A Spirituality of Unity - Ysbrydolrwydd Undod

Caerdydd, 10.7.18

A talk by Fiona Bowie given (in Welsh) on the Focolare Movement, at the invitation of Peredur Griffiths (centre) at the National Eisteddfod of Wales on 10th July 2018 in Cardiff. The Welsh version was delivered by Oliver Davies.

The Cytun (Churches Together in Wales) tent at the
National Eisteddfod. Gethin Rhys and Peredur Griffiths (Cytun) with Myra Crilly (Focolare)

English Version

A Spirituality of Unity

http://www.focolare.org/gb/spirituality/spirituality-of-unity/

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say something about the Focolare Movement, a spirituality of unity which I count myself fortunate to have known for almost fifty years. 

A collective spirituality

Members of the Focolare live a collective spirituality of unity based on Jesus’ prayer to the Father ‘that they may be one as we are one’ (Jn. 17:12), ‘That all may be one’ (Jn. 17:21). The unity that members of the Focolare aim for isn’t just with fellow Christians, or among friends and family, although this can be challenging enough, but with all people, everywhere. Even the most desperate situations, and the most difficult people, are included in Jesus’s prayer, and are therefore are ‘candidates for unity’. 

This choice to recognise everyone as brothers and sisters to be loved, whatever their race, religion, background, views or lifestyle was one of the things that first attracted me to the Focolare, and today it seems more important than ever. Unity is not merely being kind or nice to people but is based on Jesus’ promise ‘where two are more are gathered together in my name, I am in the Midst of you’ (Matthew 18:20). When we love as Jesus loved, ready to give our lives for one another, it is Jesus himself who is here among us. It is Jesus who changes people’s hearts, who comforts those who are suffering, who brings hope, peace and joy. The warmth of this love gave the Focolare its name, the ‘hearth’ or ‘fireside’ in Italian. 

We may not always reach unity but we can strive for it. The ‘key to unity’ is not our own efforts or will power but love for Jesus, finding Him in a special way in suffering. The founder of the Focolare Movement, Chiara Lubich, expressed it like this: 

‘We came to know that the greatest suffering of Jesus and, therefore, his greatest act of love, was when on the cross he experienced the abandonment by the Father: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ This touched us to the depths. And our young age, our enthusiasm, but especially the grace of God, urged us to choose only him in his abandonment, as the means to realize our ideal of love.’

There are many moments in our lives when we are stuck and don’t know how to go ahead, how to love. It is enough to recollect ourselves and say ‘Yes, Jesus, I love you here, now, like this; in this darkness, in this mistake, in this fear or embarrassment, in my failure or that of others. In what seems like a hopeless situation with no solution, You are here. The experience of members of the Movement, and my own experience, is that this choice of Jesus, forsaken, brings peace and transforms situations both big and small. In part it is we who are changed, but also there are what seem like miracles of resurrection. 

History

The Focolare Movement was born amid the destruction of the Second World War. A young woman from the town of Trent in the Italian Dolomites called Silvia Lubich felt called to follow God and to give her life to him, but wasn’t sure how. Silvia became a third order Franciscan and took the name Chiara (Clare). On a student retreat to the shrine of Loretto, where legend has it that the holy house of Nazareth was transported, Chiara had an intimation that this had something to do with her future her vocation. She wasn’t called to be a nun or to get married, but to live as an ordinary lay person, together with others, with Jesus among them. She didn’t know how this would happen, it was a new type of vocation in the church. 

Soon other young women, and then men, families, priests, nuns and people from all walks of life were attracted by Chiara’s love for God and began to meet together. When the air raid sirens sounded they would run to the air raid shelters, taking a copy of the gospels with them. As they read the words of Jesus they became alive: 

‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you’ (Luke 6:31), 

‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matt. 22:37), 

‘Give and it will be given unto you’ (Luke 6:38), 

‘Whatever you did for the least of one of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’ (Matt. 25:40), 

‘You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it’ (John 14:13). 

They didn’t know how long they had to live and started to put these words into practice. They visited the sick and poor and shared out their belongings with them, experiencing the hundredfold of God’s love and generosity. When someone was in need they asked God for that need and the goods arrived. One by one the words of the gospels came alive and they understood that it was not a book to be read but something to be lived. Living the ‘Word of Life’ and sharing the experiences of it  became and remains a key aspect of the life of those who live the spirituality of unity. 

After the war when travel became possible again Chiara and her companions started to move to other parts of Italy, taking this life of the gospel with them. They met Lutherans from Germany, Calvinists in Switzerland, Anglicans from the UK, Orthodox Christians in Turkey, all of whom found in this lived, gospel-based Christianity a way of living that appealed to them as well. 

I was brought up in the Anglican Church in England and was first introduced to the spirituality of the Focolare when I was 11 years old. I had just been prepared for confirmation, and I was deeply attracted by their message of mutual love. It seemed so simple and obvious. It was a way of being Christian that anyone could live. In my confirmation classes no one had taught me that the first and most important thing is to love. I tried to put this simple but  radical message into practice. I became more patient with my sisters, more helpful towards my parents, more courageous with my friends. It was like finding the precious pearl for which one is ready to leave everything, hidden but in plain sight. 

So it was in the 1950s and 1960s that the ecumenical dimension of the Focolare was born. It was followed in the 1970s by deeper relationships with people from other religions. The Focolare had already been invited to Cameroon, West Africa, during the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. They opened a mission station with a school, hospital and workshops at Fontem in Lebialem  Division among the Bangwa people. There they got to know and respect many of the Bangwa traditional cultural and religious practices.  The message of love and unity also appeals to Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists – to peoples of all faiths and none. As the first commandment is not to convert but to love, no one is excluded. 

In the many Focolare communities that have grown up around the world, and at the temporary holiday gatherings, both of which are known as a ‘Mariapolis’ or ‘City of Mary’, the only law is to love one another. Although there are many social projects carried out by members of the Focolare Movement, businesses run on communitarian principles, large and small meetings for people of different ages, occupations and backgrounds, the message remains the same. That we are all one family and that all of humanity is called to be united – not the same – but to live in mutual respect and dialogue in a society based on love.

Early on in her journey Chiara stated that she and her first companions wished to be buried in a common grave with the words, ‘We have believed in love’. For me, and for all those who try to live the spirituality of unity, this is the daily promise and challenge, to believe in love.

Thank you!

Oliver Davies at the Millennium Centre, Cardiff

 Fersiwn Cymraeg

Ysbrydolrwydd Undod

http://www.focolare.org/gb/spirituality/spirituality-of-unity/

Diolch am roi’r cyfle i mi ddweud rhywbeth am y Mudiad Focolare, ysbrydolrwydd undod yr ystyriaf fy hun yn ffodus o fod wedi ei adnabod ers bron hanner can mlynedd. 

Ysbrydolrwydd casgliadol

Mae aelodau’r Focolare yn byw ysbrydolrwydd undod casgliadol yn seiliedig ar weddi’r Iesu i’r Tad ‘er mwyn iddynt fod yn un fel yr ydym ni yn un’ (Jn. 17:12). Mae’r undod mae aelodau’r Focolare yn anelu ato nid gyda chyd-Gristnogion yn unig, nac ymhlith ffrindiau a theulu, er y gall hyn fod yn ddigon heriol, ond gyda’r holl bobl, ym mhob man. 

Nid bod yn garedig neu’n ddymunol at bobl yn unig yw undod ond mae’n seiliedig ar addewid yr Iesu ‘lle y mae dau neu dri wedi dod ynghyd yn fy enw i, yr wyf yno yn eich Canol’ (Matthew 18:20). Pan rydym yn caru fel y carodd Iesu, yn barod i roi ein bywydau i’n gilydd, Iesu ei hun sydd yma yn ein plith. Yr Iesu sy’n newid calonnau pobl, sy’n cysuro’r rhai sy’n dioddef, sy’n dod â gobaith, heddwch a llawenydd. Rhoddodd cynhesrwydd ei gariad ei enw i’r Focolare, yr ‘aelwyd’ neu ‘bentan’ yn Eidaleg. 

Yr ‘allwedd i undod’ yw nid ein hymdrechion ein hunain neu ewyllys ond cariad at Iesu, ei ddarganfod Ef mewn ffordd arbennig mewn dioddefaint. Mynegodd sylfaenydd Mudiad Focolare, Chiara Lubich, y peth fel hyn: 

‘Daethom i wybod mai dioddefaint mwyaf Iesu a, felly, ei weithred fwyaf o gariad, oedd pan y profodd ymollyngiad gan y Tad ar y groes: ‘Fy Nuw, fy Nuw, pam yr wyt wedi fy ngadael?’. Cyffyrddodd hyn â ni i’r dyfnderoedd. A chymhellodd ein hoedran ifanc, ein brwdfrydedd, ond yn enwedig gras Duw ni i’w ddewis ef yn unig yn ei ymollyngiad, fel y modd i wireddu ein delfryd o gariad.’

Mae sawl ennyd yn ein bywydau pan rydym yn ein hunfan a heb wybod sut i symud ymlaen, sut i garu. Gallwn ddewis dweud ‘Ie, Iesu, rwy’n dy garu yma, nawr, fel hyn; yn y tywyllwch hwn, yn y camgymeriad hwn, yn yr ofn neu annifyrrwch hwn, yn fy methiant neu un eraill. Yn yr hyn sy’n ymddangos yn sefyllfa anobeithiol heb unrhyw ateb, rwyt Ti yma.’ Profiad aelodau’r Mudiad, a fy mhrofiad i, yw bod y dewis hwn o Iesu wedi ei adael, yn dod â heddwch ac yn trawsffurfio sefyllfaoedd mawr yn ogystal â bach. Yn rhannol ni sydd wedi ein newid, ond hefyd y mae beth sy’n ymddangos fel gwyrthiau atgyfodiad. 

Hanes

Cafodd Mudiad Focolare ei eni yng nghanol dinistr yr Ail Ryfel Byd. Teimlodd menyw ifanc o dref Trent yng ngogledd yr Eidal o’r enw Chiara Lubich alwad i ddilyn Duw.

Pan seiniai’r seirenau cyrchoedd awyr byddai hi a’i ffrindiau’n rhedeg i’r llochesau, gan fynd â chopi o’r efengylau gyda hwy. Nid oeddent yn gwybod faint o amser oedd ganddynt i fyw a dechreuon nhw weithredu’r geiriau hyn. Ymwelsant â’r rhai sâl a thlawd a rhannu eu meddiannau gyda hwy, gan brofi cariad a haelioni Duw gan gwaith. Pan roedd rhywun mewn angen gofynnon nhw i Dduw am yr angen hwnnw a chyrhaeddodd y nwyddau. Fesul un daeth geiriau’r efengyl yn fyw a deallon nhw nad llyfr i’w ddarllen yn unig ydoedd ond rhywbeth i’w fyw. Daeth byw ‘Gair y Bywyd’ a rhannu’r profiadau ohono yn agwedd allweddol ar y bywyd ac mae’n dal i fod i’r rheiny sy’n byw ysbrydolrwydd undod. 

Ar ôl y rhyfel lledaenodd y ffordd hon o fyw i rannau eraill o’r Eidal a thu hwnt -  i Liwtheriaid o’r Almaen, Calfiniaid yn y Swistir, Anglicaniaid o’r DU, Cristnogion Uniongred yn Nhwrci, pob un ohonynt wedi darganfod yn y Gristnogaeth hon wedi ei byw yn seiliedig ar efengyl ffordd o fyw oedd yn apelio atynt hefyd. 

Cefais fy magu yn yr Eglwys Anglicanaidd yn Lloegr a chefais fy nghyflwyno yn gyntaf i ysbrydolrwydd Focolare pan oeddwn i’n 11 oed. Roeddwn i newydd gael fy mharatoi ar gyfer conffyrmasiwn, ac roeddwn i’n cael fy nenu’n ddwfn gan eu neges o gariad at ein gilydd. Ymddangosai mor syml ac amlwg. Roedd yn ffordd o fod yn Gristion y gallai unrhyw un fyw. Yn fy nosbarthiadau conffyrmasiwn nid oedd neb wedi fy nysgu mai’r peth cyntaf a phwysicaf yw i garu. Ceisiais droi’r neges syml ond radicalaidd hon yn weithred. Deuthum yn fwy amyneddgar gyda fy chwiorydd, yn fwy cynorthwyol at fy rhieni, yn ddewrach gyda fy ffrindiau. Roedd fel dod o hyd i’r perl gwerthfawr y mae rhywun yn barod i adael popeth amdani, yn gudd ond yn glir i’w gweld. 

Yn y 1950au a’r 1960au cafodd dimensiwn eciwmenaidd y Focolare ei eni. Cafodd hyn ei ddilyn yn y 1970au gan berthnasau dyfnach gyda phobl o grefyddau eraill. Roedd y Focolare wedi cael eu gwahodd yn barod i’r Camerŵn, Gorllewin Affrica, yn ystod Ail Gyngor y Fatican yn y 1960au. Agoron nhw orsaf genhadaeth gydag ysgol, ysbyty a gweithdai yn Fontem yn Lebialem.  Yno daethon nhw i adnabod a pharchu llawer o arferion diwylliannol a chrefyddol traddodiadol Bangwa. Mae’r neges o gariad ac undod hefyd yn apelio at Hindwiaid, Moslemiaid, Bwdhyddion – at bobl o bob ffydd a heb ffydd. Gan mai’r gorchymyn cyntaf yw nid i droi ond i garu, nid oes neb yn cael eu heithrio. 

Yn y cymunedau Focolare niferus sydd wedi tyfu o gwmpas y byd, ac yn yr ymgynulliadau gwyliau dros dro, a’r ddau yn cael eu hadnabod fel ‘Mariapolis’ neu ‘Ddinas Mair’, yr unig gyfraith yw i garu ein gilydd. Er bod llawer o brosiectau cymdeithasol yn cael eu gweithredu gan aelodau’r Mudiad Focolare – mae busnesau yn rhedeg ar egwyddorion cymunedol, cyfarfodydd mawr a bach i bobl o wahanol oedrannau, galwedigaethau a chefndiroedd – mae’r neges yn dal yr un peth: ein bod oll yn un teulu a bod dynoliaeth gyfan wedi cael ei galw i fod yn unedig – nid i fod yr un peth, yn ddiwahaniaeth – ond i fyw mewn parch at ein gilydd a deialog mewn cymdeithas yn seiliedig ar gariad.

I mi, a phawb sy’n ceisio byw ysbrydolrwydd undod, yr addewid a’r her ddyddiol yw i gredu mewn cariad.

Diolch yn fawr!

Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre

On 4th July 2014 I was invited to speak at a relaunch of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre in Lampeter. Its always good to  be back in Lampeter, nestled between the Cambrian Mountains and Pembrokeshire Coast in mid-Wales, having taught there from 1993-2002. The day was well-attended, with various MA students at the end of a residential week (which had a real buzz to it), members of the Alister Hardy Trust and family, and various academics and other interested folk from all over the UK. Many thanks to Professor Bettina Schmidt, the new Director of the Religious Experience Research Centre, for organising the conference, and for inviting me.

Jeff Leonardi, Anglican priest, Person-centred counsellor and editor of The Human Being Fully Alive wrote the following review of the conference.

A Response to The Study of Religious Experience conference held at Lampeter on 4th July 2014.

I have recently retired to the Lampeter area and was pleased that this 'relaunch' for the Alister Hardy Centre was to take place just after we moved here. My background is in counselling and ordained ministry and in 2008 I completed doctoral research into the relationship between the spirituality of the Person-centred approach to counselling and Christian spirituality, and the implications for Christian ministry and pastoral practice. I had quoted from David Hay's work in defining spirituality and religious experience, and I was delighted to discover that the Alister Hardy Centre is now based in Lampeter.

The first presentation, by Fiona Bowie on 'How to study religious experience? Methodological reflections on the study of the afterlife and other examples of religious experience', made me realise how oppressed I feel as a British citizen in espousing spiritual and religious experience in the climate of polite scepticism and dismissal that characterises so much of our public discourse. This recognition came in response to Dr Bowie's fearless declaration of her evidence based conviction of the realities underlying so many of the experiences to which she referred.

As the day progressed I perceived there to be an interesting 'fault line' between the academically credible study of such experience, akin to anthropology -  'this is what the natives believe' - but without any claim to affirm the ontological reality of the experiences, on the one hand, and those such as Fiona Bowie, who took the further step of crediting the source of the experiences beyond a simple subjectivism. (She made more than one reference to the difficulty of receiving academic respectability for such views, particularly at early stages of promotion, and suggested that perhaps academic staff only felt 'safe' to hold such views when they had secured a tenured post!).

It seems to me that there is a real challenge here for this area of study. The nature of spiritual and religious experience when experienced at any kind of depth is that it is transformative, life-changing and life-shaping. There could be said to be a danger for the researcher, if he or she maintains the required scientific distance and objectivity, of recording others' accounts of powerful spiritual experience while maintaining a detached and therefore uncommitted attitude towards that to which their accounts refer: an 'out there' reality with the power to change lives for the good.

In saying this I do not mean to suggest that every experience be given equal credibility, or that scientific objectivity is unnecessary or undesirable in such research. But if one engages in some depth with the experience of others with 'a form of cognitive, empathetic engagement (which) implies openness to the other, critical awareness of one's own perspective, and reluctance to move too quickly to explanation' (from Dr Bowie's abstract for her talk), then one may indeed find oneself sufficiently respectful as to accord their experience, when viewed alongside one's own, as suggestive of, at least a shared reality, or even a level of experiential truth, and with 'anthropological wonder' (ibid).

Dr Schmidt's presentation on spirit possession and trance in Brazil was tantalising in just this regard. Her account of being present to such experience, accompanied by visual illustrations, inspired more than one of her audience to try to ask what she had made of it personally and not purely objectively - and indeed whether she had been touched by it in the sense of beginning to experience something subjectively at the time - but she wouldn't be drawn, maintaining an impressively scientific stance towards her subject matter.

Dr Jansen's presentation in relation to Chinese culture was also tantalising in leaving me, at least, wanting to hear much more of substance about his extensive experience of contemporary Chinese culture, behaviour and attitudes in relation to historical perspectives.

Dr Pope's session led into the later one by Dr Williams, in that both were concerned with the place of experience in Christian tradition. His presentation helped explain the almost distrust of personal spiritual and religious experience in relation to the 'surer ground' of systematic theology and scriptural authority. Dr Williams took our focus to Early Christian beliefs in relation to personal religious experience, and in particular St Paul's own accounts of his experience, especially in 2 Corinthians 12, his 'third heaven experience'. It is tempting to interpret Paul's third-party self references: 'I know a man ..' as proceeding from both humility and a diffidence about claiming such experience, a diffidence that could be said to continue today.

In the question time following her presentation I asked about the dividing line between scripture and later Christian experience. I have long been intrigued by the question of why the NT ends where it does in Acts. In an obvious sense Acts is 'The Acts of the Apostles', and when they died out their acts were over, but I believe there is some merit in considering whether there might not have been continuing acts by their successors which could have been deemed worthy of record? In this sense my question was simply about the closure of the Canon.

But in the context of the conference theme, I think it might be argued that by enshrining only the foundational documents and accounts in the Canon, and making no equivalent space for continuing revelation and testimony, the early Church made inevitable the separation of doctrine from ongoing experience, and the longer the time lapse the greater the potential discrepancy between teaching and experience. In this way one might argue that the attempt to affirm the value of researching religious experience is in conflict with the legacy and modality of tradition.

In conclusion I should like to make one further observation. It seems to me that a great deal of the study of religious experience is formulated in terms of individual experience. The particular focus of my research has been into the spirituality of therapeutic experience, that is when two or more persons are engaging at relational depth. I would be interested to develop this perspective further in the context of the Alister Hardy Centre's explorations.

(Rev Dr) Jeff Leonardi