Circles of Trust

I recently went for another short-yet-refreshing sojourn back to the Northumbria Community and once again left thoroughly convinced that the new-monastic model is the way forward for church communities in Britain. It's the kind of place where you go with a load of books to read and 'important stuff' you want to think about, but end up reading and thinking about a load of stuff completely different to the stuff you thought was so important in the first place. Weirdly this stuff often sheds light on the former stuff and on reflection the stuffs were both part of a much bigger stuff that you have only just begun to scratch the surface of. At least, that's my experience.

Parker J. Palmer

Anywho, while there I began reading 'A Hidden Wholeness' by Parker J. Palmer (I read another of his books, 'Let Your Life Speak', last time) and was intrigued by a concept for community that he has coined the 'Cricle of Trust'. The concept was born from Palmer's own journey through and out of clinical depression. During this 'dark night of the soul', Palmer reflects on how it were those rare friends who stood by and yet didn't try to fix him who were the greatest comfort and help. In a local Quaker community he found a space of safety where no one offered the benefit of their well-meaning yet misplaced advice, but instead asked probing questions that enabled him to gradually find the answers he sought for himself. Palmer describes this process as learning to listen to his 'inner teacher' or 'true self', the only way of achieving wholeness when ones outer life (interaction with the world) is out of sink with ones inner truth (values, beliefs etc.).

Circles of Trust are spaces for people to find themselves again. In a society where there are so many pressures to conform to different ways of thinking, it is no surprise that people often get lost in the maelstrom. Palmer describes the soul (or true self) as a wild animal that is easily spooked and only emerges if the environment is completely safe, therefore Circles of Trust permit NO judgement, NO intrusive or rash attempts to 'fix' and affirm absolutely that no one will be rejected or abandoned. In this environment, over time and with the patient support of the other members, a person's soul will emerge to teach them how they can become whole and integrated.

Is it just me or is there something profoundly right in this? Non-judgement, acceptance, faithfulness, patience, compassion, a desire for people to become who they were created to be - you'd be hard pressed to describe Jesus' character more accurately. If churches could embody these principles and become spaces of safety, sanctuary, refuge and healing, then we would have less disillusioned folk who fail to see the the correlation between the Jesus of the New Testament and their own experience on a Sunday morning.