During this year’s Thy Kingdom Come, our bishops and members of our senior team are sharing reflections on prayer. Thy Kingdom Come is a global ecumenical prayer movement, this year taking place between 29 May and 8 June. Today’s video was recorded by Revd Howard Jameson, Assistant Archdeacon of Winchester – watch the video or read the transcript below.
Hello, I’m the Reverend Howard Jameson, Assistant Archdeacon of Winchester.
Two years ago I walked the West Highland Way, 96 miles over 6 days. And at the time I was working on my MA, I was researching aspects of the spiritual life of some of the desert mothers and fathers, men and women who from the 4th century onwards went out into the Egyptian wilderness, in order to find the space and the opportunity to be with God away from the distractions of urban life.
One of these monastics was a man called Evagrius and he wrote about three important spiritual values: attention, stillness and withdrawal. I’m not by nature a still person. I wish I could be like one of those people who can sort of sit silent, still, not moving for long periods of time in prayer. But I can’t.
As soon as I try and sit still, I fidget, I need to cough or sneeze or I need to scratch my nose. It just doesn’t work for me.
My penultimate day on the West Highland Way began at a place called King’s House just outside the valley of Glencoe. And for about a mile that day the path follows the side of the busy A82. Coaches, lorries, cars buzzing up and down.
After a mile, the path takes a sharp right turn and you start to ascend the side of the valley to go over the pass. And so the noise of the traffic slowly subsided, I could hear the birds sing, the sound of some springs and brooks babbling. But I became aware of the source of the noise that prevents me from being still. It was actually inside me.
There was a group of walkers somewhere ahead of me, but I could hear them chatting and laughing. Things that had happened to me in the past, I couldn’t stop myself from going over and over them again, hurts and pains and frustrations. And so it was in the rhythm of walking that I discovered the way of becoming aware of what actually the problem was.
So now each day, if I possibly can, I go for a walk or a jog, something that has that kind of rhythm of movement. And it is in doing that, that I find the space to be still and therefore present before the God who loves me.
So in this season of Thy Kingdom Come, I pray that you too may find a way, whether it’s walking or going for a jog or just sometimes the simple manual labours around the house or around the garden, find a way of being still and present before the God who loves you, away from the distractions that surround us, the pings of notifications, the noise, the phones, everything.
That’s my prayer for you and for me in these days, that you would encounter the loving God in the stillness of your hearts. I pray this for you and for me, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
