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Notes on the Dedicated Life An Idea In The Making by Richard Holloway

From the its very beginning, the Society has thought of its purpose as "... the performance of God's will". The Society has always been a sort of experiment - an idea in the making.

We in Britain tend to become preoccupied with "the way we've always done it". This often leads to a failure to abandon practices long after they have outlived their usefulness. To tell a story ...

Once upon a time a man came to a great river. The bank he was on appeared frightening and dangerous. The far bank was easy and safe. So he collected wood and made  a raft with which he paddled across the turbulent waters. He was so impressed by the raft that he loaded it on his head and took it wherever he went from that time onwards.

When we carry our past with us as the man carried his raft, we can't vigorously address those issues which face us in a world of constant change.

Poverty
One way of perceiving SSM's present situation is to explore the meaning of the phrase "radical provisionality". By this is meant that even our most hallowed traditions may be regarded as temporary. Deep in the very roots of life lies the truth that what can most ensnare us is the worship of customs and doctrines as absolutes.

Herbert Kelly [SSM's founder] perceived his "idea" as being carried out through various processes. But process is always secondary to central purpose, it's servant not its master. In the same way, poverty is the servant of SSM's purpose, not an end in itself.

The Society has never believed that it exists to be poor, but rather that it is poor the better to pursue its purpose. This requires that the Society possess a "radical lightness of being". Does this refusal to be bound by anything other than its purpose the "performance of God's will" force it to question all that it has, even the continuing fact of its existence? If so, SSM is facing up to the reality of true poverty.

Celibacy
St Jerome is reputed to have said, "The only good thing about marriage is that it breeds virgins". This tart aphorism sums up the suspicion with which the Church has for centuries regarded human sexuality. Its early theology posited an intrinsic conflict between God and creation, between holiness and sex. Marriage was perceived as a sort of Methadone treatment for sexual addicts, and celibates were drug-free upholders of the pure faith.

Celibacy is itself radically provisional. Those who live a celibate life recognise that the drive to sex is transitory. Indeed, it is dangerous when pursued for its own sake. The great challenge to a celibate who affirms the goodness of sexuality is on one hand to embrace intimacy without sexual expression, and on the other to avoid turning sexuality in on itself in a destructive manner.

Commitment to celibacy allows the Society to pursue its purpose with that single-minded concentration without which it is difficult to achieve great things for God. It is a process by which one option is closed off to instead focus wholly on a chosen purpose.

Obedience
Goethe once warned, "Beware of those in whom the urge to punish is strong". He was noting that the worst abuses in the dedicated life have come from those who, for their own distorted reasons, demand absolute obedience. Practical obedience is necessary if teamwork towards a mutual purpose is to be viable. But demagogues have all-too-often demanded that we sacrifice freedom in the service of some end. That is, they have glorified the process in place of the purpose.

Blind obedience is seldom a useful method of achieving mutual purpose. In its place we now lay greater emphasis on consensus - that process by which everyone involved in an endeavour collaborates to achieve an end. Radically provisional obedience may bring us to challenge those authorities who previously required unquestioning compliance in the name of God. Jesus himself pointed us towards the fringes rather than the centre of religion and society for those divine messages to which we must needs be obedient.

Just as obedience for its own sake is potentially destructive of life and growth, so is obedience necessary and good in consensus over a common task.

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