October 31st, 2024
Bishop Richard - Well, hello everyone, and welcome to this week's video. We've come to that section of the creed where we're going to be thinking about the holy Catholic Church and the communion of saints today. And I thought, as it's the bishop's study today, it would be good, as I have two resident doctors of the church in the house to help me with that conversation.
So we're just going to have a little bit of a chat about it and see where we go. So, Isabelle and Fiona, welcome. Happy to have you. What's your thoughts on this particular subject?
Rev'd Preb Dr Isabelle Hamley - Well, the communion of the saints for me is pretty central. So I'm a biblical scholar, and I don't think you can read the Bible well unless you read it with the communion of the saints. So for me, reading scripture is something that I always sense that I can only read scripture well if I listen to the whole communion of the saints, not everybody.
You can't listen to everybody, but have that sense of unity over time and space. Listen to how others have read scriptures throughout history and listening to how others are reading scripture around the world, because I don't think you get the whole fullness of it unless you read together.
Bishop Richard - Yeah it's one of the advantages we have of having a link with, with other dioceses across the country, uh, across the world, you know, particularly our Tanzanian friends and Nuremberg friends.
Archdeacon Fiona - So from a more doctrinal rather than biblical studies perspective, I'd agree with Isabelle. There's something about doing theology together and living together as believers, listening to people who've gone before, um, reading historic writers who've grappled with the same questions that we're grappling with from different contexts and different cultures in different times, they attack the question differently, perhaps, but they give an additional perspective, and that guards us against almost the, not the arrogance, but the blindedness of thinking that we're somehow living in a bubble of now and nobody's ever thought about this before and we need to come up with all the answers for ourselves from scratch, cut adrift from the people who've gone before us.
Bishop Richard - I'm sure you'll tell me who it was. It was. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Is that Luther said that?
Rev'd Preb Dr Isabelle Hamley - Somebody said it. Somebody said it and we're remembering it.
Bishop Richard - Someone theologically famous said it. That we do stand so we don't have to reinvent the wheel. I think for me, at a very basic level, uh, when you go and visit other countries, uh, and you can just get to Be with Christian brothers and sisters in other countries. Within such a short space of time, you feel like you are part of a family.
You just sense you're part of a global, worldwide family who, uh, embrace you as part of that. And I've worked in Pakistan and in the United States and in Europe and various other places where within just a short space of time, going and worshipping with other Christians, to know that the Holy Spirit who's been given to each one of us is the same Holy Spirit around the world and unites us in this sort of global family, which is so, so significant, uh, in our life together.
Archdeacon Fiona - And there's something too. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells the whole story of all the previous giants of faith, the men and women, some of them named, some of them unnamed. And, uh, after that long list in chapter 11, at the beginning of chapter 12, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, again, there's that sense of we're part of something bigger than ourselves, not just geographically, but also historically.
And again, then there will be people who come after us who do the same thing. So it just reminds us there's so much wider perspective than we just see here and now.
Rev'd Preb Dr Isabelle Hamley - And at the same time, I think sometimes the wider perspective is easier for us. We think, oh, yes, that's nice, you know, but actually, the communion of saints we sometimes struggle with is the saints around us, isn't it?
Bishop Richard - Yeah, we do sometimes struggle with the Saints around us.
Rev'd Preb Dr Isabelle Hamley - But the people that have been given to us by God as brothers and sisters, we don't get to pick the communion of saints they're given to us, which I think is both a gift and something that helps us probably grow in grace.
Bishop Richard - Yeah, I think that's right. And I think for us, you know, in our little corner of the kingdom here, where we, uh, you know, we're often thought of as sort of slightly out on a limb and living in small country parishes where the main focus is often on the local.
Just to be reminded every time we say the creed that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves. Uh, not just in terms of communities here in our own diocesan family, our wider communion, but, uh, a community that spans time and space, uh, and to know that we are part of such an enormous story that God is telling and that what we do within that is actually, is actually significant is, uh, a wonderful thing, I think.
Thank you very much indeed.
+Richard