Saturday 12 September 2015

Following the Coastal Path

When I was planning my sabbatical, several colleagues reminded me that my time away was to be rest and renewal as much as research and reflection. When the plans for this past week unravelled, my first instinct was to find alternate study options, but then settled on extending my visit with my aunt in Scotland. It meant a long trip to Sheffield for a presentation at the Wilson Carlile Centre (I spent more time on the train than at the Centre.) but it was worth it.
I decided to follow the Fife Coastal Path beginning at Kinghorn and heading west toward the Forth Rail and Road bridges. Ambitiously I pondered walking all the way back to my aunt's but that would have been 30 km. As it was, I walked all the way to Inverkeithing for a total of 20 km.
It was a glorious day and for once warm enough for me to don my shorts. The journey from Kinghorn to Burntisland was rugged as I walked along the rocky and sandy shoreline.

Burntisland was a bit more frustrating. I checked the map on the post board to see where to pick up the next section. I thought it would be clearly marked. There were long distances between route indicators and I would have expected additional posts saying to carry on. Instead they were only present if you needed to change direction. I was viewing it as a Canadian but needed to see it through a Scottish logic. When I finally did it became easier. I started to worry that I may not find the next bit when along came someone walking her dog. She pointed me in the right direction. A few more times along the route someone came along when I needed to get my bearings.Burntisland was a bit more frustrating. I checked the map on the post board to see where to pick up the next section. I thought it would be clearly marked. There were long distances between route indicators and I would have expected additional posts saying to carry on. Instead they were only present if you needed to change direction. I was viewing it as a Canadian but needed to see it through a Scottish logic. When I finally did it became easier. I started to worry that I may not find the next bit when along came someone walking her dog. She pointed me in the right direction. A few more times along the route someone came along when I needed to get my bearings.


The experience was a gentle reminder about fresh expressions. First, these new types of faith community are ideally to be rooted in a (sub)cultural context. They begin with intentional listening and relationship building. Only when you have taken time to live into a context, to be with people and listen to the needs of the area, will you be able to understand the signposts and discern way to walk. Second, you can't create a new church expression without engaging with people as potential leaders. In my reading I saw references to finding "people of peace" - local people who are open to hearing the gospel. Speaking the "language" of the focus group, these people become translators of the message. Without them you may never find the way to your destination.

As part of my time in Sheffield, I had the opportunity to meet with George Lings, chief researcher with Church Army for fresh expressions. He offered some good advice regarding the emergence of new faith communities in Canada. As we shared about the importance of not simply starting alternative worship services but forming truly contextualized communities, he spoke of the need to be bicultural. Thinking about our history in evangelizing, he pointed to people like St. Paul and St. Columba, Vincent Donovan and Leslie Newbiggin, people who though raised in one culture, were open to the culture of the people being evangelized. They were able to express the message in new ways rather than impose culturally fixed forms of Christianity like we did in the 18th to 20th centuries. In thus century, we're being offered a chance to reclaim an older wisdom and begin to follow the way of Jesus in culturally open ways.


Along my way, I saw an old church. St. Bridget's Chapel had fallen out of use when the travel route to Edinburgh changed and people no longer frequented the area. The ways people travel have changed. We can bemoan that people have stopped travelling to our area and slowly fall into ruin, or we can move to the new route and find new ways to express timeless truths.

I'm voting for the latter.

5 comments:

  1. The rocky shore picture makes me think "a rising tide lifts all boats"; even on the ebb, we can have faith in a better tomorrow. Great post!

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  2. Let's choose a new route! Sometimes the way is not marked, but still we go forward with one foot front of the other.......

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  5. We certainly do need to move forward. Traveling alone is nice but a companion or two brings additional eyes to discern the way.

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