Church Of The Aimless Wanderer

you, me, everyone and everything else

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  • assumptions

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    When first meeting someone, if we’re nor careful, we start making assumptions, and so we do both them and ourselves a disservice, and dilute the preciousness of the moment. Even though light travels very fast, by the time it reaches our eye, where it came from has changed. As we all do, everyone and everything.

    If we can let assumptions go, before they take hold, we can begin maybe to catch glimpses of what holds us all together, makes us one. We can begin to rest in the moment. Which in some vital sense, is all there ever is.

    George Bacon – copyright March 2024

  • what remains

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    /19–/20–/

    Our lives unfold in a period of time between our birth and our death. At some point we begin to let go of the part of us that does not live forever, and start being what remains. Here lies the shapeless border between the first and second halves of our lives.

    In the first half of life, we develop our survival apparatus, both physical and mental. We begin to crawl, then walk then run. We learn to speak and develop our rationale. By the time we are 20 years old if not before, in our period of human history, many of us are doing something in exchange for money. We acquire skills, some work related, others not. We are mostly too busy to observe that the functioning machine we embody is not who we are, its an operating system.

    The wonderful Fr Richard Rohr likes to suggest, and I’m paraphrasing, that ‘only with great love or great suffering is the breakthrough made’. Fr Richard has written a wonderful book, Falling Upward, that first got me pondering the first and second halves of life. Our modern world has us in a fever of getting stuff done. Even relaxing paradoxically requires great effort. Falling in love, the death of a loved one, becoming a parent, some personal catastrophe…these are the events that bring us face to face with our selves.

    It happens when it happens, and to varying extents in each one of us. If we’re lucky we’re the Grateful Dead! Mostly we circle the pool, or tread the edge of the ocean, dipping our toes one after another into it, occasionally throwing ourselves into it and swimming but keeping the shore in sight.

    But we all make progress, despite ourselves. We hear the clock tick, we breathe in and out, grateful for each breath and heartbeat. We learn to take our time; what’s the hurry? We take the achievement drive down a gear or two. Although we enjoy good company, we grow increasingly comfortable with solitude.

    I don’t suppose I’ll ever in this life completely let go of this false self, the first half life, wildly achieved persona. I am grateful I can increasingly see it for what it is, recognise my fondness for and even pride in it. This frees me to begin becoming acquainted with what remains.

    copyright March 2024 George Bacon

  • the last word

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    I’d like to tip my hat to the plant kingdom. Animals and plants it seems began and developed alongside each other. However, at some point in that development, plants began to find themseives at the mercy of animals. Perhaps by the time homo sapiens showed up, the relationship was firmly established?

    Certainly humans have found among plants, sources of many powerful ingredients capable of sustaining and enhancing our lives. To begin with, our ancestors were hunters and gatherers, and so collected suitable plants from their natural habitat. When agriculture was born, the natural order of things began to be tampered with.

    I’d like to think that to begin with those early generations had a deep, respectful, grateful relationship with the earth and everything in it. But as needs grew, alongside competition, acquiring by any means, and radically transforming territories became widespread. If the ‘special relationship’ ever was the case, it now became more and more of an afterthought.

    Innumerable species, and the climates that suited and gave birth to them stopped being family and found themselves instead aspects of the world humans felt entitled to make full use of. Less and less attention was given to the natural order of things. Effectively, earth wisdom was sidelined and eventually ignored.

    In so many words, people of all faiths consider nature the first Bible. Long before words and writing were around, our loving God sang and spoke loud and clear through mountains, forests, flowers, birds, rivers, oceans full of creatures, as well as all terrestial life. Country folks, by virtue of their immediate neighbourhood, are closer to the earth, and to our ancestors primeval beginnings. I salute them!

    I am currently living in London and feel called to maintain and celebrate the country in the city. London has done well with its many parks, commons, squares and gardens, providing amongst other things effective tree sanctuaries. I particularly enjoy the cracks in walls and pavements that are teeming with life. Tufts of grass and wild flowers spring up overnight all over town, quietly insistent that concrete and plastic will not have the last word.

    copyright George Bacon March 2024

  • church anywhere, any time

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    ,

    Church is not a building. Neither, for me, is it a particular group of people. The church I most feel part of can crop up anywhere, anytime, for as long as it suits. All creatures, every thing, are for at least a moment included. When our God moves among us, all creation sings loud.

    I’m grateful for the churches I have been part of throughout my life, and to the many more I have visited. Although I am currently involved in a wonderful church here in London, I remain less interested in joining anything, determined instead to seek, acknowledge and celebrate the connectedness of everything.

    In these extraordinary times, we need each other more than ever. All of us need all of us, no exceptions. None of us are perfect. All of us have unique perspectives of what is. None of these are right or wrong; rather they compliment each other. We can accept each other, help each other whenever we can….the one true church…

  • everyone’s a Christian

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    Everyone is a Christian, it seems to me. Most of us, including many so-called Christians, have precious little idea what that means. Put simply, to me it means we are all undeniably part of the body of Christ.

    Different groups or seekers state it differently, but in all mature faith traditions the connectedness of everyone and everything is revered and celebrated, and what connects all is what Christ is, at least Christ is a word that refers to that.

    Our loving, everywhere God is both in everything and contains everything; “..in whom we live, and move and have our being…”. Christ is what enables that. Jesus humanly embodies that. Its not a joining thing, its a recognising and celebrating thing. I believe deep down everyone believes there’s something, albeit nameless, that moves through and connects us all.

    Church history being what it is, the word is emotionally charged. As the word is widely used, Christians consider themselves separate from non Christians, who are mostly happy to be excluded. This circling the wagons, divisive world view is illusionary and dangerous. There is no them and us, there’s just us.

    Rather than discard a word that has fallen into misuse, I am moved to redefine it, recall its origins and breathe new life into it on behalf of us all.

    Everyone is a Christian.

    copyright March 2024 George Bacon