We are inexorably creeping towards Christmas. Nativity plays, Christmas cards and exquisitely carved wooden figures depict all manner of animals around the infant Christ’s manger. Sheep are a staple feature in the stable.
So, it seems a good moment for me to introduce you to Hobnob, one of my two Herdwick sheep. Herdwicks are more often found in the Lake District than in Wiltshire. They are ‘hefted’ sheep, who know the fells so well that, in time, they do not need to be fenced. They know where the best grazing is and where to shelter when the winds batter, the rain drives horizontally and the snow drifts high against the iconic dry-stone walling. The knowledge is passed down from ewe to lamb. They are rooted in their landscape.
If 2021 has taught us anything, it is that we too flourish when we belong, when we are physically present with others. Lockdown learning can happen, but it is not the same as when a flock of Year 9s or 11s is in a classroom and a bond forms within the group. Maintaining individual fitness has been important, but it’s nothing like the atmosphere at Britford Lane when the Firsts are out. Watching the Carol service on a screen gives a sense of what happens but being back in the Cathedral on Tuesday night will be a more profound and immersive experience. Place does matter to us. Being part of something bigger than ourselves matters too.
I have had a strong sense of that this term, my first at Bishop’s. September seems a long time ago, but I vividly remember a sense of bewilderment at the vast (and loud!) canvas of humanity that I encountered in the Chapel and in the classroom, below my office window in the Yard and in the Close. But now, it feels like home. It is remarkable how quickly the characters of BWS have come to life and individuals have stepped off the canvas into three dimensions. Mentees have helped to translate rugby rituals for me; I know who’ll I meet each morning as they look up from their book and nod; I know who’ll be playing table tennis in the pouring rain and who’ll be first in the queue at the snack shack for pizza or Yazoo. There’s a long way to go, and so many more to get to know, but at the end of term one there’s a sense of being part of a community, of belonging. It’s a happy feeling. We all need to belong, the sheep to the fells and the human to a community and a place they know and are known.
It’s what, at heart, the Christian story of the Incarnation is about. God doesn’t just stay ‘out there’, but chooses to become human, to be physically present in a particular place and at a particular time. Jesus lived and died on earth, a part of a community, a part of a landscape. He belonged. He loved. For much of that time on earth, for about 29 of his 33 years, he did not do anything spectacular. He was just there, ‘abiding’ as the beautiful King James translation of John’s Gospel would put it. Living and learning the world from the inside.
As we reach the end of term and all head off to whatever the Christmas break will be to us, there’s a message in that for all of us. We don’t need to rush around and ‘make it happen’. Just being with people we know and love and in a place, we know and love is enough.
Guest blogger. Canon Dr Stella Wood, School Chaplain
