Finding Solid Ground in Turbulent Times

by Simeon Elderfield

Three weeks ago, I was sitting in a conference room in the House of Lords, listening to the Chief Operating Officer of Premier, the parent company of Premier Christian Radio. He was telling a room full of people from a wide variety of Christian churches, what Premier’s long-term strategy was to equip the Christian Church in continuing to do it’s work in the Digital sphere. I went as part of the Diocese of Westminster’s team, to listen and work out how we can work with their vision, transforming the church into something which evangelises effectively in all areas.

Since that meeting in the House of Lords, I have learned that God moves quickly when he wants to. In such a short space of time, Masses are streamed, resources are being produced, and Cardinal Vincent was on Sunday Breakfast hinting heavily that the BBC should consider live streaming the Easter celebrations. Even Westminster Cathedral is getting cameras permanently installed so that Mass and other liturgies can be broadcast. A new status quo is coming into play.

At times over the past week, watching the Church come to terms with where it’s at, it has been emotional. I remember talking with one priest who openly admitted he cried at the consecration of his last public Mass. With the schools closing and no clear timeframe as to when restrictions will be lifted, there is an existential question hanging over the heads of those employed by diocesan curia.

I work within that system, in the communications team and it is at these times that doing my job well becomes critical. We become a conduit through which information flows, making sure any messages we put out don’t add to the confusion. We must be strategic and sensitive, not just to the people we serve, but also the trends and chatter of the wider world. Ours is not to police content, but to communicate the messages which need to be heard.

What has struck me over the past two weeks is how the institution of the church, frequently labelled immovable, has moved swiftly to ensure the message is clear and the content is sound. In a crisis, the organisation has responded, and that is a credit to every lay person and member of the clergy working there.

But then, we forget that change is often not as gradual as it seems. Rather evolution on a wider scale is triggered by short sharp shocks. A meteorite, a revolution, a war, a disease. Rapid change in short time.

It seems fair to say that we are currently living through a paradigm shift. On the side of society, you need only hear that a Conservative government seriously floated the idea of a universal basic income to realise how far we’ve come. But on the side of the Church, more than ever it is challenged to go out to the margins and meet the isolated, so that those who feel lost can find home. Especially as it embraces the digital world, so many new avenues have opened and the end of the road we are started on could truly be a more engaged church, unified around a single purpose.

We are forced to engage in our faith in a way which isn’t simply just turning up for a Mass on Sunday. The things we took for granted are no more, and that can only challenge us to mature into a deeper relationship with God. This was expanded upon by Pope Francis in his Urbi et Orbi address which was around the passage in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus calms the storms. The storm, said the pope, exposes ‘our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules'.

The disciples urge Jesus to act, accusing him of not caring. On the contrary, Jesus slept knowing that God cared so much, no matter the outcome, they would be safe. In death and in life, they could be confident of the love of God.

The adage says we don’t know what we miss till it’s gone. On Sunday, I watched and participated in my first live-streamed Mass and that saying rang true. It was quite something to sit there on my couch, watching my television. It seemed strange that the divine had entered what seemed so ordinary, but then, I shouldn’t be surprised. God has form in this regard.

For myself, taking this as an opportunity to read the Bible, pray the Office of Readings, and give God my times of silence: these are the ways I am using to deepen my relationship with God. I commend them to you whole heartedly as valuable methods of processing what we are going through, rooted in tradition. Aptly, as we enter a time of even stricter isolation, the words which most touched my heart recently come from Cardinal Vincent, in his video after the news broke that public acts of worship would be suspended. I hope we bear them in mind over the coming days: 

‘Please, don’t lose heart. Please, get deeper rooted. When a plant is deprived of some surface water, it has to put down deeper roots. We are going to have to put down deeper roots of the Spirit and we know that God will nurture us.’

Images used within this blog: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk