I have a dream ...
by Bishop Graeme Rutherford
Assistant Priest, St Peter's Eastern Hill. June 2010
(With apologies to Martin Luther King for the form, and Rowan Williams for the content.)
I have a dream for a church 'on the hill' which, when you enter, you feel as though you have walked through the back of a wardrobe into Narnia. It's no ordinary place but a place where the radiance of God's difference and newness may be seen. Every resource of theatrical liturgy creates an ambience of something bigger than words can express. The atmosphere is completely 'over-the-top' with candles, gorgeous robes, processions, banners, icons, statues, choral anthems, Gregorian chant and swinging incense piled on. It conveys a sense of being out of your depth and overwhelmed by glory and beauty. Its strangeness is an anticipation of heaven.
I have a dream of a church 'on the hill' in which people become part of a new set of relationships. They are people whose imagination is constantly renewed by a celebratory sharing in the great narratives that hold them together, the narratives of God's actions which have brought them close to each other. Each person is loved and valued inclusively but not exclusively. All are welcome and affirmed. They discover their true identity in being God's growing children, moving always in a Christ-like direction. Like Jesus, they know moments of pain and moments of glory. In the midst of a fast-track culture they give regular time to prayer that catches them up into the stream of the healing love that flows from the Father.
I have a dream of a church 'on the hill' in which the stuff of this world is seen as a carrier of God's healing action. The bread and wine on the table are transfigured and shot through with the life and glory of God. They communicate that matter matters. As part of the material creation, our substance too is transfigured in the sacraments and we are consumed by a longing that the whole creation will be healed and transformed by the Spirit of God, so as to become what it was created to be. It is a church in which no one can settle down with a culture of waste and disposability — whether with people, or with things.
I have a dream of a church 'on the hill' where the habit of attention and devotion to the Holy Scriptures and the Church's ancient tradition is fostered. The Bible is understood as God's self-communication and is listened to as the senior partner in the ongoing conversation between the triad of Scripture, tradition and reason. The listening is also engaged at the level of the heart (lectio divina) as well as the level of the mind (historical/critical study). Mary is revered as the model par excellence for this pondering the Word of God, waiting patiently for the new, unexpected and perhaps unwelcome, and yet saving revelation.
I have a dream of a church 'on the hill' that provides a vision for the city by nourishing its members and enabling them to use their strength for mutual care and service. It is a vision that will never allow the weak, the supposedly 'unproductive', the very old and the very young, the mentally ill and the physically challenged and terminally ill, to disappear from the radar. Set in the shadow of Parliament House, its members do not want to see politics reduced to entertainment, slogans and personalities. They recognize their responsibility to give creative, challenging and constructive support to those who are called to govern and represent us.
I have a dream of a church 'on the hill' where its members live in such a way that their neighbours and friends are 'won' — converted, brought into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. They are suspicious of proselytism and the manipulative, insensitive, approaches to people of other faiths which treat them as if they knew nothing, and as if we had nothing to learn from them. They are not, however, nervous about sharing their faith in Jesus because they believe that in him, people's destinies converge, and their dignities are fully honoured. What he is and does and says and suffers is, in principle, liberatingly relevant to every human being; past, present and future.
Such is my dream for the Church 'on the hill'. May all of us share this dream and under God, may the dream keep on coming true!
+Graeme Rutherford
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Views is a
publication of
St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne Australia.
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