Between 29 May and 8 June, the period of Thy Kingdom Come, our bishops and members of our senior team will be sharing reflections on prayer. Read a reflection entitled ‘Fevered Expectation’ from Reverend Canon Dr Roland Riem, Interim Dean of Winchester, below.
Something is in the air and you can feel it. Pollen! Many trees and plants rely on it to reproduce, so we should not complain. But for those, like me, who suffer from hay fever, it brings its annual bout of dribbly, itchy misery, which cannot be ignored.
As the seasons of nature have their impact, so too should the seasons of the Spirit. Ascension to Pentecost is one of intense anticipation. We should feel it in the air that, now that Christ has returned to the Father, the promised Spirit and God’s kingdom is coming. New and abundant life is upon us.
Today the Church remembers Ini Kopuria, a former policeman and missionary whose vision was to take the gospel to remote parts of Melanesia. At the age of 25, in1925, he founded a Brotherhood which was to grow into one of the largest religious communities in the Anglican Communion.
The foundation of Ini Kopuria’s vocation was to do mission by building on the relationships he had already established as a police officer. He believed that the best way of evangelism was by example – his brothers lived under a rule – and by intense prayer for those to whom he was sent.
In a mission log written a year later by another brother, we hear of the patient and hopeful work, watching and waiting for the Spirit to come to convict the hearts of the villagers:
I and two others went to another village where there is a Church [i.e., a Christian congregation] but no teacher among them … an immense number of people assembled, and I could not count them. Well, when the feast was over we asked them whether they would all come in [i.e. offer themselves for Christian instruction] or not; and they said “not yet,” but five boys and one old man have come in already. And we separated again; we three went together again to that village, and on the following day, they [the rest?] went off.
We stayed rather long among them, then we returned towards the coast to our quarters, and the hunger and the cold and weariness were very great; there was need of much patience.
The patience we need in this season is much more than a passivity, waiting for things to turn out well; it means us taking bold steps while not forcing change. It involves active engagement with people we already know. It is a waiting for the Spirit to come upon us all, bringing fruitfulness to our faithful endeavours.
