‘Life is faith, faith is how I live. I eat, sleep, drink and breathe faith’
In conversation with REV BOB THOMAS
The Reverend Bob Thomas is a retired minister of the British Methodist Conference, now living in Fermanagh Q Tell me about your background.
A I am a ‘cradle’ Methodist, born in Lancashire and raised in Halifax, Liverpool, and Orpington — ‘orphaned’ in 2022. One sister, one wife, two children, one daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, all loved. Early on I sensed a call to ministry and after a couple of false starts, I was accepted by the British Conference of the Methodist Church. Now retired, I am currently worshipping in the Church of Ireland, walking alongside Fermanagh Pride and the Christian Naturist Fellowship in Ireland.
Q How and when did you come to faith?
A I was part of a faith community long before I had any realisation of being part of a faith community. The faith was grown in me at home, in church and Sunday school, in the books that were read to me, and those that I read as a child. Among them were The Wind in the Willows, and The Unutterable Beauty. The sense of God was more real to me at some times than at others, and in my midteens I took upon myself a more active role in practising and developing faith in the company of God and the people of God.
Q Have you ever had a crisis or a gnawing doubt about your faith?
A Faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin — it is certainty that destroys faith. There are times when it feels like I’m whistling in the dark, but the dark is the place where faith is grown and developed. I have consciously been walking with God for fifty-odd years, and God has been holding my hand since before forever.
Q Could you envisage a life without faith?
A Life is faith, faith is how I live. I eat, sleep, drink and breathe faith. I trained for the ministry in a liberal Anglo-catholic school of the Church of England, and each time I walked into chapel I was reminded that prayer is work, each time I left that work is prayer. In Michel Quoist’s Prayers of Life there is the reminder that “If we knew how to look at life then all of life would become a prayer.” For faith to live, it requires expression in a life of love.
Q Is there a difference between being spiritual and being religious?
A Religion is the framework for spirituality and spirituality is the beating heart of religion.
Q Are you ever frustrated by your own faith or denomination?
A The Christian Church is the body of Christ, a human institution, one of God’s chosen instruments for the salvation of humankind, a work in progress.
Q Are you afraid to die, or can you look beyond death?
A I live in the heart and mind of God, in the hearts of those I love, in the hearts of those who love me, as well as in Co Fermanagh — life and death are one. Death cannot kill what never dies (1Cor13.8). Other than that I would be glad of a tidy death.
Q Is your faith fulfilling its mission in Northern Ireland?
A Mine is a ministry of hospitality — my primary concern is for the people on the edge — of church, of community, and how together we might learn the point and purpose of God/life/faith for our time and situation. That ministry continues in retirement from a different perspective — still seeking to learn the point and purpose of God/faith/life for our time in the company of those from whom the churches seem to have turned away.
Q Have you ever experienced a leap of faith moment?
A Life is a leap of faith, in spite of all my protections and comforts — family, friends, house, pension, etc — my security is in God alone.
Q What misconceptions are there about your faith/denomination?
A Too many to number.
Q Why are people turning their backs on organised religion?
A Perhaps because organised religion — in Christian terms at least — has turned its back on them? Particularly with regard to gender and sexuality ‘issues’ — we speak of issues rather than people so as not to have to think of people as neighbours, so as not to have to reach out to them as Jesus did.
Q How do you think faith is portrayed in the media?
A Inadequately.
Q Have you ever been angry with God?
A Yes, but not often. It is no part of God’s responsibility to protect me and mine from trouble, discomfort or distress, only to help me through them. God cannot be held accountable for all the troubles of humankind — life has to be life if God is to be God.
Q Have you a favourite hymn/ spiritual song?
A Let us build a house where love can dwell — Marty Haugen.
Q Is there a religious text from which you derive comfort?
A I learn much about life in reading the Psalms.
Q What do you believe happens after death?
A Enjoying life after birth, believing in life beyond the grave is not such a huge step — both involve a change of medium. Life begins in the womb in the medium of fluid, a time of which we have no memory. At the moment of birth life moves into the medium of air. At the moment of death we leave the medium of air for the medium of which we have no prior knowledge. Whether we will have any recollection of this life in the next remains to be seen.
Q Has religion helped or hindered the people of Ireland?
A Yes.
Q Where do you feel closest to God?
A In stillness.
Q Some personal preferences: favourite film, book, and music?
A Film — Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy — the extended version; Book — its a toss-up between The Wind in The Willows, The House at Pooh Corner and my current read — Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas; Music —The Warsaw Concerto — Richard Addinsell.
Q how do you relax?
A Creating — in the kitchen or the workshop.
Q How would you like to be remembered?
A Honestly.
Q DO you believe in regrets?
A Sort them, apologise, move on.