Who were we
We were a mixed group as we assembled at Malpensa airport, Milan, on a Wednesday late in June. Some initial contacts were made over lunch in airport snackbars, and we then introduced ourselves more formally on our luxury, air-conditioned bus as we headed for Trento, three hours drive away in the mountains towards the Austrian border. About 20 of us were students from the Bakke Graduate University, Seattle, Washington State, accompanied by Dr Ray Bakke, Academic Dean, author, and urban missiologist. The students, many in married couples, were post-experience pastors and church planters, for the most part D.Min students from California, and Colorado, and Washington State.
The slightly smaller group to which I belonged were a PLACE (Partners Learning & Acting together in Churches in Europe) network. We were a varied bunch: Heigo from the Evangelical Alliance, Estonia; Father Mihao Pavel and his wife from Roumania; Ligia, from Youth with a Mission, also in Roumania; Jeff, the Director of Youth with a Mission and Hope for Europe; Angus and Malcolm, 2 Church of Scotland ministers from Stornaway and from Glasgow; Michael, a Church of England priest from London and Canon Missioner of Southwark Diocese; Moses and Eric, both pastors of African churches in the Netherlands; Cecil, a Lecturer at Tyndale Christian College; Kevin, Pastor of Christian Associates, Florence. Our common thread was Robert Calvert, Minister of the Scots International Church, Rotterdam and co-ordinator of PLACE, and on the staff of BGU. Also from Rotterdam came Marion, a political and prayer group networker, and Gea, the group journalist and photographer.
Finally, there was a slighly smaller group of people from the Focolare movement in the Netherlands, the Catholic renewal movement at whose invitation we were travelling in Italy. It was thanks to their hard work that we were usually in the right place at roughly the right time.
What did we do
Trent, our first destination, is perhaps best known for the Council of Trent which met here in the mid-sixteenth century to wrestle with the challenges offered to the Catholic Church by the Reformation. We were fortunate in having with us Ray Bakke, who helped us put this Council into a meaningful historical context. But Trent is also the city where 4 centuries later, amid the turmoil of the Second World War, a community sprang up that committed themselves to living out the Christian Gospel in accordance with Jesus' teaching. At the centre of this movement is the charismatic figure of Chiara Lubich, then a young university student with both a deep religious spirituality and also an inherited sense of social justice. The movement was based on the Scriptures Love one another and Love your enemies, in imitation of Jesus' love for us; and such was the warmth of the fellowship around Chiara and her friends that they were nicknamed Focolare, meaning hearth or fireplace.
During our two nights in Trent we were splendidly accommodated at the Focolare residence some 15 minutes drive out of the city up into the surrounding hills. We were well received by the Mayor of Trent in the town hall and also by the Catholic Bishop in his cathedral. Our walking tour included a sight of buildings associated with Chiara's early life, a visit to the first of the community houses, and also crowds clustered around the big screens showing Italy's World Cup games. Some of us renewed our acquaintance with Italian ice-creams. An associate of Chiara from the early days of the movement came to share memories with us. And there was time for the different parts of our group to bond a little as we shared eating and talking, in worship, and in small group discussions.
Trent to Loppiano
After two days in Trent we drove south for five hours towards Florence, latterly on the elevated autostrada that crosses the mountains from Bologna. As we drove south Craig spoke wistfully about a good steak and a baked potato. Our destination was Loppiano, what the Focolare call a Mariapolis, a community or small town where people come together from all over the world. Loppiano is built on an old estate in the Tuscan hills. During our long day there, we saw and heard more about different aspects of the movement: we were entertained by young musicians and singers; we heard about about the work of the Focolare performing arts groups, Gen Rosso and Gen Verde; there was a presentation of the Economy of Communion, an experiment in business and wealth creation that serves to promote a culture of giving, that will directly benefit the poor . Over lunch one of our American hosts spoke movingly about his call out of his past as a military flyer. Later in the day we worshipped in the striking new chapel, with its rich contemporary stained glass depicting scenes from the life of Mary. And later still our Dutch companions were saddened by the match against Portugal that lurched out of control.
And so to Rome
Our final 4 days were spent in and around Rome. We began with more teaching about the Focolare movement worldwide, this time in their conference centre at Castelgandolfo, formerly the Pope's summer residence. Climbing to the lip of the crater after lunch one hot day we looked enviously down at the very blue lake. Rome was hot throughout our stay. It was cool on a morning tour of the Catacombs, but very hot queueing for the Vatican Museum later the same day. It was very hot , about 35°C in the shade, when we spent 3 hours in the St Peter's Square one morning for an audience with the Pope. We had to be in our places by 9.00am. All sorts of different groups and parties were welcomed by name before the Pope drove up the steps in his Popemobile, and delivered a homily and a blessing effortlessly in, I think, 7 languages. Ray Bakke and Robert Calvert were in the front row, and got a touch; as did Mary from Los Angeles, moist-eyed as she recalled her Catholic grandmother's life-long, unrealised ambition to visit Rome and to meet the Pope. There were thousands of people. Malcolm wore his kilt. Gea photographed everything and everyone.
During our time in Rome we extended our contacts with other churches and traditions. In Trastevere one evening we met representatives of the lay-led renewal movement, St Egidio. On the roof of the Scots Presbyterian Church In Rome, we heard from both the Scots Minister and from a Waldensian pastor. Later that day in the same building we met with the pastor of an Ethiopian church, and also watched a striking video that told the story of charismatic renewal in the Roman Catholic church.
What were the highlights
We were coming from different places and learning different things. I think we were all bowled over by the hospitality of our Focolare hosts, who served us a succession of wonderful meals and took infinite trouble with us. They listened patiently to our many questions, even when the answers sometimes got lost in the flow of Italian rhetoric or simply in inadequate translation.
Synoptic contributions from Jeff Fountain, Director of Hope for Europe, and from Fergus McDonald, former General Secretary of the United Bible Societies, who joined us in Rome, helped set what we saw in the wider context of what is happening in the churches and in religious life in Europe.
For me the ceremonies in St Peter's Square were impressive, but had little spiritual impact. My personal highlight was Evening Prayer led by St Egidio in the beautiful church of S Maria di Trastevere.
Some questions and memories
I greatly enjoyed a series of often unfinished conversations, some but not all relating to what we had seen and heard. By the time we left Rome it seemed that we had been together a long time.
It was good to establish contact with new friends from Los Angeles, and Stornaway, and Rotterdam.
Different questions and impressions lodge in the memory:
- When did we last spend so long talking to Roman Catholic brothers and sisters ?
Do we really know enough about those from other churches and traditions ?
- Why are their resources seemingly so much greater than our own ?
Is it that we simply don't pray enough ? Is our vision for God too small ?
- Are all Catholic renewal movements close to being personality cults ?
Or is that just an unworthy Anglo-Saxon suspicion ?
- Do we need to think more about the aesthetics of our worship ?
Would our Sundays be different if we worshipped surrounded by 13th C mosaics ?
- Is the sort of collaboration that we saw between local churches and local authorities,
in reaching out together to young people, conceivable outside Italy ?
We immediately assume that this kind of collaboration is unthinkable here in France.
- How do we understand the relationship between religious communities and the parishes ?
Why is there no equivalent to Fresh Expressions within the Roman Catholic church ?
Are the renewal movements feeding people back into an unchanged local church ?
Are we in our local churches seeking to embrace both roles ? As both truck and trailer ?
- Urban ministry for me is about learning to love those who are significantly different;
neighbours whom we do not choose, of a different colour or class or culture.
About learning to build together a Christ-centred, multi-cultural community.
It is not yet clear to me what we can learn from the Focolare on this specific issue.
- Having my wallet stolen, probably on a bus, on the last day in Rome raised other questions.
How does it feel to live in the city without the familiar protection of cash and credit cards ?
For me, it felt pretty uncomfortable. But - the next day I came home.
It was a stimulating and memorable week, rightly labelled as a conversation on the move,
all conducted against the beautiful backdrop of Italian cities and countryside.
Learning together and living together on a journey for a week felt like a Christian experience.
I am grateful to those I travelled with, and to all who made it possible.
Chris Martin
Lyon International Anglican Church
July 2006