EDITORIAL
Discern the Times | Amy Orr-Ewing
Twelve years ago, my family and I moved from central London to a smaller community on the outskirts of the city. We had been leading a thriving urban church, and my role as a public theologian and evangelist flowed out of that local incarnational ministry.
We felt called to pioneer a ministry—a Celtic model of church, vocation and Christian community-engaging. In the conservation work at Stampwell Farm, England, my husband and I are seeking to honor the Creator and care for creation. We are establishing a place where the mission of God can be felt, seen, experienced and explored. It is a thin place where many have found faith. It is also a context where trauma survivors can heal through therapy and an engagement with the outdoors. In doing this we are constantly reminded that God speaks through his creation. As activists, leaders, speakers and evangelists with 25 years of ministry behind us, we have found a new depth and strength of faith and connection to the living God. Previously secularist people are drawn to the intellectual pattern of the Christian faith here, but also to a holistic vision of a life lived in connection with the living God.
Did you know that far underground there is a web—a kind of communication and nourishment network connecting mushrooms across the land? It is called the mycelial network. Industrial farming techniques digging deep into the earth with machines have broken those chains of connection that transfer water, carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients and minerals into the land. When spared the damage of industrialization, these networks go for miles and keep the land fruitful and fertile.
In our journey of ministry here I have also been struck by how many parallels there are between the scarring of creation and the damage done to people, communities, businesses and churches in recent times.
Industrial and managerial systems have wrought great harm upon people and communities, severing unseen connections that have enormous value but can’t be monetized or quantified in a spreadsheet. The celebrity culture and cancel culture are both outworkings of this. We have so much to learn from the Celts as we Christians heal from the ravages of greed and the brutality of industrial methods in the church.
The mycelial network is healing and growing again in England as landowners pay attention to soil health and conservation. May we say the same of the global church as the wind of the Spirit blows through our weary souls, connecting people and churches and communities afresh. Preparing us to grow, nourishing us with beauty and peace, connecting us to others in uncensored freedom and calling us onwards and forwards in an invisible, advancing kingdom.