Long overdue, but never too late
A journey to familiar but unknown lands
It’s been some time since I wrote for this publication, previously titled, ‘King Worship’. Much has happened since the last post back in June 2021, so this is something of an update, to unveil and explain a new name, and to give discerning readers a perfectly reasonable excuse to unsubscribe.
First, you’d be forgiven for completely forgetting what ‘King Worship’ was, why it existed, how you ended up subscribing, and, indeed, who this is writing right now. So, a quick recap.
A Quick Recap
My name is Graham Ormiston, married to Lucy, and with a young, fluffy addition, Archie (a lockdown pup). I don’t think he existed when I last posted - life is certainly a bit more colourful with him around.
I live in London and work at TBN UK, which is a Christian TV channel (not as bad as it sounds). My journey there has been, shall we say, eventful over the past few years. I’m sure we’ll get into that some other time. I attend Grace London, a church in Waterloo which bucks the trend of UK church growth (as in, it grows).
King Worship
‘King Worship’ was intended to be a blog and podcast with a simple, singular focus: to help others worship Jesus. I tagged it, ‘a call to worship’.
I firmly believe music is a gift from God. To me, a world without music would be like a world without laughter or warmth or flowers or colour or chocolate or skin. Painful, and gross. For me, music is worship, but that does not mean that all worship is music. I have (along with much of the evangelical church and possibly the world) conflated the two, but I have slowly been learning to decouple them a little. Music is a tool that can help us ease into God’s presence, but it can sometimes also get in the way.
However, while all this was a consideration, the real reason for a change in the name of this publication is that I wanted a broader scope and something of a new direction. I hope to continue writing about the worship of Christ (in all its variety) but I also want to explore myriad other subjects; longing, loneliness, desire, peace, suffering, work, leadership, serving, giving, birth, death, creativity, and living. To put it another way, I wanted a space to share the journey I am walking with Christ.
Introducing: The Northerner
*Tada* - the new name of this publication is ‘The Northerner’.
For those who know me personally, this might seem to be a title with obvious meaning. After all, I do hail from Bolton, a town in the North of England. So, it’s all about me, right?
Not so fast. While it is true I am a Northerner (though quite southern compared to my Aberdeen-born wife) my inspiration comes from CS Lewis, in particular the language he used to express a mingled experience of joy, longing, and hope. When he was young, Lewis described this feeling as ‘Northernness’1.
The sensation that CS Lewis called Northernness is that of longing, remembering, and yearning. It’s akin to a heartwarming memory, but paradoxically of something that you’ve never actually experienced. In The Weight of Glory, he writes that these sensations are:
…only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
Lewis suggested that we often simplify and suppress this sense by labelling it nostalgia, romanticism, adolescence, or even beauty. But that’s because we’re embarrassed by the feeling, that we don’t know how to express it, or quite what it means.
I’ve titled this publication ‘The Northerner’, because I am writing as one who feels, like CS Lewis, that they belong somewhere else, and indeed are being continuously called home. For me, the Northerner is an exile, living with just a memory or an idea of home, a far-off country. We are the Israelites in Egypt and Babylon. We are the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, reconciling the thistles and thorns of our life here on earth with the future promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth. That’s why I’ve written this new strapline for the publication (liberally borrowing from Lewis’ language):
The Northerner is for the exiles who long to return from desert lands to their home country in the endless twilight of Northern summer.
When I first read CS Lewis on this subject, I felt seen, as the kids might say. I have a keen sense of otherness that I experience in the world. Just ask Lucy, who has to regularly put up with me saying, ‘Wow, just look at the moon tonight’. She rolls her eyes especially hard when I stop to point at it. Justifiably - she can see the moon just as well as I can.
The Northerner is likely to have elements of me just pointing to the moon and saying, ‘Wow, would you look at that.’ But mostly it will aim to ask, though we’ve never been there, ‘Remember home?’
I hope you’ll continue to join me on this journey.
To The North!
Graham
C. S. Lewis: A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet - by Alister McGrath (I’ll find the page one day, but it’s in the first few chapters). I highly recommend the book.