A Possible Future

In a day when the Methodist Church which I have known all my years is suffering and splintering into what is unimaginable chaos, it has been helpful to look back to John Wesley whose desire for God gave birth to the Methodist movement.  In those beginning days he never envisioned a new denomination being birithed.  He was ordained in the Church of England and his work was reflective of his desire for that church to be renewed and revived.  But, as we know, God's plans are not always our plans.  Often times His plans far exceed the feeble dreams with which we live and the work we actually accomplish.   

To remember Wesley is to remember him through the many notations he made in his journal.  He was a disciplined journal keeper.  One note often remembered seems to speak more than ever to our current denominational malise.   "I am not afraid the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America.  But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having no form of religion without the power.  And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine,  spirit, and discipline with which they first set out."    While I agree with his asssesment of things spiritual in the life of the church, there is a  part of me which believes that even in times of theological stress and rancorous division, the genesis of Methodism will somehow manage to surive as a valued stream of sprituality.  

What gives me such hope is the way the Celtic stream of spirituality still prevails on the fringe of organized religion giving renewed hope and life to hungry spirits such as mine.  The Celtic heart and movement was pushed underground and mostly disappeared from public view after the Synod of Whitby in 664.  It was a moment when the emerging Celtic tradition clashed with the Roman Church and the Roman Church prevailed.  And though its visible identity was lost, it continued to exist in the hearts of people and continues to find expression even in this day among many who seek to know the God who roams beyond the boundaries of the four walls of the institutional church.