history

Today we commemorate St. Hugh of Lincoln - he was a 12th Century monk and later Bishop. It is easy to get lost somewhere in the sea of medieval monks and bishops who we commemorate - but in England St. Hugh was an extremely popular saint for many centuries.

As I grew up in England I am no stranger to history. I grew up in a Church where there was a large board over the door which listed all the priests who had served the parish back to 1194. There are older churches in the area - the Domesday Book (1066) records three - two of which are identified - one is not.

This feeling of "treading where the saints have trod" and have trod for a very long time was always very real as a child. We were always reminded that people had gathered to worship God for centuries and saints known and unknown had passed through the places we now inhabited and which we, eventually, would move on from.

This deep sense of rootedness gives a sense of place and purpose which I think, sometimes, churches which have more recent foundations struggle to find. The rock on which we all build is Jesus Christ but it is important to look beyond ourselves and our current age to understand and put into perspective our current questions and struggles.

If we find ourselves believing that our own age is somehow so much more enlightened than those before we need to look back at the saints, those who have walked such markedly similar lives to our own. Yes, the externals of history are different but the reality of a holy life is just that - a life of prayerful listening and engagement with God's world.

I worry that when we lose touch with our most basic history we cut ourselves adrift and we are in danger of re-invention beyond the scope of our calling. Jesus calls us to boldness - to confidence - to believing to the core. This is something which we need to re-learn and those who stood up against the world and its wiles in ancient days can teach us much.