The morning discussions were held in a barn, and members warmed to the topic of 'creation worship', introduced by a paper presented by Martin Coppen, the group's convenor (offered in full below). Various examples of services developed or adapted by members had been brought to share.
Warmed by Sue Cole's delicious soup, we were then taken by Richard on a brief guided tour of the 300 acre farm.
The afternoon then finished with a service including the reading of three Edward Thomas poems at All Saints Parish Church, Steep, led by the Vicar, Revd John Owen.
Creation Worship
“I did not know it was earth I loved
Until I tried to live there in the clouds
And the earth turned to cloud.”
from Edward Thomas, Wind and Mist
The poem reflects Thomas’ ambivalent feelings about The Red House, where he lived from 1909-16, high on the hill above Steep. In the worship of the rural church, we inhabit a place high and remote, heads in the cloud hiding God, but our feet have traces of earth’s mud. We are in a very privileged position, worshipping in places often of great natural beauty, graced by light and trees, big fields and bigger skies.
The Protestant tradition is strong on redemption, but how developed are we in our theology of creation? If our worship is measure of what we actually believe, do we give even a half adequate account of the earth or only of the clouds? As rural churches do we not have a greater responsibility to engage theologically and doxologically with the created world?
The belief that God is creator of all things is fundamental to Christian orthodox faith. But the traditional understanding of the relationship we have with him as created beings ourselves and the relationship we have with the rest of the created world, living and inanimate, need to be rethought. Dominion theology is by and large discredited. The concept of stewardship is criticised as being too managerial and man-centred. Dominic Coad (Note 1) begins from the relationship which the non-human creation has to God as in Psalm 148, 7-10 Praise the LORD from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, (8) fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! (9) Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! (10) Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! The idea is that conscious human praise is accompanied by that of the non-conscious creation which worships God simply by being itself. This offers the beginnings of a theology for care for the environment. “Given that God's praise is incomplete without the participation of every created thing, we must assume that no created thing has been forgotten in God's dealings with the world. We must discover how the non-human creation shares with us in the history of redemption and realize its significance in the ultimate glory of God which that redemption brings.”
Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, When kingfishers catch fire, leans in the same direction:
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 5
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.
A century and half earlier, and significantly for us because he writes as a rural priest, George Herbert declares in his poem Providence that Man is the worlds high Priest. Perhaps that might prompt us to think about blessing to describe the relationship of man and the world.
In Creation at Worship, Christopher Voke (Note 2) points out that the Book of Common Prayer in its regular services values God as creator more than some modern liturgies, formal and informal, in which personal redemption is given exclusive prominence (clouds preferred to earth). For instance, the General Thanksgiving holds creation and redemption powerfully together. There is a Christian tendency to break into a dualism between material and spiritual. If doctrine is taught most effectively by liturgical practice (Lex orandi, lex credendi – the law of praying is the law of believing: or maybe Lex cantandi ... -- we believe what we sing), then a credible doctrine of creation needs to be developed for our times within our services. Voke argues that services which balance creation and redemption are evangelistic, as they meet the seeker as a created being and point her on.
My concern is about the delivery. For one thing, it is just too easy to ratchet up ecological guilt in a responsive confession. Using incandescent filament rather than low wattage light bulbs, or a gas-guzzler instead of a low CO2 emission vehicle is a secular eco-sin. But we should not be increasing guilt but rather forgiveness which leads to new life. Equally it is easy to be sentimental about the non-human creation, which includes also all things dark and horrible. Some modern Celtic services flop in this direction. Life is not primroses but immense sacrifice for an uncertain future. Some worry about the implicit paganism of creation worship.
In the rural church we have the natural world as our context: open the church doors and see the fields, trees, hedgerows; hear the birds sing, badgers burrow, horses chew in the meadow. A response of thankfulness for the created world and God’s providence matches the thankfulness for our redemption (neatly expressed in the General Thanksgiving) which is the fresh spring of worship itself. Do our services adequately reflect both our own creatureliness and creation’s praise? How do we love the earth with a Benedicite spirituality of thankfulness?
Notes
(1) Dominic Coad, Creation’s Praise of God in Theology May/June 2009, Vol CXII pp181-189
(2) Christopher J Voke, Creation at Worship: Ecology, Creation & Christian Worship (Milton Keynes 2009)
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