was the case with regard to Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry in the multilateral dialogue initiated by the World Council of Churches, has lost its meaning precisely because any consensus may come under threat or may be destroyed by innovation or interpretation that will challenge the very meaning of these agreements’. Regretably, what His Holiness the Patriarch says about


Protestantism can be applied equally to many Anglican communities. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Orthodox communities discussed seriously the recognition of Anglican priesthood based on its recognized apostolic continuity. Now we are very far from this. And the gap between the liberal Anglicans and the Orthodox keeps growing. Today, European countries


We do not presume to impose our views on anybody but we wish that our voice be heard by those who want to hear it. Unfortunately, we cannot convert the whole world to God, but we should at least make people think about the meaning of life and the existence of absolute spiritual and moral values. We are obliged to bear witness to the true faith always and everywhere so that at least some may be saved (1 Cor. 9:22). Our faithful cherish the memory of the visit made by the


What can these churches say to their


faithful and to secular society? What kind of light do they shine upon the world


as never before need to reinforce moral education, since its absence leads to dire consequences such as accelerating extremism, a decline in the birth rate, environmental pollution and violence. Te principles of moral responsibility and of freedom should be consistently implemented in all spheres of human life – politics, economics, education, science, culture and the mass media. We should not remain silent and look with indifference


at a world that is gradually deteriorating. Rather, we should proclaim Christian morality and teach it openly not only in our churches, but also in public spaces including secular schools, universities and in the arena of the mass media.


I of


may be a ‘slow learner’ but I still ponder on the advice and the teaching previous


spiritual directors who


helped me in the past. Some of these remembered ‘sayings’ go well past thirty years. Most of them were in the context of confession but in every instance they were statements about life in Christ and how I should approach it. They were not opening gambits in a conversation, they were ‘something to take away and think and pray about.’ This is the way of the Holy Spirit. ‘You do not understand now,’ says


Jesus to Peter at the Last Supper, ‘but one day you will.’ Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit ‘will remind you’ and ‘lead you into all truth.’ Lest we forget, educere, meaning ‘to lead out’, is the Latin root of ‘education’. The Holy Spirit as a comforter and an encourager draws us into new understandings and new ways of living in Christ. Thankfully I have enough experience in life to know that it does not matter if what I think or feel does not make sense; I know that one day it will. I know that when ‘the penny drops’ in the hidden depths of the psyche, a


6 ■ newdirections ■ October 2010


Church of England’s delegation led by Archbishop Cyril Garbet to Moscow in 1943. Ten Patriarch Sergiy, who had been enthroned a few days earlier, remarked, ‘Te English have come defying the dangers of travelling at a time of war and the entire insidiousness of the


enemy’. Addressing himself to Archbishop Garbet, he said, ‘Te old archbishop teaches us by his example to forget one’s own interests and conveniences and one’s own life when the truth of Christ and the welfare of our neighbours… call us to serve higher values’. Today, too, we do not abandon Christian love for our


Anglican brothers and sisters. We do not abandon the hope that they, who once defied every danger during the hard years of war, will share with us that trust in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which rests on the solid foundation of the faith of holy apostles, the Fathers of the Nicean Council and the tradition of the Undivided Church. ND


Ghostly Counsel


Spiritual education Andy Hawes is Warden of


Edenham Regional Retreat House


spiritual illumination or resolution has taken place. From the perspective of being a confessor and as one who gives spiritual counsel, I also have ceased to be anxious if what I find myself saying does not make sense or is a ‘conversation- stopper’. It seems to me that the contemporary school of the ‘soul friend’ or the ‘prayer guide’ or the ‘companion on the way’ is so focused on listening techniques, personality types, traditions of spirituality, and a fear of exercising ‘authority’ in ‘direction’ that the Holy Spirit does not get much of a look in. The Holy Spirit does not always work ‘through’ one, but often ‘despite’ one. The New Testament is full of messengers


who do not understand the message. This is not to say that there cannot a


be spiritual


‘professional’ direction,


approach to but there must


be the ‘charism,’ the spiritual gifting and the vocation alive and at work in an individual before any ‘training’ or ‘accreditation’ is worth the time and money spent on it. When someone says to me, ‘I am a trained spiritual director’, I think to myself, ‘Oh dear, I’m not.’ Which brings me back to being a ‘slow


learner’; the wisdom of the priests and lay people who where a source of Ghostly Counsel to me was never second-hand. They spoke out of the depths of their own wrestling with God and with man. The only quotations they gave were from Scripture and Jesus was the way, truth and life. I was always given a sense that we were partakers in a wonderful mystery – living in the birth pangs of a new creation. A meeting for spiritual direction (even now after all these years) is an experience of prayer and pilgrimage. It is an event of disclosure – it is a reminder in the normal course of things that God is alive and that he desires me to live with him in love for ever.


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