Father Charles Brandt, an Exemplary Groundling

 

Father Charles Brandt—a priest and modern-day contemplative—on the steps of his hermitage overlooking the Oyster River on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Photo by Grant Callegari

It is early morning with its quiet coolness. I walk out the old logging road. … The logging road along with other trails through the forest is where I practice walking meditation. I do not think of the road as leading anywhere. It is the road to nowhere, the path on which I journey and have been journeying for a lifetime. Although it is the path to nowhere, in reality it is the way to everywhere, because it enables me to enter into communion with the whole community of beings.

—from Self and Environment by Charles Brandt

I've already responded to news of the death of Father Charles Brandt my Lion Lamb blog  but I need to include it here as well, because Father Brandt was an exemplary Groundling.

The quote above from a book by Father Charles begins an excellent article from 2018 in Hakai magazine called The Oracle of Oyster River. At that time Father Brandt was 95 and had been living as a Roman Catholic hermit on Vancouver Island for decades. I've written about him several times, mentioning that I visited him at his riverside hermitage more than 25 years ago while in Victoria as part of a national committee for the United Church of Canada.

 I first heard about Father Brandt on an episode of the the CBC television show Man Alive. I tracked him down and asked if I could visit. I was fascinated by his combination of contemplation as an eco-Christian, and the activism which compelled him to organize neighbours who worked together with a logging company to restore the habitat of the river. He was hospitable and gave me a tour of his workshop, where he restored antiquarian books, and the chapel within his hermitage. Father Brandt was also a fly fisherman and I imagine that this was as much a part of his spiritual practice as the liturgy of the chapel. 

I saw last night that Father Brandt died on Sunday at the age of 97. Last year I blogged that James Wood, a journalism student who had attended Bridge St Church, then moved to Vancouver Island as a reporter, tweeted that Father Brandt had worked out a legal agreement with the Comox Valley Land Trust to have his 27 acres on the Oyster River protected in perpetuity while the hermitage would continue to be used for that purpose. I commented then: 

The term used for the agreement is "covenant" which I like because, well, it is so biblical. Covenants in scripture involve God and a person or people in a relationship which is like a contract or more. While I doubt there will be God-talk in the language of the covenant I like the implicit presence of the Creator whom Father Brandt honours in his worship life and activism. Who knows, there may be a rainbow involved.

Last year he told an interviewerthat  as a young Boy Scout he slept in the wild and kept absolute silence for 24 hours. He had a passion for birding, which with scouting, were his first connections to the natural world. By the age of 13, he had read Henry David Thoreau’s epic book, Walden.

It's wonderful that only a month ago Father Brandt had been recognized  with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Museum of Nature. He was healthy enough to respond to the news in a gracious and thoughtful manner. 

I will be grateful for the rest of my life for the witness of Father Brandt as a true Groundling, a person of Christian faith whose eternal hope began in this earthy and Earthly lifetime. This hermit had a broad influence on the people and the environment around him. 

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-oracle-of-oyster-river/