Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the things I’ve been dwelling on quite a bit lately is the virtue of stability. Whether in personal life, national life, or the life of the Church there’s an undervalued solidity that often gets tossed aside when some new thing comes along. 

Here, on the choir residency, two aspects of English life and faith have resonated with me. Both are related to stability.

The first is a distinct sense of place. We’re in Lincolnshire and the people we have met know the kind of rock the place is built on. They know where the stones of the cathedral come from. They can tell you where the beams came from for the roof and where the timber for tables has come from. They can tell you what was where and when before it is what it is now. There’s a sense of connection to the land — to the place — that gives a profound sense of stability.

The second is a distinct emphasis on tradition in matters of religion. Evensong is offered daily not because it will entertain mass hordes but because that is the purpose for which this cathedral was raised on this land and from this rock. The worship of this place is the fullest expression of the shaping of these stones. What is hewn from the rock is not a place but a purpose.

Sometimes people will press me for some kind of liturgical innovation at church. I have said before that the Book of Common Prayer protects you all from the boredom of clergy. Too often we’re tempted to think we’re more enlightened or wise or savvy than those from whom we’ve inherited this Anglican tradition of worship and prayer. It’s tempting to fiddle with it and make it more this or that. But there’s value to the stability it provides.

At Evensong recently, I was reminded of a quote from C.S. Lewis on worship:

“Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don’t go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best - if you like, it ‘works’ best - when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice…The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshiping.”

The stability of our worship and tradition provide the stones and beams and foundations upon which and within which we can find a sense of place and purpose that stand the test of time and withstand the changes and chances of life. As the world seems ever more unstable, that stability becomes evermore precious. There is pressure from the world to change to match its pace but that very pace is, I think, driving us all a bit mad.

With little connection to place and even less connection to our past we seem to be losing all that grounds us for a sustainable, stable future. I’m thankful for a tradition that has both the stability of long practice but also the flexibility to respond to a changing world without being defined by its changeability. It gives us a sense of place while not pretending that places never change and a sense of home while always recognizing that home is made for the people in them even as it shapes them. 

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert