One evening my wife and I were listening to two CDs in our little flat in Canterbury. We had been married about a year and were attending a Charismatic church filled with middle-class post-graduates and students. First, we put on the Michael Card 3 CD set, Ancient Faith which sets some of the Old Testament to music, then we switched to the latest release (at the time) by Folk-Prog outfit Iona. Journey Into the Morn is an exploration of the heritage of what was becoming known as Celtic Christianity in the UK. With ancient prayers and hymns it stirred something deep within us.
Our conversation afterwards was about the need and desire to have 'roots' to our faith. To know that we were part of a tradition and community stretching back 2,000 years. This was a deeply profound moment between the two of us. I went to the local SPCK bookshop the next day and bought a Celtic Daily Prayer book and we started praying morning and evening prayer from it every day. The daily readings connected us with something that was missing from our Church experience.
Around this time a lovely older couple we had met invited us to go to their Church and have lunch with them later. A wonderful, caring and intelligent couple we had an amazing time. Their Church was an anglo-catholic church with a small but committed congregation. This was the first time I had ever seen the Gospel processed to the centre of the Church and censed. I was taken aback by the reverence shown to Scripture and the level of meaning in the ritual of the Church. It was, without doubt one of the most spiritual and reverent services I had been to.
We were left with a gap between our church membership and our private devotions, something that would continue for a while yet.
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