Still small
What do people living in the countryside who do not go to church believe?
What sort of spiritual experiences do they have? Do they have a purpose in life? Do they pray? Those were the questions I wanted to explore and so I interviewed a range of non- churchgoing people to listen.
The interviewees ranged from early twenties to seventies. They were a mixture of men and women in a various jobs. None went to church more often than perhaps at times like Christmas and harvest or weddings and funerals.
While some were strongly atheist: “unless you can prove it to me face to face then I don’t believe there is a God”, most had some sort of belief that God exists. “I can’t say I am religious though there is something or someone higher than the human race and I do believe” was a fairly typical comment. That “something” is there “just to oversee things and make sure things are going alright.” The nature of God was “too complex for me to answer” but
interviewees were content to live with mystery. Simplistic childhood understanding remained for one interviewee who couldn’t believe in a God “like the Bible pictures, very old with a long grey beard and a big white sheet.” Creationist understandings were a barrier for the person who, unable to accept the six day account of creation said “If I can’t believe in the beginning, I’m not sure I can believe in what follows”.
Irrespective of belief in God, most interviewees had some sort of experience that could be broadly termed spiritual. One said “I’m not sure where it comes in the Bible…there’s a still small silence and God is in
the silence. That I’ve experienced.” Others talked about how their faith gives feelings of comfort and reassurance. The strongly atheist didn’t pray, but most interviewees did – or something very like it. For some prayer was a childhood thing, “my mother, she’d kneel you down by the side of the bed and you’d say your prayers” or “we used to have school assemblies and say the Lord’s Prayer and all that sort of stuff.” Others were clearly praying, “When I’ve been having a hard time…I talk to God and just sort of ask for help.” Others were involved in prayer like activity “I have positive thoughts…It’s like if someone is going for an appointment at the hospital we say ‘What time is your appointment, I’ll think about you.’”
Gratitude for life gave purpose: “When I was young I had a complete blood transfusion. I’ve always wanted to give something back.” That tied in with a very strong and widespread concern on environmental issues: “you’re custodians of the ground and if you can leave it in a better shape than you inherited it then you’ve done some sort of reasonable job.” Living at one with creation matters: “You can’t live without nature... We’re part of nature. We’re born and when we die we go back into the soil.”
Listening to the interviewees told me that spirituality is alive outside the rural church. Jesus spoke of the wind that blows where it pleases, so to find spirituality outside the confines of religion should not surprise us. Indeed we should expect it, Jesus spent most of his time with those considered irreligious. The challenge to the church is to listen to the Spirit that is already at work in the world and to give expression to it.
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rural spirituality
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