Hol(y)days
Between 1993 and 1996, the dear old Church of England spent a not small amount of money, on my ordination training. Placing me in nice surroundings in rural Oxfordshire, with 70 other people who were similarly engaged, they set about the task of educating me theologically and giving me some of the practical skills that a life in ministry would demand from me.
Sometimes I think they did a pretty good job of that and I certainly enjoyed the experience, but education comes in many and varied forms and despite their money and input, there are still times when I definitely ‘fail to see the wood because of the trees’ – let me explain further.
It is the holiday season – no doubt about it – and the fine weather has brought many people to the County of Cornwall - though it is often the rain and bad weather in this time of year that brings many people to Truro Cathedral as it functions, for the interested tourist or pilgrim, as Truro’s largest umbrella. For most of those visiting Cornwall the attraction of our sandy beaches - and fun to be had on them - may be the big draw - but for all of us there are things that we do in our holidays that we don’t get too at any other time and it is probably true to say that quite a lot of these do not involve building sand castles.
For me, the thing I do when on holiday that I very rarely do, at any other time, is read novels, these vary in their depth and some would say their quality. A range then, from modern literary classics penned by the likes of William Boyd, Sebastian Faulks and my current favourite the Israeli author Amos Oz – to the latest pulp detective fiction ‘classic’ by the likes of Val McDermid or Jo Nesbo.
It was about eight or so years ago now that I picked up a book that lies somewhere between these two schools in the shape of ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ by Ken Follett. Follett to this point concentrated his literary output in producing various kinds of thriller but his own fascination with Cathedrals and those who built them, led him to write ’Pillars’ which would still fall into the category of ‘historical thriller’ but which has at the centre of it the building of a Cathedral in the 12th century. Set in the mythical town on ‘Kingsbridge’ it would become in the end a trilogy –I have read them all – and I hear a 4th novel is on the way set in the Reformation.
It is entertaining stuff – a bit Game of Thrones minus the dragons with all sorts of fascinating detail about how the architects and builders working in an essentially non-technological age dealt with the challenges of creating
Anyway, back to where we began – it was when reading ‘Pillars’ that I heard of the whole of the building process coming to a halt for special saints’ feast days, holy days, and the penny dropped that the rest times we look forward to – our holidays - have this ecclesiastical faith-based origin. I managed to miss that in my three years of training – so thank you, Mr Follett.
And rest is really important to us and it is wired into us right there from the beginning – as Genesis 2.3-4 would have it - 'And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed
I wonder what he read?
If you are having a rest or a holiday enjoy that thing that you do not do at any other time – perhaps you might learn from it as I did. Inspiration from rest – I hope you find a bit of that - remembering from Genesis that you are following in considerable footsteps.