I’m having a liminal moment. Liminality is linked to the idea of thresholds (the Latin word is related to doorsteps), it’s about passing through into somewhere, something new. It’s the place where transformation happens. The Scottish anthropologist Victor Turner had a lot to say about these ‘betixt and between’ times. Times when you wobble between being one thing and another. He looked at those ‘Rites of Passage’ whereby tribes would send boys off into the jungle to eat horrible food or fight a bear or something and come back a man. During the trial you were in the liminal phase. Not one thing ( a boy) – yet not the other yet (a man). I have such a rite to go through tomorrow – don’t worry, I don’t have to be circumcised or do anything life threatening – in fact I’m looking forward to it a great deal. I had to fill in a form earlier – it asked about occupation. Well…. I’m ordained in the C of E. But tomorrow I get commissioned to lead a non CofE church. […]
