as the Church. For all their other achievements, those leading churchmen, now shown to be abusers, will not be remembered as people who showed the face of Christ to the world.