.. and all the trumpets sounded on the other side

Last month there was a centre page article in the Church Times outlining some of the parallels between Paganism and Christianity. I wasn't completely convinced by some of the things that were said. For a very short time I considered putting together a response pointing out some of the very fundamental differences. In the end I put that idea aside. It would not have contributed to mutual understanding.

But this afternoon I found myself with Wikipedia's take on Pentecostalism there in front of me on my screen. It occurred to me then that there are common practices we Wiccans share with some of the Pentecostalists - though the motive behind these practices and their essential connotations are not at all in agreement. We both recognise : "words of wisdom (the ability to provide supernatural guidance in decisions), words of knowledge (impartation of factual information from the Spirit) . . . healing, miracle-working, prophecy".  We might not be in immediate agrement about the nature of Spirit, but we'd not be all that far off.

Then the mention of Aimée Semple McPherson and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel awoke a memory that had almost buried itself under a pile of passing years. My Grandmother encouraged all of us to be open minded. When I was but a little tiny child, she took me along to one of Aimée Semple McPherson's Four Square Gospel revivalist meetings in London. (Was it at the Central Hall, Westminster?) We sat up in the gallery. From the platform came the invitation to 'Come to us and be saved! Those of you who want to be saved, raise your hand and come and join us!' My hand shot up straight away but my Grandma restrained me. 'You're not going down there', she said. And being an obedient little boy, I did as I was bidden.

Was I ever saved? A certain Jesuit priest might well say so. He, after all, conditionally baptised me at Farm Street and told me it was the finest day of my life. I trod that path for many a year. Even gave up some of my cherished insights to comply with the Book of Rules. When I'm feeling frivolous and with friends I can tease, I tell them the day came when I learned better and put all that behind me. Personal insight and personal responsibility took the place of centralised authority and a heavy code of conduct I eventually found too constraining to be any longer persuasive. So I just walked out and left it behind me.

Now I know something of where I have been and what I have done in past lives, why I am here in this life, why I chose that one particular set of parents, and what I was born with the potential to achieve. Now I look forward to the next time round. It's a thrilling prospect.

francis cameron, oxford, 24 june 2010

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