Holy Islands

 August 31 is the Feast Day for St. Aidan, the first bishop of Lindisfarne.  It is also the day my third son, Wyatt, was baptized though his saint name is Luke.  Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England. It is the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland.

I find the intersection of these two facts both interesting and remarkable: A Holy Island and the Sacrament of Baptism: the anointing with Holy Water.  Islands of course are surrounded by water, but Baptism is about bringing the person, or child, into the Church as a whole.  How can one be brought into a body separated?

The English poet and Church of England priest John Donne tells us that no man is an island.  Donne argued in his Meditation XVII that if any man died, he himself is less, because he is a part of mankind.  Yet, Holy Island is an island.  It is an island where St. Aidan was well known for his homilies and knowledge of scripture.  Like our current pontiff, St. Aidan was also known for his kindness to the poor and distaste for pomp.  It was on Lindisfarne that St. Aidan created a seminary for the training of ministers.

Today, Holy Island offers Church of England services via St. Mary the Virgin, the same namesake as my parish.  (I should note I am not sure if I am offended by the fact that the parish is controlled by the Church of England or not, but I do wonder if they would yield the property to the Roman Catholic Church if they were to come calling for a property first built in the 7th Century AD, i.e. well before a Church of England ever existed.)

In the meantime, I return to the juxtaposition of these two issues.  Lindisfarne is connected at low-tide by crossing sand and mud flats, following an ancient pilgrom's path.  The path is covered during high tide.  The difficulty in getting to the island must be significant and I wonder how the peoples of Northumberland did it.

However, it does help with the other issue.  How often do we only look for the Holy Island - a people set apart so to speak - when our lives are at low tide?  Why is it only at these times we find the path we need to take to find the kindness, humanity, and love that the church can offer?  Donne was right, no man is an island, but why do we have to be at our weakest to find the separate nature that is the Kingdom of God?  Why is it we do not swim in the waters of forgiveness and mercy that is the Church all the time?

These are obviously life long questions and I suspect the answer comes back to my own priest's homily today about the ability to follow God's will instead of our own, but for now I will hope my son does not need to wait for low tide to find his church home's warmth and grace.  It is right there waiting.