Spiritual Honesty

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Have you ever been in a church where everything seems a bit too good to be true? As much as I believe that the Holy Spirit can transform a congregation there can be fake versions of that spiritual journey. The BBC2 episode of 'Rev' rather hams this up somewhat cruelly but there is some truth here. A church can easily become a club or a cult. I suppose 'Rev's' fictional church is something of museum piece but at least there is love and honesty.


I am two third's through Dante's Inferno and it strikes me that the poet is inviting us to see that the only way up is by going down. This has been at the heart of my own reflections on the Ladder of Benedict and the Recovery Programme. At rock bottom, people are their most honest. Oscar Wilde said that "We are in the gutter though some of us are looking up at the stars."

With that in mind do watch Nicola's testimony on Youtube as part of her journey within our intentional community -St Peter's Foundation. I find the pauses she has in her broadcast quite instructive. I could have edited these out with iMovie but they seem fundamental to the recording. Some years back John Humphries interviewed Rowan Williams and similar pauses occurred - one lasting 15 seconds. This is an eternity in radio broadcasting.  The programme editor wanted to remove them but Humphries righty insisted these pauses were part of the archbishop's answer.


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