The in-betweens

Available for 28 days

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Professor Alison Jack of Edinburgh University's School of Divinity. Script: Good morning. I’ve always loved the occasional series on Radio 4 called Soul Music, and it never fails to make me stop and think more deeply about whatever song or piece of music is the topic for the programme. In between the spoken word we hear excerpts from the piece, from a variety of musicians and singers. One episode is dedicated to Ralph Vaughn Williams’ The Lark Ascending. A musician remembers the 16 seconds of silence that followed their performance at the Proms, the stillness settling after the music quietly fades, before the rapturous applause. Other arresting sounds can lead into a moment of still concentration in the silence. I once in a church service talked to the children about prayer, and we listened to the note of a tuning fork as it became quieter and quieter and then faded away, no-one moving for a wee while in the silence that felt somehow filled with meaning. It was a pause in the usual words and the sounds of worship that all generations seemed to experience together. It reminded me of the moment in our weekly lunchtime communion services where I work at Edinburgh’s School of Divinity when we say the Lord’s Prayer in the different versions familiar to us. Those of us who refer to ‘debtors’ pause for a moment while others who speak of ‘those who trespass against us’ finish. It’s a sort of ecumenically-sensitive silence we all follow and share, unbidden. Collective silences like these may be rare but they are precious when they happen and they can, even in a bustling festival city. Stillness may be something we create for ourselves, though, wherever we are, and my hope for us today is that we are open to allowing ourselves these moments and that we are attuned to their potential. God of quiet places, may we find you in the moments of silence when our breath steadies, as well as in the clamour of the world around us. Amen.