Cleric's life journey led him to hermitage
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Religion & Ethics Writer
The Rev. W. Paul Jones has been many things: a Princeton University professor, a United Methodist Church cleric for 40 years, a father of five, and now, a Roman Catholic priest and Trappist monk.
Lectures by W. Paul Jones • 7 p.m., Friday through Sunday • First United Methodist Church, 1020 S. Beretania • Refreshments and question-and-answer session follow each lecture. • Free • 522-9555 Topics of each night's lecture: • Friday: "Life as Pilgrimage: Anatomy of the Universal Search" • Saturday: "Life's Defining Rhythms: Unity in Diversity" • Sunday: "Life & Spiritual Resources: Toward a Personal Rule" • Also: A free workshop, "Life & Spiritual Direction: Companions on the Journey," will be held 9 a.m. to noon Monday.
"I have a Protestant mind and a Catholic heart," said Jones, who serves as ecumenical liaison for United Methodist and Catholic churches in Missouri.
The Rev. Paul Jones, ahermit, will speak here this weekend
Jones is coming to Honolulu for a series of free lectures at the First United Methodist Church over the weekend.
Jones calls his life a pilgrimage, one that began in a little coal-mining town.
"I didn't fit there," he said. "I kept asking 'why,' 'why,' 'why' ... I became a misfit."
Born and raised in the hills of Appalachia, Jones left for college, married, raised children and taught for many years — at Yale, Princeton and St. Paul School of Theology.
But those nagging "why" questions, which formed the basis of a spiritual journey, never left. There he was, a professor of theology with the little white picket fence life, and he knew there were more steps to take on the road.
Eventually, after his marriage was annulled and he became a Catholic, the road brought him to his community of hermits in the Ozarks. Here, he built his own home with discarded nails that he hammered back into shape.
He and other members of the community are "official hermits," designated so by the Diocese of Missouri.
"We keep a name tag on our heads to make sure," he said, tongue firmly in cheek. "In hunting season, we wear orange tags."
A hermit, after long training in the discipline of a community, goes on to lead a life of solitude. Often hermits are writers or researchers, and the designation frees them from the constrictions of parish work.
Jones' spiritual adviser more closely fits the common perception of a hermit: The fellow lives in a shack in the Ozarks — "a chicken coop, really," Jones said.
"He has no running water, no heat," Jones explained. "He gets up at 1 a.m. and spends his day 'in the presence of God.' He's the happiest human being I've ever met. Like a little kid."
One day, Jones asked his adviser, "How do you know you're in the presence of God?"
"The incredible sense of peace I see in my soul," his friend replied.
When he thinks about it now, a sigh comes from Jones, whose work has been published in journals and whose books include "Theological Words: Understanding the Alternative Rhythms of Christian Belief,"
"A Season in the Desert: Making Time Holy" and "A Table in the Desert: Making Space Holy."
"How many people yearn for that peace?"
