“But these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe them”.
(Luke 24: 11)
Well, you can feel for the frustration of those women, bursting into that upper room to share this news, only to be met with: “Yeah, right. Pull the other one”. You can just imagine the women going off in despair, saying: “Men!” Only Peter allows just some tiny suspicion inside him to make him go and check.
And in a sense this is always an idle tale, until in some way we check it out for ourselves. This is a very deadened world in a lot of ways. Our politicians, for example, don’t exactly excite us. Constantly you’re hearing people say: They’re all the same, we’ve heard it all before, and you can’t believe a word of it.
And yet, we’d all better start believing in something and someone. Everything has to have the possibility of a fresh start inside it, or the Devil’s won. So here’s God grabbing our attention to draw our eyes to an extraordinarily ordinary truth.
Out of the seemingly dead can come things of wonder. Out of the dull, the jaded, the unbelievable can come springs of new life for all of us. The curious thing is, we may forget this ourselves, but we teach it to our children. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, that almost sacred text for generations of pre-schoolers tells us that said caterpillar ate until he gorged himself on everything he could consume – a possible allegory for our society? – until there he lies dead, it appears, on a leaf, a brown shrivelled thing with not much of a future. But Mum or Dad opens the final page of the picture book with a flourish, and there he is, this radiant butterfly, ablaze with colour – a miracle of the life force that recreates.
We have our children plant seeds in Styrofoam cups to watch that particular miracle, we make them practise their scales and do things of sometimes mind-numbing boredom to learn that waiting and patience and sticking with things through dull days and dark days and discouraging days reaps harvests of creativity they find it hard to imagine at the time. And the result of this trusting through dark times and wintery times – those times when you want to dig the seed up to see if anything’s really happening – is a joy that takes you completely by surprise. It’s Billy Elliot’s leap on the stage of Covent Garden after all his struggles to be allowed to dance, it’s the joy and the privilege of knowing almost in your guts – maybe because of some really hard time in your life that you’ve had to get through - just how much you love the people who grace your life, golden moments that make it possible for us to wait through the darkness.
C S Lewis takes us on that journey when Aslan, the great Lion, like Jesus, is sacrificed on the Stone Table, until that demonic altar cracks and Aslan’s roar is heard and the singing of birds breaks out all over the place. But the girls – the women are first on the scene again – they have to go through that dark night of waiting to know the glory of the new Dawn.
So this is how it is. There’s always the waiting. Just last week I was praying for rain for some new grass seed I planted (my track record on planting things isn’t good) and we got three solid days of rain last week (my praying doesn’t normally get such instant results) and I’m experiencing an almost child-like pleasure watching the tiny blades forcing their way up.
This is the extraordinarily ordinary. Unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains alone. But if it dies it produces a hundredfold. Just last week we remembered the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador gunned down at the altar by the forces of oppression and greed. He’d been appointed because he was deemed by both the Church and the government to be safe, maybe even dull. The inoffensive candidate who wouldn’t trouble anyone. But clearly some kind of seed was growing in secret inside Oscar, because suddenly, in his new role, he burst into life – a vocal and fearless champion for the poor, and the Gospel for the poor and the Jesus for the poor. He paid the price. The grain of wheat died.
But Oscar’s death has produced its hundredfold, because his example kindled new courage and energy in so many people and continues to do so to this day. Who knows the names of the men of violence? But Oscar’s name and the life-force of his spirit and his love will live for ever.
But it isn’t just in the heroic we see this. A friend of mine just this last week reminded that we all need to look for the daily Easters in our lives. There’s the Easter you get every time someone you love walks through the door. So celebrate that. The Easter of things that may be ordinary, but they’re always new. I always remember a day when I passed a wee boy getting out of his Mum’s car – and he shouted across the street to me: “I’ve just had my first music lesson!” To a total stranger. His belief and trust and expectancy as fresh as a spring day.
So Easter is the message of an irrepressible joy and hope. It’s something we can give each other. Because Jesus is risen for you and for me, I will believe in new life in you – and I will go on believing in that life, through all those long Holy Weeks and Holy Saturdays that life sends us and that we share together until we all celebrate the Easter of our dreaming and wolves and lions and lambs shall lie down together. I’ll even give our politicians the Easter gift of believing that God may do extraordinary things through them. And I will give to God – and we all can - the belief that on any ordinary day he can raise life out of death, scatter darkness with his light, and show me, once again, the triumph of love. This is no idle tale. The Lord is risen for you. Go and see for yourself. Amen.
Here at last is our outline retreat programme. We're delighted with the range of themes, and more than grateful to our leaders for their willingness in helping us launch our first season of retreats and quiet days. Details on costs etc to follow soon.
December 12th "Earthing our Prayer". Led by Father Gerard Hughes SJ. A Saturday Quiet Day conversation exploring how we can pray out of our own experience. For Fr Gerards biography and writings see his website at www.gerardwhughes.com The quiet day will run from 9.30am until 3pm (lunch included). Open to residents and day visitors. Weekend accommodation available.
January 29th - 31st A Candlemas Retreat. Led by Emmaus House team. Anticipating two of the following weeks feast days, we explore the meaning for us of Jesus Presentation in the Temple as Light for all, and the life and legends of St Brigid whose festival celebrates our emergence out of winter darkness into spring and new life.
February 19th 21st A Lenten Journey. Led by Emmaus House team. A weekend of preparation for our journey accompanying Christ on his road to both Cross and Resurrection. Words, images and music to turn heart and mind towards the events of Holy Week and their meaning for us.
February 26th 28th 'Hungering for wholeness'. Led by Ali Newell. Today our spirituality is rooted in the awareness that we are one as a human community and as a planet. Our spirituality is also rooted in the experience of the woundedness of the earth and the environment, in the alienation of the marginalised and oppressed of our world and in the brokenness of our lives. As individuals and communities, how do we live aware of our interconnectedness and celebrating our differences? How do we open ourselves to the Living Presence deep within all things that calls us to live out a vision of one world while naming destructiveness and attending to the brokenness and woundedness within the whole? Ali Newell works at the Ignatian spirituality centre where she teaches and offers spiritual accompaniment. In both listening and in using creative medium, her work pays attention to the use of image and symbol. She is a Church of Scotland minister, trained counsellor,and was warden of Iona Abbey.
March 19th 21st And certain women followed... Led by Emmaus House team. Women were the primary witnesses of both Christs Passion and his resurrection, the ones who didnt run away. This weekend we listen to their voices and the voices of other women who have followed Jesus through the centuries.
April 23rd 25th Painting Our Prayers. Led by Debbie Bayne. During this quiet, reflective weekend we will allow the Gospel resurrection stories to touch and inspire us. Using a variety of art materials, each person will create a small prayer panel to celebrate the new life and new beginnings of Easter. Debbie is an artist working in mixed media and embroidery. She has been running personal development and creativity workshops for 15 years, working with individuals and with teams and organisations from the arts and business. All materials will be provided, and all levels of art experience are welcome.
April 30th - May 2nd Medicine Walk along East Lothian coast. Led by Wendy Robertson Fyfe www.inner-source.co.uk All accommodation, preparatory and follow-up sessions at Emmaus House, Edinburgh.
May 21-23 Opera weekend. A night at the opera. Led by Revd Canon Michael Fuller. An evening at one of Scottish Operas 5:15 productions at Edinburghs Traverse Theatre. Talks, (Friday evening and Saturday morning). See Scottish Opera website www.scottishopera.org.uk/our-operas/09-10/five15-operas-made-in-scotland Michael Fuller is Principal of the Theological Institute of the Scottish Episcopal Church and has run a number of popular courses on the history of opera. All meals included.
July 2nd 4th Medicine Walk along East Lothian coast. Led by Wendy Robertson Fyfe www.inner-source.co.uk All accommodation, preparatory and follow-up sessions at Emmaus House, Edinburgh.
September 24th 26th Medicine Walk along East Lothian coast. Led by Wendy Robertson Fyfe www.inner-source.co.uk All accommodation, preparatory and follow-up sessions at Emmaus House, Edinburgh.
October 4th-5th (Mon/Tues) Workshop in spirituality and creativity. Led by Ali Newell. (see Feb 26-28 above.Using guided visualisation and then exploring its themes in paint or clay, we will creatively explore the gifts of Wisdom.
October 29th 31st Exploring the reality of Fairytales. Led by Licia Masoni. The aim of this workshop is to play with the stuff fairytales are made of, and eventually create our own personal tale. This new narrative can be an exercise of creative writing/thinking, but also (if we treat fairytales as metaphors for the life journey) a jumping off point for personal exploration and meditation.Through material sourced from archives and the oral tradition of various parts of Scotland, we will explore the main characteristics of fairytales. We will look at narrative structure, symbols and metaphors in an attempt to show how fairytales can cast a light on our everyday life. Licia Masoni has a PhD in Scottish Ethnology and is a post-doctoral fellow in the department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh. Her research interests are in the study of both past and contemporary uses of oral narratives.
Great excitement here at Emmaus as we demolish the old sheds at the back of the house to make way for what someone has called our "Holy Hut". In other words our chapel will be basically a posh shed, with windows on to the garden and space enough for at least twelve people, we hope. We've already seen some wooden benches that should fit (and we thought we'd seen the last of IKEA!) and soon we'll be looking for an altar, vessels and linen, and one or two other things we'll need. We'll also be installing electric power for the heat and light we're very soon going to need (early mornings are dark already some days). Friends have been asking if they can donate to the cost of this project, so we're hoping to have a donate button on the website soon to enable people to contribute if they would like to.
For this kind of simple chapel there is at least one precedent which we're honoured to be following. The brothers at the Roslin Community (Franciscan Hermits of the Transfiguration) have not only lived in huts, but worshipped in one, these forty years or more. Although our ministry here is very different, we hope to be the same kind of place of faithful praying for our friends, for the Church and for the world.
Love to all our friends worldwide,
Andrew
Apologies for a long gap since our last news update. The Bible famously speaks of "entertaining angels unawares" and over these last months that's certainly been our experience. It's been our joy and privilege to welcome holiday-makers here to enjoy our city, priests from around the world on vacation (including a number from our sister Episcopal Church in the USA), folk visiting family and even awaiting the birth of new babies, 14 lovely Canadian pilgrims here to walk the St Cuthbert's Way who filled the house to bursting and shared their pilgrim joy with us - all these, and many, many more, of all faith backgrounds or none.
One highlight for us was the visit of the renowned writer on Benedictine spirituality, Esther De Waal. Esther came to Edinburgh at the invitation of our diocesan "Adventures in Faith" group, to lead both a Quiet Day and a day of talks in the city. Her staying at Emmaus gave us an opportunity to hear about new experiments in community living inspired by the Rule of St Benedict with which Esther is in touch around the world.
Following on from this, Andrew, with another member of our Edinburgh diocese, attended a conference at Worth Abbey in July, organised by the Lay Community of St Benedict on the subject of Lectio Divina. The huge interest in both Esther's talks and the Worth conference has encouraged us to initiate a wider discussion about how people can live Benedict's human,hospitable and balanced spirituality as meaningfully as possible and with whatever support might be needed. As our Thursday night discussions on the Rule continue (now working on a book by Joan Chittister) we at Emmaus House hope to play an active role in helping people connect with a way of living that offers a wisdom many are searching for.
As the months have gone by, more and more people have come for spiritual direction from Andrew, Ruth and Barbara and others. At the same time we become more conscious of all the informal listening and sharing that takes place, often over washing up in the kitchen or setting the table for the next meal. People discover connections, interests or even friends in common, creating an almost immediate sense of community we often find breath-taking. It's a particular pleasure that many of our guests stay in touch after returning home, several have now returned for further visits and we are now being regularly asked when we will set up a "Friends" organisation (watch this space!)
The coming month (September) should see the building of our new chapel, to be situated behind the house. This should seat at least twelve people and meet a real need for a dedicated sacred space for our worship and a place of quiet available to our guests throughout the day. We're now fund-raising for this, which has taken us into our first bit of "merchandising", namely mugs (two designs, both with our logo, one also showing the Edinburgh skyline)which we're now selling at 5 each. We need to raise some 5,000 for what is a fairly modest structure, so donations now beginning to come in are more than welcome.
Recently Janet and I have met with a representative of the L'Arche community in Edinburgh, and we hope to build a link with that inspiring movement as we have much to learn (we regularly resort to Jean Vanier's classic, "Community and Growth", when faced by the trickier bits of community living). At the same time our contacts with local churches and our network of friends grow continually as people meet us or our visitors and Emmaus House becomes more widely known in the city and beyond.
We've had much joy in these last months, much making of meals and changing of rooms, a good deal of learning, and a great deal of laughter. We have made many new friends, and for all of them, and for all of you who are supporting us, we are deeply grateful.
The early weeks of Lent have brought many visitors to Emmaus House. It's been a joy to welcome guests from Bolivia, Italy, Finland, and from many parts of the UK. The diversity of purposes for which people visit the city is fascinating and the opportunity to meet such a variety of folk and get to know them even a little is a great privilege.
We've been particularly touched to be invited to join with the Barclay Church (Church of Scotland) prayer group for a shared Lent study. We now meet weekly at Emmaus House through Lent, and we're more than grateful to Sam Torrens, Barclay's minister, and the prayer group for proposing this idea and offering us much encouragement and a real sense of being welcomed into the parish.
The steering committee of the Epiphany Group has now met at the house for a second time for a full day's discussions, and one of its members, Sr Barbara Buda, will (with Sr Ruth Schaebler joining later) begin spiritual direction at Emmaus from 18th March.
The coming months look promising, with bookings and enquiries coming in each day, not least one for a party of Canadian pilgrims arriving to walk the St Cuthbert's Way in July. A special joy is the prospect of already seeing some return visits from guests who have been here in these last few months.
As always, we value the prayers of all our friends and supporters and assure you of our prayers for you as we gather together daily. We wish a blessed and joyful Lent to everyone.
We're delighted to welcome Barbara Buda and Ruth Schaebler who will be making regular visits to Emmaus House to offer spiritual direction at Emmaus House from 18th March onwards. Full details on the "Spiritual coaching" page of this website. Barbara will also be leading Quiet Days at Emmaus on Saturdays, 9th May and 5th September. Further details soon - but do put the dates in your diary now.
Accommodation bookings are now coming in daily. Some are from retreatants, others from holiday-makers, or folk visiting for study or to see friends. It's a joy to welcome all who come.
A Happy New Year to all our friends around the world. After a joyful festive season shared with family and friends here at the house, our new year has begun with the arrival of a young couple to be with us until Easter and bookings coming in from both returning friends and new guests visiting for the first time.
Our daily prayer continues, remembering all who are or have been part of our community, all whose kindness and support we so much value, as well as the needs of the wider world. In particular we join with all people of good will in praying for an enduring peace, with justice, for all the peoples of the Middle East.
Our Thursday open evenings begin again from 15th January, and we look forward to sharing with friends who have become very much a part of our extended community over the last few months.
In the months to come we hope to see more use of the house by outside groups (please contact us if you'd like to know more about this), and an increasing number of short-stay guests both from the UK and overseas.
Our first six months leaves us with much to celebrate and to be thankful for, and it's been an immense privilege to meet all the people who have stayed with us. The sharing of stories, cultures, new ideas, even new food (we had an African evening hosted by friends from Tanzania and Kenya before Christmas) and a great deal of laughter, has been a real joy. At the same time we've had much to learn, adjustments to make, and a sense that this is an adventure only just begun. So your continuing prayers are much valued and needed!
From all of us, our heartfelt good wishes for a happy, peaceful and blessed New Year.
Sunday evening, 9th November, saw Emmaus House crammed to overflowing with friends here to celebrate our blessing and dedication by the Bishop of Edinburgh. Five of our members (from Kenya, Ireland, Scotland, England and Germany) read the Emmaus Gospel story and candles were lit to symbolise the light of welcome, hope and joy to which Emmaus House is dedicated. Bishop Brian reminded us of the disciples' words: Did not our hearts burn within us? and how that radiance from the Resurrection is the energy which moves the disciples onwards on their journeys.
It was a joy to welcome so many of our friends who have supported us unstintingly over these last months, and to see the house filled with all ages from two months to ... well, considerably more than that. We value the prayers and friendship of all who have already passed through our doors, and of the infant community growing around this special place.
Last week's open evening topic was "Work" in Benedict's Rule. "Work... stands as a constant reminder that we are not alone... There are others to think of... things to get done,... a kingdom to build. Work turns us outward, lifts our heads, straightens our shoulders, and extends our hands to others. (Lonni Pratt and Daniel Homan: "Benedict's Way").
As our little community of longer term residents grows, with people of different ages, cultures and Christian traditions, work and prayer go hand in hand in living and growing together. Emptying the dishwasher, setting and clearing the table, listening to God in prayer and in each other all lead to what Fr Dan Homan calls "a vivid holy vision of ourselves."
We're grateful to so many friends whose work with us keeps this vision before us. We look forward to our Bishop's blessing of Emmaus House next month.