Eternal Echoes

Spirituality in Britain today; a personal reflection

I write this as an  observer of the culture, and as someone who is interested in the burgeoning of the multifaceted culture of spirituality, apparent in almost every area of life. This is a quick summation of the thoughts that have been running through my head following the ROMBS Conference last weekend.

Almost ten years agonow I was invited to be a part of a Christian group who placed stalls into Mind Body Soul exhibitions, at the time what we called New Age Spirituality was becoming a noticeable part of culture. This rise in a search for spirituality away from the mainstream religions ( or possibly because of them) reflected the cultural shift from modernity to post-modernity. Questions were being asked of the religion and its power bases and at the same time the search for spirituality was being spoken about in ways it had not been before, being a spiritual person was a good thing to be and topics that would have previously been taboo were suddenly firmly on the agenda.

For the following 5 years the Mind Body Soul exhibitions grew in popularity and attracted larger and larger crowds, to be spiritual said something really positive about you as a person. Supermarkets and advertisers were quick to catch on and products were marketed according to the experience they might give you rather than on a list of facts and figures, a spiritual experience was a plus.

In the subsequent 5 years something interesting began to happen, some of the big exhibitions were replaced by a proliferation of smaller ones, village halls and pubs became popular venues, I have even been asked to advise a schools on the subject of hosting spirituality fairs as fundraisers.

Spirituality is still firmly on the agenda, people are more open to speak about spiritual things and see spirituality as an essential part of being human. One thing that challenges me is the current readiness of folk to talk about Jesus in a positive manner, most recently this trend has been highlighted for us by Jade Goody and her statements about faith and baptism.

The question to the Church today is, are we ready to engage with the God who has gone before us, do we have eyes to see, and ears to hear where he is working so that we can join in?

Jade Goody; thoughts on a life

Jade Goody was a controversial figure, for the last seven years ever since she hit the TV screens through the reality TV show Big Brother she has been loved and hated by the tabloid press and the public alike. Her death was reported this morning.

Over the last few weeks her battle with terminal cancer has been documented and we have watched a brave young woman deal with her last days in a glare of invited publicity. It is easy to critisise Jade, in our Mothering Sunday Service this morning a request for prayer was made for her children, the request was phrased that no matter what we thought of the mother we should pray for her children.

I tend to think that we might do well to listen to some of Jade's words during her last few weeks; yes she sold her story for a handsome sum of money, but as she explained she did not do so in order to buy flashy cars and big houses, but in order to provide for her sons so that they could have a better childhood than she had had! Jade has also been generous in support for charities including cancer charities.

Jade often displayed hidden depths, she weathered the storm of racism accusations emerging eventually to take part in an Indian version of Big Brother where she explained that she did not realise how offensive she had been. If anyone else had made such a statement would and should have been met with suspicion, but Jade wore her heart on her sleeve, and I for one suspect that she meant what she said. When confronted with the fact that her behavior was unreasonable Jade usually listened to reason, it was not her fault that she did not know another way.

I have been struck by her recent desire to know Jesus, her theology might well be shaky but her desire was genuine, and I explained here why I felt that her desire to be baptised and to see her boys baptised should be welcomed rather than frowned upon.

So today I prayed for Jade and for her family, and I pray that her example of love and care for her family might be one that challenges us this Mothering Sunday to open our eyes and see even through this flawed image the evidence of the God of love at work, a God who loves each one of us more than we can possibly imagine. Did Jade find God as some newspapers are quoting, I don't know how to answer that, but this I know for sure, God would not turn Jade away!