BEING WITH is an impressive catechetical project launched at St Martin-in-the-Fields by Samuel Wells and Sally Hitchener in 2020, promoted by them in a Leaders’ Guide and Participants’ Companion two years later (Books, 20 January 2023), and now reissued in substantially extended form, this time just over the name of Samuel Wells.
It is “a ten-week enquirers’ programme for groups of people who are new to Christianity, considering returning after a period away, or looking to embrace a broader theological outlook than that with which they may perhaps have been previously familiar”. Behind that tentative phrasing, Being With clearly sees itself as a lifeline for recovering conservative Christians. It follows basic themes — Jesus, Bible, Church, and so on — but offers “angles and perspectives not commonly available elsewhere”.
Underpinning everything is the deeply incarnational theology of “being with” which Wells has been developing since 2008, and which offers a searching and joyful reframing of the Christian faith. This forms the content of the short talks provided for each session, which are adapted from his previous writing. More unusually, his theology also informs the design of the course, with its bold aim not to teach participants about the Christian faith, but to involve them in the experience of being with one another and with God, since, he writes, “the Holy Spirit has already made Christ present to the participants in myriad ways throughout their lives.”
Two leaders are required: the “host”, who manages the process, and the “storyteller”, who delivers the content. Sessions begin by asking “What has been at the heart of your week?” This is followed by a time of “Wonderings”: “invitations to remember, imagine and discover” in anticipation of the week’s theme. The storyteller then delivers the talk, weaving into it reference to the conversation so far. Discussion follows.
Wells now also offers a modified version of the course for younger participants, or those for whom English is an additional language or who prefer simpler terminology.
Book 2: Courses for Living is new material following the same structure, and will be of value to those who have already completed the Core Course, and are looking for more. There is a ten-week follow-up course, and there are courses of varying length on particular themes, including the Bible and the care of creation, and for particular groups, such as those approaching a baptism or entering a permanent relationship.
Along the way, we get plenty of Wells’s trademark fondness for marshalling his material numerically. Within a couple of pages, we find the twofold paradox of existence, with four ways of addressing problems and eight dimensions of being with. Nor is he shy of recognising the importance of his own thinking — “another key text in my early work is . . .”.
The copious guidance offered to leaders is full of good sense. Yet Wells seems anxious to control the process tightly. The storyteller is bidden — awkwardly, in my view — to give the talk verbatim, while improvising links to participants’ comments; scripts are offered for announcing the course in church, and for inviting recruits to the first session; and “every tiny detail of the course has been organised this way for a reason.”
Being With makes large claims for itself, aiming to take people “into a place they’d never been to before”. It has high expectations of its leaders (additionally recommended to meet before and after each session) and its participants, in handling its author’s ideas and in personal openness.
Book 1 ends with powerful testimonies from a variety of users, though Being With is not for everybody. But it certainly deserves attention for its author’s gift of taking the Christian story and making it new, and for its ambition.
The Revd Philip Welsh is a retired priest in the diocese of London.
Being With: Book 1, The Core Course — Exploring life and faith together
Samuel Wells
Canterbury Press £14.99
(978-1-78622-691-4)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49
Being With: Book 2, Courses for Living — Exploring life and faith together
Samuel Wells
Canterbury Press £18.99
(978-1-78622-694-5)
Church Times Bookshop £17.09