Tower and Town, May 2024 (view the full edition)Clergy LetterGrowing up I found imagining Jesus quite difficult, yet this was a breeze in comparison to thinking about the 'Holy Ghost'. In St Peter's Wooton we said the Creed each Sunday, so it got a mention but not much more. Berol, the baker's wife, once lay down on the floor by the communion rail. I asked at lunch what had happened and was told she had 'had a turn'. I remember feeling something more might have been going on. She didn't look unhappy and seemed different from others in the pews whom I'd seen 'having a turn'. When I was nineteen, I picked hops for a famer in Tasmania called Tom. He was a Christian and got me thinking about my faith. Two other pickers, Alan and Polly, invited me to their church one Sunday. I was curious so went along and was surprised that it met in a tin hut with wood fired stoves for heating. On the wall was a picture of a mushroom cloud and a message warning us about the apocalypse. The worship began and at one point the minister invited the Holy Spirit to come into our midst. I wasn't quite prepared for what happened next as Polly suddenly burst forth in gibberish. I remember looking across at her - she looked in total ecstasy. Someone else in the church interpreted what she had said and on we went. I remember leaving and thinking that our school chapel might not have given me the whole picture when it came to religion. The Pentecostal Church, which believes in powerful modern-day manifestations of the Holy Spirit, began in California in 1904. It has since spread around the world, even to Tasmania, and has 400 million adherents. From the 1960s the charismatic renewal has brought a fresh emphasis and experience of God's Spirit into more traditional churches. If you've ever sung 'Shine Jesus Shine' you've experienced the fruit of this movement. A greater emphasis on personal prayer, an expectation of miraculous healing, speaking in other tongues, hearing God's voice today, these are all hallmarks of this renewal. Of course, there have been some cranks and eccentrics in the mix, but broadly speaking many Christians would testify to new dimensions of faith and a fresh love for God. In this season of Pentecost (Whitsun) the church is thinking again about the Spirit's work in our lives. St Paul wrote that 'the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power'. But isn't the modern church one of (endless) talk with little power? How have we flipped things round? If you feel similarly concerned, please join me this month in praying one of the oldest prayers in the church, 'Come, Holy Spirit!' This year Pentecost falls on Sunday May 19th. To find out more about God's Spirit why not come along to our Churches Together service at St Mary's at 5pm. All welcome. Chris Smith |