“I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God"




The view you’re looking at is of Ullswater in the glorious Lake District.  It’s where I was on Sunday  as I joined with   4th Sunday adventures of “Tranquillity and play by the lake”. So what’s that about? Why wasn’t I doing “proper” church? Isn’t that what vicars, even retired ones, should do?
 
One of the things I have been thinking about has been how churches can help the faith of people for whom "proper" church doesn’t scratch where they’re itching.  Don’t misunderstand me. I think there is great benefit in “proper” church,  hymns, reading, prayers, sermons in (usually) historic buildings.  


But that doesn’t do it for everyone.  John Muir, a Scottish-American environmentalist  and influential in having Yosemite set up as a National Park,  in the 19th century said, “I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in church thinking about the mountains” and I guess that’s still true for many people today.


So I’ve been looking at what churches do “in the mountains” – or at least outdoors. In the past churches used to do more outdoors. Rogation and Plough Sunday both took worship outside church buildings, rogation with its beating of the bounds and  plough with its parading (sometimes with dancing) of the plough round the village. Churches have a history of pilgrimage. So reviving outdoor worship is recovering something from our history.  

4th Sunday Adventures is part of Mountain Pilgrim with different groups in Cumbria who do outdoor church. A few months ago I had the opportunity to join a similar  but different group,  “Walk Church”  in Kent.


Both were really good experiences, though quite different. But both were people experiencing something of God in the outdoors. Both had people who were part of “proper” church and both had people for whom this was their only or main way of being part of church.
 
So, thanks to the good people of Cumbria and Kent  who welcomed me.  Much to ponder and  we’ll see where it leads.

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