Solitude and Communion Edited by A. M. Allchin

SOLITUDE AND COMMUNION papers on the hermit life given at St David's, Wales


I sort this collection out because of the powerful quotes from it in the New Monasticism as Fresh Expressions
and in particular quotes from the essay by Mother Mary Clare SLG, for example the quote about St Anthony coming back from the desert, which I remark on in the review of New Monasticism again stands out for me. This collection, while over 35 years old seems to speak directly to the contemporary reality of the Church and it is telling to encounter it directly after the disappointing "Mission-Shaped Questions", in almost all the ways Mission-Shaped Questions disappointed me and left me feeling the Church was hopeless, Solitude and Communion delighted me and filled me with hope.
This is a collection while deserves a wider audience (although it seems I might of brought the last copy on Amazon - however some articles can be found in full if you search online) there is much that the approaches here can do that catch phrases and franchised enquirer course will never give the Church. 

I found within this collection a very personal encounter with themes and ideas that I have wrestled with over a number of years under the heading 'vocation' and I think this will prompt me to further reflection.  I think it should speak to the Church's own wider reflections on ministry, and raise the question of what the ordained within the Church are for.  The Church Times readers out there will have seen the recent articles on self-supporting or non-stipendiary ministry, I think one of the reasons why many SSMs are frustrated is due to the unhealthy concepts of ministry - we look too often on our clergy as group captains and social organisers and not as holy men and women "set apart" for the good of the Church and the world.  Mother Mary Clare SLG writes of solitude that it "is not a kneeling before God with folded hands of supplication, but it is a going into God and there abiding so that he may flow out through us."  It seems that the idea of the Church as Holy has very little creditability, within or without, the battles over ordination and the scandals over abuse make it hard to see beyond the worldly tarnish.  It is those who to, varying degrees, live the Hermit's life that live out the example of what the Holy Church should be - as has long be said of them 'separated from all and united to all' and this is a truth we need to see again.