First Thoughts – Meaningful Moments

I had a conversation with a fellow priest recently about how, if at all, it is possible to measure ‘success’ in ministry. She is someone with a great deal of wisdom and a breadth of experience. I sensed that, like me, she isn’t someone who sees ‘bums on seats’ on a Sunday as an end in itself. What, I wondered, was a richer way of envisaging our goals and aspirations for a parish church?

After giving this question a few moments’ thought, she answered confidently: ‘meaningful moments’. Our goal, she went on to explain, should be to facilitate meaningful connections with those we encounter. Getting people across the threshold of the church building is only part of this task (and, indeed, in some cases the connections might be better formed outside the church building!). What matters is the quality and depth of human connection.

This struck me as a very wise answer. Having recently finished a busy run of baptisms, weddings, and funerals – events when I am invited into people’s lives for a fleeting moment – I have been struck by the possibility of intimacy and trust in even the briefest encounters. Often, it’s difficult to pin down exactly why a particular encounter feels meaningful, but you know it when it’s happened. There’s something about being present at moments of great sorrow and joy that enables a connection to be forged.

Of course, life cannot be lived at this level of intensity all the time. But it is possible for all of us, I think, to seek out and cultivate more ‘meaningful moments’ in our lives. These might be times when we venture to show a greater level of honesty and vulnerability than is customary. Or it could be a time when we intentionally slow down and pay attention to those around us, perhaps holding back our instinctive human tendency to fill silence and stillness with noise and conversation.

As a Christian priest, I am interested in these moments not just because of their positive impact on human wellbeing – which seems clear to me – but also because of their capacity to disclose the presence of God. Rightly or wrongly, I cannot help but feel that the connection between two human beings in genuine vulnerability and love tends to disclose an ‘other’ presence – a witness, companion or transcendent source – that fills out the meaning of ‘God’ for me. This is not to reduce God to human experience, but rather to emphasise that God reveals himself within human experience just as surely as he reveals himself within Scripture or the Sacraments.

Perhaps you will disagree with me on this, or perhaps what I have written here will seem wildly disconnected from the day-to-day reality of our parish life! But if so, maybe you could come and share your thoughts with me over a cup of tea? Who knows, we might find ourselves enjoying a ‘meaningful moment’ of our own!