Odyssey - connecting spirituality and contemporary challenges

About Odyssey

There is a substantial body of people who think the spiritual side of life is very important, but who often feel alienated from Church services. Our hope is that 'Odyssey' will be helpful and attractive to such people as well as to our regular congregation. It will be for those who want an atmosphere of open-minded enquiry rather than cut-and-dried answers. We want the mood of the service to be evocative and contemplative rather than dogmatic, and to expand spiritual horizons rather than being narrow and constraining. 'Odyssey' will invite people to join a journey of spiritual exploration. We want it to be warm and inclusive, not narrow and alienating.

We are committed to Christ and celebrate the glory of the Christian tradition, but we want to be open to the Spirit of God everywhere, not only in the Church but outside it. We hope to make common cause with new spiritual practices and new movements in science, psychology and ecology. Odyssey will draw on ancient spiritual traditions while also, we hope, having freshness and immediacy. We will make particular use of the contemplative tradition of monastic worship, and of the Celtic tradition that has come down from the ancient highlands and found contemporary expression in the Iona Community.

'Odyssey' will be from the same stable as the Meditative Eucharist at 5.00 pm on Sundays at St Edward's, but it will be a 'service of the word' rather than a Communion service. There is now flexible authorisation in the Church of England, within Common Worship for such services. Whereas in most churches a monthly 'service of the word' is aimed at young families, 'Odyssey' will aim to meet the needs of spiritual seekers as well as regular church-goers. It will be an experimental service that reflects the 'Motte and Bailey' model of the Church in which there is a secure inner core, but also enough flexibility to enable the Church be able to welcome those who might otherwise not attend.

Each service will move through the stages below. Hymns and songs will be used where appropriate. They will be predominantly modern, and chosen to be in tune with the spirituality of a broad cross section of people. The form of the service will evolve in the light of experience, but this is how we envisage it.

1. Invocation
An opening dialogue in the Celtic tradtion such as the one below, a collect or thematic prayer and an opening hymn

Thanks be to you O God that we have risen this day
To the rising of this life itself.
Be the purpose of God between us and each purpose,
The hand of God between us and each hand,
The pain of Christ between us and each pain,
The love of Christ between us and each love.
Oh God who brought us to the bright light of this new day
Bring us to the guiding light of eternity.

2. Listening
We will hear readings from the Christian scriptures and elsewhere, and say a psalm together.

3. Reflecting
To lead us into meditation, an ancient plainsong chant will be sung. Then there will be `Lectio Divina', the Benedictine practice of meditating on the scriptures in which part of one of the readings is read again slowly, and with pauses for meditation after each verse. That will lead into an affirmation such as this one from the Iona Community:

We light a light in the name of the Maker who lit the world and breathed the breath of life for us
Thanks be to God
We light a light in the name of the Son who saved the world and stretched out his hands to us
Thanks be to God
We light a light in the name of the Spirit who encompasses the world and blesses our souls with yearning
Thanks be to God
We light three lights for the Trinity of Love,
God above us, God beside us, God within us,
The beginning, the end, the everlasting one.

4. The Address
A talk on an issue connecting spirituality with contemporary challenges

5. Prayers for Spiritual Renewal
Prayers of penitence, dedication and renewal, including, for example, these responses from Compline:

Keep me as the apple of thine eye
Hide me under the shadow of thy wings.
Into my hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit
Into my hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.
For thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of truth
I commend my spirit.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost
Into the hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

6. Blessings
Prayers of blessing and intercession to invoke and channel the healing energy of the Spirit of God on those in need, such as this blessing on those who will die today

May God provide for you all that is needed for body, mind and soul, as you face the final journey. May Christ take your soul in his arms, and bring you through the balancing time to the dwelling place of peace and make it your home for ever.

7. A final benediction on everyone present, such as

May the Lord bless us and watch over us, May the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious to us, May the Lord look kindly on us and give us peace. Amen

Previous Odysseys

2006