We are knit together

Why? Why is there a cathedral? What does it do? Who is in there and why? And what possible bearing does it have on the life of an online community like HHO? 

Well, I cannot quickly answer all of these questions, but in thinking about the last twelve months on the Cathedral Council I am reminded of St. Pauls words to the Ephesians:  

For it is from the head [Christ] that the whole body, as a harmonious structure knit together by the joints with which it is provided, grows by the proper functioning of individual parts to its full maturity in love. (J.B.Philips translation). 

It was this thought of being a tactile fabric (knitted) together, that can rub and pull against itself and yet still be a whole and functioning structure; something with purpose despite its inherent flaws and frictions, that kept coming to mind as I thought on the subject of Cathedral Council. 

I find it very easy to be so absorbed with an online community that I forget that there is a ’Church’ outside of that community. There is a lot to be said for the character and development of online communities, but there will always be an aspect of the physicality of Church that is missing (which is inevitable). There are both good and bad aspects to this lack of physicality and the tensions that the online space creates. 

Speaking for myself, the Cathedral Council is the place where the online community can be grounded in the greater church community. It is easy to be apart and not so easy to be a part, and opportunities for participation need to be found and nurtured when they arise. For better or for worse, for many the church is first and foremost a building of bricks and mortar, and those bricks and mortar hold the space where tradition, history, ceremony, liturgy and the celebrations that are central to our lives here on earth are centred and held.  

Much of what that is discussed within council meetings may appear, at first, to have no direct bearing on the life of an online community. But the life of the whole has a bearing on the life of the part, no matter how seemingly irrelevant. And those far off parts would be sadly diminished if they failed to participate, however slightly, in the life of the whole; for we are knit together. 

Barry