Following the Spirit - Chapter summary

First there was the original community, a parish community growing out of renewal at the Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas, in the period 1964-71. This led to a community in Britain, initially at Coventry but soon giving way to a much larger community based at Yeldall Manor near Reading.

Problems of space and pressure of life prompted a move that led to three separate but closely linked communities: one on the Scottish island of Cumbrae, one at Post Green near Poole in Dorset and one at Woodland Park near Colorado Springs, USA. A fourth community, based at Post Green but independent of it, was later set up for the specific needs of the international Fisherfolk ministry.

Major reorganisations in the mid-1980s left just two communities in different locations: one at Aliquippa near Pittsburgh, USA, and the other in the village of Bletchingley, close to London’s Gatwick airport. The Aliquippa community continues to this day.

For the sake of clarity, the overarching narrative is the gradual evolution from an almost hippie-style commune to a vowed religious community. It mainly traces that development in the life of the group that went via Cumbrae to Aliquippa, which included the founder and architect of the original renewal in Houston, Graham Pulkingham. It also includes some background about the author's own vocation to the Community.

In its day the worship of the Fisherfolk was a worldwide phenomenon. Based on a folk idiom, its aim was to enable worshippers to worship as a body and thereby gain a sense of their identity as the body of Christ. This was achieved both by musical technique and by liturgical planning of services. In contrast, much prevailing worship in the church was performance oriented, encouraging individuals to be ‘lost in wonder, love and praise.’

The charismatic movement emphasised love, but in community this soon raised many deep seated personal issues requiring pastoral support. In time, individuals had to take responsibility for these themselves through the ‘inner journey’ and a variety of self-examination techniques. More generally relationships were characterised by a kind of spiritual friendship that is hard to describe but links many former members to this day.

One of Graham Pulkingham’s core teachings was on the subject of Christian identity. Most spiritual problems arose because Christians did not have a sense of their identity as “sons of God” (Rom. 8.14). Related to this was the “elder-younger” teaching. The spirit of the Community’s life was best caught in relationship rather than by direct teaching.

In normal life religious activity is concentrated on Sunday, encouraging a separation of religious and secular life. In community the sacred and secular are lived as one life, to the enrichment of both. There was a shift in consciousness, from living in the world and going to church to living in the church and going out to the world.

The charismatic movement encouraged prayer of a certain kind, such as praying in tongues and petitioning the God who is “out there” to intervene. However, the needs and circumstances of community life led to a more contemplative outlook, emphasising the importance of silence and greater awareness of the political dimensions of the gospel. Relationship issues also encouraged exploration of different forms of prayer.

Many Christians think of faith in terms of having prayers answered. There were many stories in the charismatic movement, for example, of healings or money received in the nick of time. But in community faith was more than trust in God to supply needs; it was a different world view, being content for one’s life to be in God’s hands with no guarantee that God would step in to save it. It followed that faith was as much a community matter as personal, affecting every aspect of common life from personal behaviour to politics.

The Bible was never a source of controversy and the Community was resistant to theological labels. By not setting up a hierarchy between “Spirit” and “scripture” it allowed for a creative dynamic between the two which both inspired and interpreted what was happening on the ground. The practice of Bible sharing in early days also promoted awareness that understanding the Bible was both an individual and a corporate activity.

The Community did not undertake conventional evangelism with a religious message, yet its life was profoundly evangelistic so that it was common to hear someone say, “I was evangelised by that”. The philosophy was “evangelism by attraction”. “Good news” was not a religious message to be taken on board but a concrete experience. For example, good news in relation to economics was the experience of liberation from the control of a factor that dominates and restricts most people’s lives.

The Community attracted all sorts, not just the politically radical. Some did engage in acts of public witness, and in general political outlook was consistently informed through links to the peace movements. But the life itself also shaped political outlook. Realities of community life such as the common purse or hearing God in each other made theological concepts of justice or seeing Christ in the poor concrete in daily life, so that even those with little previous interest in politics developed views that most would consider radical.

From early days the Community set out to be a form of church. Unlike normal religious orders, it was inclusive of families and thus witnessed to the nature of church (as opposed to personal holiness). Churches are controlled by institutional needs, with the result that even lively churches may fail in their primary task of providing people with their spiritual identity as members of the Body of Christ. The Community tried to remedy this by giving its members a positive experience of a spiritual milieu quite different from normal life.

These chapters reflect on the sense of theological journey involved in living community life over many years, starting from a conventional charismatic background and leading to an appreciation of the Incarnation and its implications for life and theological outlook.

Chapter 20 (“God”) discusses the concepts of transcendence and immanence. Christians in charismatic circles tend to focus on the former, but the notion of “seeing God in each other” is a powerful spiritual impulse leading to an understanding of God as near and palpable. It creates an atmosphere of mutuality and tolerance rather than one of laws and certainties.

Chapter 21 (“Jesus”) looks at the tendency to focus on Jesus’ divinity rather than his humanity. The religious significance of Jesus (e.g. his death as an atonement) sometimes appears to outweigh the ordinary human things he said and did, which may even be ignored in their practical import for Christians today. By emphasising the “simple sayings of Jesus” community life tried to recover the “new Adam”, the humanity of Jesus in corporate human life.

Chapter 22 (“Spirit”) addresses the common assumption that “spirit” has to do with the non-material world of the soul, or even with unseen forces. Though spiritual phenomena do feature in Christian life, the Spirit of Jesus usually has far more to do with everyday life and relationships. On the personal level, Community living also exposed the need to discover God in the inner journey rather than always expecting God’s intervention from without.