Rector's letter for February Fowey News

Dear Friends

Is The Sea of Faith Coming Back In?

Could be that Christianity might be seeing a resurgence (or perhaps that should be a resurrection)? The term “the sea of faith” comes from the 19th century poet, Matthew Arnold, who in his poem, Dover Beach, made this observation: The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore / Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. / But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, / Retreating, to the breath / Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear / And naked shingles of the world.

Arnold’s suggested that, as he could see, there was not going to be much left to believe in, except perhaps, ourselves which, as it turns out, is proving a shaky foundation for life. The #YouDoYou movement has its roots in the Romanticism of the 18th and 19th centuries, but the focus on the immediate and the self within an entirely materialist frame is proving to be less than satisfactory. People are seeking meaning and purpose in life, not just experiences and white goods.

Justin Brierley has written an intriguing book The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God with an accompanying podcast - well worth a listen - which documents the shift away from the secularist materialism of the New Atheists and their almost crowing rejection of the supernatural, to a stand which, if not entirely accepting of faith, is a little more humble about the certainties asserted by materialism.

So perhaps Christianity is making a comeback. Despite the decline in church attendance. Despite the fact that the institutions of the West are still hostile. The returning sea may not be a smooth flood tide of clear Christian creeds and confessions. In fact, it is more of a tsunami, a crashing, rushing, tangled mess of spiritual flotsam and jetsam, churned along and dragged onto our early 21st century shores as a result of seismic changes in our culture and the failure of our ideologies to create a vision of life that is worth living without God. It’s a mess that is being sucked back into the spiritual vacuum of the West, and it’s dragging with it all sorts of foreign and exotic objects. We are already living in a world in which ostensibly sensible and educated Westerners are turning to all sort of crazy - and often dark - stuff that we thought had long been laid to rest.

Yet one of the defining features of the early church, as the clear waters of the Christian faith carved their way through the ancient world, was how the good news of Jesus dispelled superstition. People are aching for something transcendent and some are rediscovering that the historic, orthodox, biblical, confessional Christian faith is not only tried and trusted, but supernatural and real: a risen and ruling Christ, a Holy Spirit who is both powerful and intimate, and an energy that broke the chains of the darkness that held the ancient world spellbound. And such transcendent faith is rooted and discovered in simple but deeply spiritual and enlivening activities - the Bible, the prayers, the meal and the gathering. The Anchor is embedded in this ancient Christian tradition and open to all to discover its transcendence and purpose. Join us on Sunday mornings, 10am in Fowey Gallants Sailing Club.

with every blessing

Philip