St John the Evangelist RC Church Tadworth

As I began life as a young Roman Catholic in the 1940s, Francis writes, the usual attitude in relation to Protestants was hostile, and it was even questioned whether or not they could be saved. "There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church" was the unofficial but traditional teaching that had come down to us. Many of us had even memorized the Latin: "Extra Ecclesia, nulla salus". Francis translates the Latin as: "There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church". The adjectival ‘Catholic’ does not appear in the Latin phrase, but in Catholic circles that is how ‘Ecclesia’ would have been understood. It is perhaps good to know that the Catholic priest who was chaplain at Harvard when Francis was there was actually removed from office because he was teaching that Protestants were not saved.

Francis continues: I found out that many Protestants returned the compliment and believed that Catholics were lost. Infant baptism didn't count if the Catholic had not "been saved" and baptized as an adult by immersion. Even in the 1960s, I saw that many Christians not only stayed separate from each other, but they also believed that others were lost and did not even merit the title of "Christian". Aidan experienced the same in 1980. But jogging back to the War years, Aidan can remember Cardinal Hinsley, newly appointed Archbishop of Westminster after many years in Rome or on diplomatic service for the Vatican, saying that it was ‘in order’ for Catholics to pray the Lord’s Prayer with Protestants. Archbishop Beck of Liverpool however took a contrary view!

It was in 1967 at a Conference in Tennessee with 700 Protestants that Francis became friends with the other speakers: Tommy Tyson (a Methodist), Agnes Sanford (an Episcopalian) and Derek Prince (an independent Evangelical). To Francis, they seemed like extraordinary models of Christianity. He didn’t necessarily agree with all the teachings of their denominations, but he could agree with the teachings they gave at the conference. The talks they gave impressed Francis: he recognised both their holiness and that the Spirit was truly inspiring their teaching.

Francis identifies with real embarrassment this third stage as being when in the 1970s he changed from believing that he had a grasp on all the most important Christian truths and had very little to learn from Protestants. By way of example, he learned about the gift of inspired preaching from Tommy Tyson, about the gift of healing from Agnes Sanford, and about deliverance from evil spirits from Derek Prince. Most important of all, he learned about the importance of the baptism in the Holy Spirit from Pentecostal friends. When he looked into Catholic history, Francis says, he could find them all, but most of us hadn't experienced them in everyday life. He had never learned to pray with anyone for their physical healing with expectation that they might actually be healed. In all this exciting learning process, he never felt that he was departing from his Catholic tradition; instead, he believed that he was rediscovering the depths of his own tradition and helping to restore it to its rightful place.

If Aidan may interject here an example of his own experience, it is that despite his education at two Benedictine schools and near on four years as a Dominican, he reckons that prior to his involvement with an Evangelical Anglican church his knowledge of the Bible was relatively rudimentary. It was recognised by the house groups that he then participated in that his grasp of doctrine was impressive and to be valued: what he gained in return was a greatly enhanced familiarity with the Sacred Scriptures - for which he remains eternally grateful.

Before turning to another theme, inset into Francis’s article is a prayer of St Paul’s (from which the introductory text of this Article is taken). At this Pentecostal time of writing it seems particularly relevant to our own lives.

I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God [Eph 3:14-19 - NIV].

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Some years back now two people with considerable musical talents were touched by God in a very wonderful and powerful way through their gifts of music and prayer. John was a guitarist of American origin. He says of his early life - his teenage years - that though he attended Church on Sundays and Holy Days, it was not really any more than that. Following the breakup of his parents’ marriage, he came to live in England with his grandparents. About this time too he began to develop a real love of travel and subsequently began visiting many European countries and found all the churches strong places of safety. At the same time though, John says that he was not very aware of other christian denominations. He had been taught that it was important to be a catholic, but he did not see himself as a christian in the real sense.

On starting a new job in the Merseyside area he learnt what he describes as one of the most powerful lessons in christian unity. He had made friends with a young man who one day asked him if he went to church. He answered ‘very weakly’ that yes he did, and that he was a catholic. His friend responded: ‘Then we shouldn’t be friends.’ His family were Orange men and belonged to the Orange Lodge. John had to ask what the Orange Lodge stood for, and, as he says, until then he had been totally unaware of the historical feuding that had gone on between the two religions. Needless to say, the friendship continued, becoming even stronger. On his move to Preston, he comments: ‘The only memories I have of that place are that I made no friends and no one ever spoke to me in the two churches I attended there!’

After further travels and while still in his early twenties John moved to Wrexham and there met the lady who was to become his wife. It was then that he made the decision to make his permanent home in the UK. In due course children were born. Now in the early 1980s he says of himself: ‘I continued to carry out the same religious duties that I had been taught: church on Sundays and Holy Days - there was nothing in between the Sundays. Spiritually, I felt dead.’

Over the years that followed, with the benefit of hindsight, in the Booklet from which these facts have been taken, John recounts how a visiting priest spotted his guitar and asked him to help start a folk group. Later a lady asked him if he would play his guitar at a prayer group she attended. Step by step the Holy Spirit was awakening in him what was to become a very genuine and fruitful ministry. At last in 1990 at a Conference during the singing of a song which contained the words: ‘I give all my life to you’, he heard the Lord’s call. It was unmistakable, and he did just that. There followed a period of some 10 years during which he was working largely on his own, recognising that the Spirit was always present guiding him. Then in 1997 he was introduced to a lady he was told was a singer. At his invitation she sang with him on that occasion and again at a Healing Mass a few weeks later. He observed that when she sang her voice had a definite impact on the people: they would sit with their eyes closed and seemed to be deep in prayer. Afterwards he felt the healing service had had a major impact on himself. He could not define exactly what it was, but the sound of Michele’s voice was stunning.

A 10-year old child prays for her Mum diagnosed with cancer. Two major operations and a long convalescence followed. Jesus had answered the child’s prayer. Membership of the senior school choir, music festivals, tennis, net ball, homework, and the dreaded exams followed. Now 17 Michele was ready for lessons at the Royal Academy of Music and membership of the London Philharmonic Choir. All great fun, but full-time training at the Academy yielded to a secretarial course and employment at the Imperial College. Fortuitous, for there Michele met her husband-to-be. And in the course of time two daughters followed. But soon after the birth of the second, once again her Mum fell ill with cancer, and once again slowly but surely in answer to prayer her Mum was completely cured.

About this time when visiting a friend recovering from major heart surgery Michele was invited to lunch with other friends. One turned to her and invited her to a Healing Mass. This was to be a new experience for her. At length those who sought healing were invited to go forward for personal prayer ministry. Michele was reluctant to go forward herself, but her friend took her by her hand and led her forward. This was a turning point in her life. What if anything did she want to ask the Lord? ‘I want to give my life to Jesus.’ She was told to read the Scriptures, and though not fully understanding the implications, it was the beginning of a deeper walk with the Lord.

Why, one may wonder, the reluctance to go forward in the first place. It’s a common enough experience though, such reluctance. A fact that Aidan can vouch for, for he too was once led by a friend in similar fashion. And that too was a turning point for him.

More retreats and conferences followed, and she also joined an ecumenical prayer group. But then her Mum suffered a third bout of cancer. As they prayed together, they came to realise that this time Jesus was to take her Mum ‘home’. Michele grieved for a time. She stopped singing - for good, as she thought, but the Lord had very different plans for her in ways she could never have imagined possible.

As John and Michele came together their complementary gifts led them into both a music ministry for groups at conferences and the like and a prayer ministry for the healing of individuals: both continue to this day. At the same time they produced five Albums of inspired music centred on Worship - sheer joy - and Healing, along with the Booklet on which this brief summary is based. Their ministry is rooted in Trust - Trust in the Lord, and surrender to his will and the guidance of the Spirit.

If you are familiar with the writings of the American Franciscan Richard Rohr you will be aware of a constant complaint of his that too many priests still think they are in the business of sin management. This is often reflected in the faithful whose childhood training taught them to make a daily examination of conscience. An English scripture scholar has described the traditional understanding of sin as an offence against God as rightly yielding to the more positive contemporary understanding of sin as a failure to grow in wholeness within ourselves, with others and in relation to the whole of creation. Recognising our growing awareness of the relevance of our relationships with others, what do you make of the experiences of Francis MacNutt, John Brothers and Michele Troy outlined in this Article?

Francis speaks of a huge healing process lying in how Christians have improved in living the Great Commandment of loving each other. What parallels in the development of his spirituality do you recognise in your own life? Do you see that development for what Francis says it is: a healing process?

Consider too how slowly John Brothers came to recognise the relevance of his own gifts as a musician to a call by God to put those gifts to use in the service of others. What are your God-given gifts?

Reflect on Michele’s account of her own life: how in time her glorious, inherited, voice blossomed into a partnership of fruitful prayerful ministry with John. Are you allowing your gifts to bear the fruit that God intends?

St Paul’s words in his letter to the Ephesians may spring to mind: We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it [Eph 2:10 - JB]. One needs to be aware though that the Holy Spirit does not work alone in the fashioning of this work of art which is one’s own unique self: As Michele and John bear witness: ‘The Lord has not forced himself into our lives but has waited patiently until we invited him in.’