John Miller’s account of the life and ministry of Roland Walls and The Community of The Transfiguration, A Simple Life, is a fascinating and humbling account of a life and community devoted to God, and always looking to serve the other, and especially the poor.
Roland’s approach was rarely conventional but always inclusive of something really helpful and demonstrative of serving God. As one example, the book records how one who came to be with the community for a while, Robert Haslam struggled with the slow pace of life, having come from a busy parish ministry in Sheffield.
“When I first arrived, I suffered very much from lack of things to do. I got so bored. I had come from the hectic life of Rawmarsh and now there was nothing to do.” Roland kept saying, “You have to BE, not DO!” “Get bored! With God!”
That is well worth pondering.
The village of Roslin lies at the foot of the Pentland Hills to the south of Edinburgh and is where the community, founded in 1965, was based. Everything was simple and all trappings of wealth were avoided as they sought to be a place of prayer and hospitality.
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