Easter was a little unexpected this year! Wild Church got off to a great start with a Wild Wisdom Community Day in Exeter on Palm Sunday which was on the Spring Equinox this year, where we were due to join a local contemplative group in some singing. The trickster spirit was immediately in evidence as our first pilgrimage point, St Pancras, turned out to be immersed in building works and far from contemplative. Having already seen the Cathedral Choir heading off in the opposite direction should have been a bit of a clue really!
Belatedly following the choir led us into another unexpected experience. It was quite something to then walk through the rarely open, great west doors of the Cathedral, surrounded by carved creatures and stone saints stroking their beards, and to be sung to by the choir, who were facing us, as we processed inside this soaring gothic sacred space.
Once within, our interfaith gathering of assorted pagans, buddhists and undefined spiritually inclined people was perhaps a little non plussed to find themselves deep into the story of Christ’s Passion and a traditional communion service. But given that our Wild Wisdom days always include the telling of myth and story and the sharing of inter spiritual collaborative communion, it was not so very different really. Over the last year or more of meeting together, we’ve all increasingly learnt to listen beyond our own reactions, resistances and journey beyond our comfort zones… and into the deeper wild wisdom held within the sacred stories of all traditions.
And this was just the beginning of our Exeter pilgrimage! Soon Beth led us into the deep time of cosmic and geological creation at Exeter Museum, then to a specially arranged visit to the Chapel of Exeter’s patron saint, St. Sidwell, with Her story beautifully told by Clare. Later we concluded with fascinating medieval stories from Janet in the beleaguered St. Pancras (which was surprisingly quiet within) and a closing blessing from Jan, before heading off to the Well House pub. Clare tells the full tale of our adventures here.
As Wild Holy Week continued, Wild Monastics quietly celebrated its own version of the ancient service of shadows, Tenebrae, on the evening before Maundy Thursday as we met for silent meditation by candlelight in Dartington Church. There was a deeper poignancy to moving into the dark of the evening this time and blowing out the candles as we concluded. Especially as this evening was also the beginning of the Jewish festival of Purim. As I headed home, I watched a deep orange full moon rise into the dusky blue sky and thought of Purim’s heroine, Esther, and the power of women to act for the good in the face of adversity.
Similar thoughts were woven into our gathering the following day for Maundy Thursday, as a small group of women gathered in Dartington for a ceremony of foot washing and anointing. We drew inspiration from a series of images and icons, from the loving touch of God creating Adam in a sculpture from Chartres Catherdral to icons of Mary washing and anointing the feet of Jesus. (It’s telling how many of the traditional images show Mary lying ‘hidden ‘ under the table while the male power base literally talks over her head!) Then Jesus washing the feet of his disciples (perhaps inspired by Mary’s example and ministry to him?) and finally ‘The Myrrh Bearing Women.’ (Yes, it’s the women who are the first witnesses to the unexpected at the empty tomb.) All of these images convey to me a power that is not about strength and control but rather love, loss and genuine humility – a willingness to get down on your knees on the earth to help care for others, to love generously, even extravagantly and without counting the cost. Would that a few more of our current leaders looked to such images for inspiration!
A wonderful aspect of focussing on art and silent ceremony, in an inter spiritual group like Wild Church, is that, unlike with words, it allows spiritual mystery to awaken within each individual according to their own language and understanding – theres on need to struggle over beliefs, creeds and ‘truths’. So the motifs depicted in the sacred images become simply shared human ones, acts of love we can all recognise and that we can then enact for each other in the most down to earth ways. Often as we get older and especially for folks living alone, we don’t get to receive much loving touch, so a simple, silent ceremony of having another lovingly wash and anoint your feet can be deeply moving. And, as Beth commented, it really wakes one up to the wonder of having feet ! Those ‘organs of perception’ which are our main direct contact with the earth. So I’ve been getting my shoes off and walking on the good earth more for Wild Holy Week!
The final unexpected aspect of Easter 2016 for Wild Church was that, as it closed with a Good Friday pilgrimage from the Mary Chapel in Dartington to that at Staverton, I found myself feeling increasingly unwell. Each of us found natural tokens along the way that we could symbolically let go of and bury in the Church yard to await an Easter resurrection. But my personal Good Friday burial was ushered in by a rising temperature followed by a week in bed with flu. So all our Wild Easter Sunday plans of woodland shrines, storytelling and all age communion had to be cancelled.
The unexpected blessing however was all the loving messages and support I received, from beautiful cards to home made chicken soup. I felt filled with gratitude and a real Eastertide joy! Musing on the original Easter story, it struck me more than ever this year that it is fundamentally a story about family and community. Over the years I’ve become rather tired of the traditional focus on the ‘hero’s tale’ of the ‘exceptional’ Jesus. In fact I’ve become rather tired of the hero’s journey motif in many contexts altogether. What seems more real to me from eco systems to spiritual ones is interdependence and what I admire about Jesus (among other spiritual leaders) is his capacity to enable and empower others so that together they can transform themselves and the world.
Words by Sam, Exeter Saint Sidwell photographed by Beth, Icon by Atelier Saint Andre & poster designed by Graphic Alchemy