Some thoughts on Anglican Franciscanism - part four -Christa Seva Sangha
The second part of the morning was back with Charlie. And he explored some of our different roots to OFS. In fact, we have a few different strands in our origin story as Anglican/Episcopalian Franciscans. The American version is more traditional, while the British version, at least for the brothers and the Third Order have their origins in an ashram in India, Christa Seva Sangha, founded by Fr Jack Winslow. The name, Christa Seva Sangha, can be interpreted as Community of the Servants of Christ or The Fellowship of the Servants of Christ and/or The Christian Fellowship of Service. And this is where our rule comes from, in significant part. You can read more about these roots here or on Wikipedia. While we pray the words based on his rule "everyday" most of us know little about this amazing man and his gift to us. Charlie spent time exploring some of these roots and teasing out their significance for understanding some of who we are as Franciscans.
Fr Jack is a really interesting person. He was a missionary at the height of the British Raj and was deeply appalled both by the air of racial superiority overall, and how the English church treated Indians, particularly Indian Christians. He was profoundly influenced by the work of C.F. Andrews and the Cambridge Brotherhood who saw the purpose of someone from the West going to India was to enrich Christianity, not to persuade Hindus and Muslims that their religion could be improved. During his first missionary stint in India, from 1914-1919, he began a close friendship with the distinguished Indian Christian poet Narayan Vaman Tilak. In his biography of Tilak, he describes how his life and example persuaded him of the importance of Indian ways and Indian ideals for Christian mission. This was given some pressing urgency by The Massacre at Amritsar in India on 13th April 1919. He returned to England on furlough where he read both the English mystics, and more importantly for us, about St Francis. He also began studying Indian Philosophy and religion and developing his plans to establish his ashram as a new way for the seeds of Christianity to be sown in Indian soil. (I do need to note that the Christian ashram movement was already in existence by the early 20th century, mostly Roman Catholic. This was an Anglican version).
Charlie spent some time outlining how this story, this radical story, is at the heart of who we are as Anglican Franciscans. At the core of Fr. Jack's vision was "Bhakti" - a concept from Hinduism and also Sufiism in India – meaning to give yourself totally to the love of God in devotion. Unlike prayer, which is something we do, this is something we are. It reflects the indwelling Christ and echoes the Camaldolese he spoke about the previous day, who were a community of pray-ers who were evangelists.
‘Christa Bhakti’ or the ‘Bhakti of Christ’ was an Indian response to the dry, intellectual faith of the missionary movement in India. Sadhu Sundar Singh was first great leader of the Christian Bhakti movement. He met Jack Winslow who asked his advice. Sundar said that the ashram should be on the edge of the city, not the centre, so that people had to really want to go there. Another key figure was Indian poet/musician, and Winslow's friend, Narayan Vaman Tilak. One of Tilak’s sayings was that ‘serving people is serving God’. The original Principles of Christa Seva Sangha use the phrase ‘Servants of Christ’ as the way of talking of brothers as servants. similar to Francis.
Charlie described ‘Bhakti’ as a complex concept. It includes a recognition of our love of God and God’s love for us. It is about a relationship deeper and broader than prayer, encompassing all that we do. And it is described as effortless, ‘most effortless path as it is the path of love’ and recognises everything that is around me has its source in the love of God. It is the base out of which everything else comes from. Wisdom and work are rooted in and grow out of Bhakti. Without Bhakti there is no true wisdom or work.
Charlie finished by spending some time exploring these same themes within Franciscan writings, particularly that of Francis and Bonaventure
Absorbeat - Possibly a prayer of St Francis – ‘May the power of your love, Lord Christ, fiery and sweet as honey, so absorb our hearts as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven. Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love of our love.’ (‘Absorbeat’ is in Omnibus of Sources’, but not in the sources by Esser Catjetan as he did not find it in Francis’ writings.)
Bonaventure – at the end of Itinerarium (7.6)– ‘If you ask how such things are to come about, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not intellect; the groaning of prayer and not studious reading; the Spouse, not the teacher; God, not a human being, darkness not clarity; not light, but the fire that inflames totally that carries one into God through spiritual fervour’
He then described this within both the English and American roots of our Order.
One of the gifts of our time was the work Br Christopher John SSF did for our time of small group morning prayer and Lectio Divina each day. Instead of a biblical reading set for the day we spent time reflecting on our rule, first the rule as written by Jack Winslow, then the interpretation in the rule of the Brothers (and Sisters?) and then the Third Order interpretation. It allowed us to go back to that original vision, and to see how that has been understood, what we have gained by that and what we have lost. For me there is much more I need to pray around this. But I think the big thing is that prayer is something I do to open myself to Bhakti. In our wrestling with whether we are a contemplative order or an active order, we often forget these roots. We are both and neither. We are invited into the Divine Compassion and invited to live out of that compassion, offering Divine Compassion to all creation. That is enough for now. Thanks, Charlie, for challenging us and deepening our roots into the gift of our origins
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