Now that the first year of formal teaching is over, it seems like a good time to reflect on my first year at Trinity Bristol, and my first year building a Christian community.
One of the main reasons I chosen to go to Trinity was because of its emphasis on community and “Living like the Kingdom is Near.” Now it’s possible to laugh at that phrase from time to time and boy have we – Dance Like the Kingdom is Near being a particular favourite – it has also been something I believe we have all taken to heart.
For the past year I have had this statement of community values pinned to my desk.
Based on the Beatitudes these themes, designed to help us grow closer to God as well as to each other, have been shot through every day of the last year at Trinity. We haven’t always succeeded, we can still be cliquey at times, perhaps we haven’t always recognised the validity of others worship style, and I know there are times I have fallen short of the ideal. But when I have I have had it bought to my attention by others with both love and respect.
What I have found most impressive is how much this community formation has happened just through day to day interactions. Whether it is the everyday things like spending time in Pastoral groups, praying down at the prayer hut in Quiet Hour, or the one off things like spending a day on a coach trip to York, or watching the forty minute long pool tournament final, these normal life moments, have helped form and cement relationships with people, who will hopefully be part of my Christian journey for the rest of my life.
This community has also been a key part of my intellectual and spiritual formation. Listening to other people’s questions and then chewing it over, questioning whether I agree or not, has contributed as much I think to my education as the actual teaching has done. This year I have worshipped with people, prayed with people and from time to time got down in the dust and lamented with people about the state of our world. I have learnt the joy of a structured pattern of prayer and worship. All of this has helped me grow closer to God and to grow in Christ-likeness.
One of the realisations that I have come to over this past year is that while academic study is a vital part of my ordination training – because how else can I ensure I can teach others properly – there is something more important. That is that I grow more fully both in Christ-likeness and in myself. Being content in my existent as a child of God, who is dearly beloved and wonderfully made, accepting that God has called me with the skills I possess is a vital part of being an effective Minister in God’s church. Being a part of the Trinity Community over the past year has helped set me on that path, and I am immensely grateful for it.
Disturbing the Comfortable 