Very many years ago I was a potential anglican ordinand. A few more years on and I was a committed member of a fundamentalist Christian Community with a group of like minded people who had a vision of re-creating the way of life set out in the book of Acts. In the end we disbanded, for a number of reasons. Some spiritual, some “political”. It was a sad time. Live cheek by jowl with 20 other people day by day and you grow close to them. (Or you don’t gel and you leave, as did one or two people over the years.)

Now in my late 60’s I no longer am a fundamentalist. I’m not even a practicing Anglican! My wife describes herself as a low church, anglican agnostic. It’s as good a description as many another. Unpack it and, for me at least, my churchmanship is undoubtedly a low churchman. That I don’t go to church is not the point! 

I was a psychiatric nurse for 30 years. During this time I trained as a counsellor and part of that training meant going into therapy. Three times a week for several years. One can do a lot of thinking during that time. And I did! One area I thought about a lot was my faith. Or my beliefs - which may or may not be the same thing! At the end of several years I reached a place where I no longer called myself a Christian. That’s where I am now. And I’m happy in whatever place I might now be said to occupy.

In my work as a counsellor, I frequently talk with my patients about their soul. We don’t call it that. We talk about “internal objects” or the “Good and Bad breast”. The word itself isn’t all that important. What we are talking about is “soul”, or “psyche”, or “inner world”. Choose your own word and we’ll argue semantics later!

What does all this have to do with the title of this blog? It's the continuation of work I've already blogged about. The journey of Faith. which for some is relatively straightforward. There is no question to be asked. As Billy Graham put it "God said it. I believe it. That settles it!" For others of us, it's more complicated. Hence this blog and a few more to follow. But I'll leave you with the Clash and the question.