THE OTHONA COMMUNITY: “A STRANGE PHENOMENON” by ANDREA-RENÉE MISLER A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Urban Theology Unit, Sheffield Department of Theology and Religion College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham February 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. INTRODUCTION There are some areas in life which cannot be described in words, but which can only be experienced … To rediscover that one still has within, certain qualities which can satisfy … is to find a critically important clue towards the acquisition of wholeness.1 A cult, a nudist camp, oddballs, a “sort of primitive social-religious retreat”:2 these are among the less favourable things which Othona has been called. A “world of compassion”,3 an “open and inclusive community”4, a place where no-one is sidelined, are among the more positive ways of depicting it. These attempts at naming make it clear, how difficult it is to describe or to assess “a strange phenomenon” 5 like Othona, to use the founder's own words. Though it is complicated when one attempts to put it into words, this thesis undertakes the attempt to describe and show something that is better experienced than read or written about. The Othona Community, located in a very remote corner of Essex, is a Christian centre of dialogue and uninhibited exchange of ideas. People experience something there that they do not normally experience. Discovering this Community and becoming involved in it is the springboard for the thesis. My intention is to describe the praxis of this present-day Christian Community in action, in order to understand this “strange phenomenon” and to find out what keeps it going. This is an academic attempt at putting into words what has been lived and experienced 1 Norman Motley, Much Ado About Something (Dr Janet Marshall, 1985), pp. 124-125. 2 Essex Weekly News, 7 Sept., 1962 from Joseph Billio's Column. 3 David Birdseye. Birdseye Views (Private Publication, undated), p. 1. 4 Othona Community, Mission Statement 2014. 5 Norman Motley, Letters to a Community 1970 -1980 (The Othona Community, 1986), p. 41. 1 for seven decades now. How can we understand the continued phenomenon of the Othona Community and its Lebenswelten,6 the world created by its life, in the twenty- first century? What is its special charism and genius which has ensured its continuation? Othona has always been part of my adult life. When I first visited it in 1979, I dug a trench (along with several international youngsters) between two old buildings to provide running water. I took cold showers in the mornings (hot water was only available in the kitchen), peeled potatoes on the grass, lived mostly outside and was fascinated by a life so simple, yet with all needs fulfilled. This fascination has lasted. Decades later, I still want to know what it is that draws people into the Community, year in, year out. What happens there? What do people undergo there? These and more questions will be considered while also theologising about a place which I have always experienced as accepting people wholly over the last thirty-five years. An encounter with Dr John Vincent, theologian and founder of the Ashram Community in Sheffield and Director for many years of the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield, encouraged me to become an “observant participator and participant observer”7 at the same time, in order to find out what this “strange phenomenon” of Othona is about. 6 The concept of Lebenswelten is discussed in 1.8 and 2.5. The literal translation is 'Life of the worlds' which means concerning the Community: the world which is created by and through the Community's life. 7 http://openarchive.cbs.dk/bitstream/handle/10398/7038/wp%202007-2.pdf?sequence=1. 2 The Othona Community came into existence in 1946 out of the need of a former Royal Air Force chaplain, Norman Motley, to establish a venue after World War II, where former enemies could come together to learn and practise reconciliation between each other and their differing histories, experiences, denominations, attitudes and more. Cherishing differences and diversity through reconciliation became the motto. Motley believed that God had called the Community into being and whatever was happening there was work towards the Kingdom of God. He found the appropriate premises for his vision along with an old neglected chapel, St. Peter-on-the-Wall, which is nowadays considered Essex's first cathedral.8 The moment Motley entered it, he felt 'at home'. Unusual places and projects require exceptional methods. I knew from the start that this endeavour would have to be different from any of my previous academic work. There was little academic literature I could draw on. However, there were many statements and articles in the Othona Quarterly from many decades, and personal communications that I could fall back on. Nonetheless, I would have to start a data collection as well in order to find ways of describing the phenomenon of ‘Othona’ as a phenomenography,9 as a way of showing how members perceive and describe the Community (to be discussed in Chapters Two and Five). It would not be possible to exclude myself this time, for the researcher and the 8 Cf. H. Malcolm Carter, The Fort of Othona and the Chapel of St Peter-on-theWall, Bradwell-on- Sea, Essex (Hunstanton, Norfolk: Witley Press, 1987), p. 7. Burnham Adviser, April 27, 1907: “The First Essex Cathedral”. See also John Gunstone, The “Oldest Cathedral” in England (Essex Countryside, no date). 9 See Ference Marton, 'Phenomenography – Describing Conceptions of the World around us', Instructional Science 10 (1981), 177-200. 3 researched were inextricably combined. I had to find ways and means to include my being part of the research. The methods offered in qualitative research (see 2.7 & 2.8) seemed ideal for that purpose. It includes auto-ethnography where the researcher becomes part of the project. Having been a member of the Othona Community for over three decades I have a prolonged acquaintance with the Community and its members. However, this thesis needs to be read bearing in mind my position as a German, intellectual, Protestant theologian who is part of that Community and at the same time assessing it. I do not claim this thesis to be complete: that is not possible, for a living Community reinvents itself incessantly. To offer a viable interpretation, one has to keep in mind that it is an ongoing process “to know more about narrative environments that make possible and even encourage creative explorations of self, identity, community, and reality.”10 This thesis will investigate the example of the Othona Community and by describing its Lebenswelten discern what living in Community can mean, in the twenty-first century. Can Othona be seen as a “church on the margins”, as an alternative to the established churches, as something the established churches can learn from, as a “new” church or “Fresh Expression”11 that meets the needs of modern men and women? Is Othona an experience in 'contemporary discipleship'? These and more questions have to be mooted in order to approach the phenomenon. In the early days of the research I intended to compare Othona with other Christian communities in Great Britain. Soon I realised that Othona itself demanded my full 10 Susan E. Chase, 'Narrative Inquiry ― Still a Field in the Making', in: Norman K. Denzin & Yvonna Lincoln (eds), Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials (Los Angeles: Sage, 2013), p. 76. 11 http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/guide/essential/whatare (19.7.2016). 4 attention, for it had never been investigated in depth. There is an element of comparison, however, as Othona has two centres, one in Essex, the other one in Dorset. The original one in Essex is the focus of this thesis. The sister Community in Dorset walks a different path and emphasises different aspects. I will, of course, refer to Othona West Dorset (previously known as Othona, Burton-Bradstock), but my main focus will be the original Othona near Bradwell-on-Sea, in Essex, that has a pertinent relation to the adjacent Chapel, which is of utmost importance to the members of Othona. Therefore the first chapter is about my initial encounter with Othona. It deals much with the researcher: my academic background and influential professors, my fascination with the Community, the location and place of the Community, the challenges, the questions of theory and praxis and historical catenation. In order to portray the Community as fully and authentically as possible, “thick description”12 is inevitable. Many details have to be specified, the context explained, structures and meanings elaborated, and interpretations considered to explain the life and qualities which make up the culture of this Community. What do people do? What do people say? How do people perceive the phenomenon of Othona? Chapter Two is a methodological one, stating the aims, objectives and methods used for my particular purpose. To describe a multifaceted phenomenon such as Othona, different layers of perception have to be identified in a multi-dimensional approach, so the methods are somewhat special, even idiosyncratic.