(This post was written for RevGalBlogPals weekly e-reader:)
In around 10 days time, I’ll be ordained as a priest in the
Scottish Episcopal Church.
It feels like the consummation of a love affair I have been caught up in for
the last 6 years.
Finding myself without a church to call home, I visited the local Episcopal
church with the intention of taking time to rest while I looked at the
worshiping community options available in my new locality.
Four years later, I was discerning a call to transfer orders from the
denomination in which I had been ordained for over 25 years.
It’s been a journey – a journey that has involved body, mind and soul.
A journey in which I have re-discovered a playful God who messes with all our
senses – not just our heads.
I have become a liturgy geek, passionate about beautiful words that declare our
faith and close the gap between heaven and earth and I’ve loved learning the history
of the Scottish Episcopalians who always seemed to be at the forefront of championing
the underdog and protesting against parliamentary high handedness and who wrote
their prayer books steeped in independent notions that nonetheless captured
ancient practices and scholarship.
As I left a pastoral charge 6 years ago, to accompany ministers and
congregations through cultural change in a process of discernment and renewal,
the last thing I imagined was my own journey of discernment or the renewal of a
vocation.
And I am reminded that authenticity consists in practising what we preach or
teach.
I look forward to new adventures with the God who calls each of us beloved and
invites us to join in a rhythm that is both ancient and new every morning.
Wooing God, may we follow wherever you lead, knowing that
every blind alley leads us to you and every open trail reveals more of you and
your place and purpose for us and for all of creation.
Liz Crumlish
BIOG
Liz Crumlish is a (soon to be) priest in the Scottish, Episcopal Church and a
practitioner and educator in Cross Professional Supervision.
She has just co-authored Pastoral Supervision: Creativity in Action with
her colleague, Michael Paterson
She also contributed to There's a Woman in the Pulpit, with other RevGalBlogPals
and blogs regularly, here at www.liz-vicarofdibley.blogspot.com
Liz; this is absolutely beautiful; and really took my breath away while reading it. The raw, sensual truth and vulnerability with which you speak of your faith and God are so very refreshing. So much of what you say is relatable to me; I grew up in a very conservative, part Baptist, Part Plymouth Brethren home, and as soon as I turned 18, I ran away and wanted to be as far from the Christian church as humanly possible! So far in fact, that after something of a spiritual world tour, I ended up becoming a practising Muslim! Fast forward to my 40s and like you, I’ve recently discovered the episcopal church, and think I may have found home; or at least the home in which I’m destined to live out these next chapters of my religious life. I think it becomes harder; for various reasons, to follow your soul and be your authentic self in older age; yet conversely, we become better at tuning into the soft yet persistent voice of our God as he directs a trail to light through the dark. I wish you all the very best in this next exciting chapter. Please do keep journaling your thoughts; it’s going to be fascinating to see how your journey unfolds!
ReplyDeleteWith love, prayers and warm wishes.
Thankyou Roshni - beautiful encouragement
ReplyDelete