IN EARLY 1958, I used to be serving as a soldier in Germany and considering hard concerning the Christian faith. One of the books that I read was Aldous Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy. This suggested that the nice faiths had in common the thought of losing yourself to seek out yourself — of giving yourself away. It struck me that, if that is at the center of reality, what might be a more sublime example than the incarnation, when God gives himself to humanity? So it was that, through a non-Christian book, the central claim of Christianity was reinforced for me.
Also within the regiment was Lance Corporal John Halliburton, together with his baggy battledress and waddle walk. But there was little within the regiment that went on without him. He ran the orderly room and, being fluent in German, was the regimental interpreter. He organised the chapel, the jazz band, played the organ, and ran a Bible-study group. In between, he sneaked into the officers’ mess and, in response to my sherry, talked theology to me. God rest him. Many books have influenced me, but The Perennial Philosophy affected me in a surprising, unpredictable way, and made me see that the incarnation is congruous with our deepest spiritual insights.
IN 1972, I used to be the primary and last Warden of Wells within the newly merged Salisbury and Wells Theological College. One day, a letter arrived from Robert Stopford, the Bishop of London, asking me whether I can be fascinated about being Vicar of All Saints’, the old parish church of Fulham. Three years earlier, I had been on the lookout for a parish, and the Bishop had remembered that this was the sort of parish wherein I desired to serve. It was the one time in my life once I knew just what I wanted. I didn’t wish to worship what E. M. Forster termed “the nice suburban Jehovah”, and I didn’t want an eclectic inner-city congregation. I wanted a socially mixed congregation, in London, but not too far out. Nothing was available.
Several unsuitable jobs did not materialise; after which I saw the Wells job advertised, and, although I had not originally thought that I desired to be on the staff of a theological college, it has turned out to be hugely essential to me. The discipline of lecturing on doctrine and ethics laid a foundation for much of what I actually have done subsequently. Not finding what I wanted earlier, and, consequently, doing something that later turned out to be so fundamental for my ministry, seems to me now a providential ordering.
WHEN I retired as Bishop of Oxford in 2006, people often used to ask me “Do you miss Oxford?”, but I couldn’t consider anything I missed. I started to ponder whether I used to be normal, not missing anything. Then, some years later, I realised that I did indeed miss something: being a part of the senior staff team, with its shared sense of purpose and far humour. We met every month, but every year we went away for a weekend together at a retreat house, where we might worship, plan strategically, and share convivial meals. On the Saturday afternoon, we might go for a protracted walk in the gorgeous Oxfordshire countryside.
What I got here to miss was never again being a part of a small team that combined seriousness and laughter, mutual support, and respect for difference. I believe that for many individuals it’s in a small group that they first discover the truth of Christian community. I learned this at Wells Theological College, where all of us needed to be a part of a house group. In Fulham, I encouraged the event of house groups; and, every year, we took 30 or so people away for a weekend together. That weekend did more for church life than an entire yr of churchgoing.
Another essential group for me was my episcopal cell, which met residentially twice a yr. It is thru such opportunities for sharing at some depth that we discover what it’s to be the Church: a part of the magical body of all Christ’s faithful people. A photograph of our senior staff team on considered one of our walks is a reminder and symbol of this.
The Rt Revd Lord Harries of Pentregarth is a former Bishop of Oxford. His autobiography, The Shaping of a Soul: A life taken by surprise, is published by Christian Alternative Books (Books, 6 April 2023).
