by Stephen Lindridge.
Anyone who’s ever broken an egg, no not a chocolate one just yet, knows how easy it is with such a thin shell to release its lovely contents. Apologies to those with an egg allergy. We occasionally talk of places being ‘thin places’ where it seems easy to break through and meet God more easily than it seems in the normal run of life. Places like Iona, the Island next to Mull, or Lindisfarne (also known as Holy Island) in Northumberland, to name just a couple. I am sure you may know of other such special places where it seems God is much closer and it has been a place of encounter. The Spirit of God has perhaps gently broken through the veil of our human made barriers of distraction, anxiety, fear, or stress and brought us peace, joy, hope and most of all a sense of being loved by the living God.
Just recently I was in an ordinary convention centre. It wasn’t very big holding just under 100 people. We were using this space as a base for the Church holiday week away. At the end of the week we had a time of reflection about ‘dreaming dreams’, sharing stories with prayer stations to interact with. It was a deeply rich experience, in which many people openly shared what God had been doing in their lives, some from the week, others from the past year. After the service one of the participants came up to me while we were clearing everything up and said “this place is so special…, it’s a thin place.” I paused and said, “yes I believe it is”.
This church has for over 30 years been going away to this place, having a fun week’s holiday, with all ages, doing life and encountering God year on year. It’s a lot of work for multiple teams, no doubt, but it is a space where families and individuals, old and young engage in life together. All the mess of life is there but held in love and honesty. People were real, we weren’t all on our best behaviour. It was a place where the veils and human barriers were lowered and the deeper hidden things were allowed to surface. God was encountered afresh, and from the stories shared, life had changed significantly. It was indeed a thin place.
So much of the time ‘a thin place’ like Iona or Lindisfarne has been a place of solitude. Alone with God and the troubles of the day, giving chance to find the Spirit of God meeting and ministering to the individual in isolation, while the tide gave isolation for a few hours. Here in this holiday week with over 100 people, isolation doesn’t happen for very long. If you want to you can almost never be alone! Perhaps that sounds like your worst nightmare. I loved it, though I was very tired by the end of the week! Here, in dynamic community; everyone mucking in, moving through the rhythms of each day, eating, walking, talking, together. In the free chaos of all the various activities over the week, life in community was experienced. This ‘thin place’ was not so much the building in which we regularly gathered but with whom we gathered. The final meal we all shared was in one of the hotels nearby and it was again a loud and vibrant room of everyone having fun. The head waiter hosting us commented to one the lay leaders of the week and said, “I don’t think we have ever had One Family as big as yours in before.” The wonderful reply came, “some of us aren’t related at all but we are all family.” The waiter looked a little confused but before he could ask ‘what do you mean?’ Linda replied, “We’re a church, in which all are welcome and loved like family.” “Oh!” he said… “I wouldn’t mind being part of that.”
It’s not a perfect community. It does have widely different views and theologies about many things but it is a place that has practiced loving each other no matter what for many decades and taught the next generation to do that same. It is frequently a ‘thin place.’
Where’s your ‘thin place’ to encounter God? How often do you manage to dwell there? Are you overdue a visit or is it right before you?
Theology Everywhere 