Annual Service to commemorate the aquisition of Temple Newsam by the City of Leeds
6th October 2002
The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has written a brilliant little book reflecting on the events of September 11th last year called Writing in the Dust. In this he talks about breathing spaces, the moments which allow us to connect with our deeper nature, that give us glimpses of the eternal and our essential spirit. He is referring to those harrowing mobile-phone messages to loved ones just as people realized they were about to die. Stark messages to send and heart rending ones to receive. He talks of these messages as being breathing spaces in the pursuit of more transitory concerns, moments that allow the very essence of life to come to the fore.
I think the Temple Newsam estate and open spaces like this provide us with something similar, though in less dramatic circumstances; a breathing space where something of our deeper nature can come to the fore. It is a breathing space in urban sprawl, in the concrete and tarmac of city life. It is a breathing space of rural life for city dwellers. Unlike some children in the centre of Birmingham who some years ago didn’t know what cows looked like, our children can see them grazing in the fields, and unlike Milton Keynes, they’re not made of concrete either! These go moo. There is the Home Farm that allows us to see new life and to meet Josh, the one eyed horse. There are the wooded walks and formal gardens to delight in and stimulate a joy of creation. There is just the open space to enjoy, to play in, to idle away a bit of time.
It provides a venue for breathing spaces in other ways; breathing spaces of culture with Party in the Park and Opera in the Park, Shakespeare in the Park, the hosting of the Leeds-Reading festival. Cultural pursuits remind us that there is more to human life than a bit of advanced bio-technology. We have a spirit that needs feeding and that feeding requires breathing spaces. We may find some of the events in the park easier to identify with than others, but all of them speak of cultural life, of music and poetry, of the power of drama and the artistic to deepen our vision.
Hundreds of thousands of people come to these. I know the Leeds-Carling Festival is controversial in this area - there are a variety of views on it, some strongly held. I can only speak as I found and those I met as I walked around the edge of it with our children were good natured and polite. Some were a bit worse for wear on one thing or another, but none made us anxious for our safety. What we do need to know is why there was violence on the last night, when Reading didn’t erupt, especially since both have the same organizer. We need answers to that so it can be tackled in the future.
Before we get carried away, though, on a wave of sentimentality all sorts of civilizations have been cultured over the centuries and have still committed horrendous atrocities. The Old Testament pulls no punches here and gives us some snap shots at the ancient civilizations of Babylon (present day Iraq) and Israel itself. Both had a very rich cultural heritage and were quite prepared to slaughter with great ruthlessness. Some may find striking similarities there with the present. So on its own being cultured and having breathing spaces doesn’t make us behave any better towards others. Some will decide its great fun to go on the rampage at the end of a festival and some will get into their cars after an evening of Opera and be highly contemptuous and abusive to any who get in their way on the way back.
What counts is what we do with these breathing spaces, how we allow them to get inside us and take hold of us. What is it that they enable us to be still and commune with? It is in the connections that we allow to be formed that they will become a power house to renew our vision. A shorthand word for this is spirituality, the spirit which guides and shapes our living.
I chose the three readings with this in mind. The first from the Book of Genesis (1:1-13; 2:1-3) gives us the first of the creation stories from the beginning of the Bible. It talks of the world coming into being through the will of God and the poetry splits various stages into different days. We are created and not some strange accident of chance, that is its faith. It culminates with a great breathing space on the 7th day, something that is to be built into the way we shape our living. It is a chance to remember our createdness and therefore that we are held in the purposes of God and answerable ultimately to God.
Then came that great hymn of rejoicing from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi (Phil. 4:4-9). It contained an exhortation to celebrate whatever is honorable, just, pure and pleasing; to honour excellence and all that is worthy of praise. There is more than a hint of ethical thinking and being concerned about how our individual and corporate behaviour affects others. Here our breathing spaces are more focussed to the consequences of actions and a sense of corporate responsibility.
Finally our Gospel (Matt. 13:44-46, 52) gave us a picture of how precious we are to regard the Kingdom of God. It is to be more valuable than anything else we could possibly possess. Any breathing, any being still is to take us back to where we come from and point us towards our ultimate goal. There are eternal values and these are not ambivalent on issues of justice and righteous living.
The beauty of a breathing space is that it provides an opportunity for the air to be freshened. We have chance to look beyond our usual horizons and see something that will inspire us with renewed vision. We need breathing spaces as much today as any time. We have the threat of war and the case for this, to my mind, is not made. I have no illusions about the successor of Nebuchadrezzar in Baghdad but I am not convinced that the solution is an invasion force with all the collateral damage that this will entail: the innocents who will suffer further, the damage to relations with the Arab neighbours, the uncertain alternative regime to list just a few. This is not to say that the case will not be made at some future time but if it is it must be made corporately and clearly set out why one particular action is necessary above other options. The government dossier does not do that.
We know ourselves how necessary a breathing space can be when we are overcome with anger or a desire for vengeance. The space allows us to reconnect with our own humanity and the humanity of the one who has offended against us. It may even allow us the space we need to take stock of anything we may have done amiss and our complicity in arming Iraq and turning a blind eye when it was gassing its own people was not our finest hour. There are few things less savory that moral indignation mixed with selective amnesia!
So Temple Newsam offers us a vital commodity: a breathing space on the edge of this fine city. That can remind us of the need for breathing spaces in our lives so that we can reconnect with our deeper nature and the spirituality that is to guide our living.
© Ian Black 2002