Anniversary of the Dedication of the Abbey Church - 20th June 2025
I love this feast, the physicality of it, the celebration of the space within which we pray and worship day after day. We worship a transcendent God who is not confined in space and yet as human beings we need special places. Our churches are places we build to guard a space within which we can more readily sense the presence of God, and our community as one dedicated to an enclosed life has a particular call to guard the silence that enables a deeper experience of God. That silence clings to our church and to this whole site, a tangible silence that touches so many people when they step inside the gate.
Human beings have throughout history responded to particular places where spiritual energies seem to be focussed, whether it is experienced as the presence of God or of the elemental spirits of a place. I am very drawn to the story of Jacob’s dream that we read at Lauds, especially the words that we also use as the first antiphon: “Surely the Lord is in this place. This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” I find they are words that I echo when I enter our church, and many who visit this place have similar reactions. “Surely the Lord is in this place.”
The architecture of the church gathers and focusses God’s energies into a bowl of light in which we are immersed. The new glazing has gifted us the wonderful ladders of light that shift with the seasons and time of day, reminding us of our connection with natural rhythms of light and dark. Now with electric light we can so easily have bright light whenever we want and we forget our dependence on the web of life beyond our human concerns. Our modern, 24/7 way of life constantly draws us into an attitude of faster, more, must have it now and takes us away from the silent waiting on God that needs to be our foundation.
It is hard to detach ourselves from the demands of the culture around us, at the very least because we have to respond to the bureaucratic requirements of government and others – because I hold legal responsibilities here I have yet again had to jump through various hoops to prove to the government that I exist, and I know some other sisters are going to have to do this too… it gets harder and harder when we are living a counter cultural life without smart phones, personal money and credit cards. Not all of us have such legal responsibilities but all of us need to be aware of when we are getting needlessly caught up in the fast pace of life outside community. ‘Internet speed’ I call it.
Returning to the church eight times per day to pray repeatedly draws us back to what really matters, our relationship with God. It puts everything else in perspective, forces us to slow down and find our true centre. In economic terms it is a complete waste of time but without being in touch with that centre life loses its meaning. Of course there are times when we are totally distracted from the office, it’s certainly true for me, but it is a good discipline to keep letting go the extraneous thoughts and come back to what we are doing. That discipline is one that carries over into the rest of life and I hope makes us more able to keep a steady, centred rhythm whatever the demands being placed on us.
We must nurture the silence of the church, the silence of our enclosure and the silence of our own hearts. It needs to be a silence centred in the loving presence of God deep within our hearts, not a sullen or inward-looking silence but a receptive, attentive silence. It’s a silence from within which we look out on the world, ready to set aside our own agendas and respond with love to what we hear or see. It’s a ‘happy silence’ as my young nephew once described it.
The Rule is full of practices that call us back to humility and silence, two values that complement and support one another. And that humility and silence then become hospitality as we make a space for others, accepting them as they are without needing to impose ourselves. The simplicity of our church and the offices that we pray there are an expression of humility and silence, helping to form those values in us and creating a welcoming space for others.
I have heard it said that, in the end, the architecture of a church always wins when it comes to shaping the spiritual life of the community that worships there. Today we give thanks for the vision that created our beautiful church and for the way it continues to call us and all who visit into a deeper experience of God’s presence.
‘Surely the Lord is in this place’
Mother Anne - 20th June 2025