‘The space of the
Church is not there in order to deprive the world of a piece of territory but
in order to prove to the world that it is still the world which is loved by
God.’
Bonhoeffer, Ethics
~
How does new God talk,
church re-imagining and wrestling members affect the ordinary person in and out
of the pew? In a rural village in a Church of England benefice (code for a
collection of parishes) where the Rector is responsible for seven church buildings
and has seven congregational structures to support, most members would listen
with sympathy and some understanding to a sermon on the above; but when it
gathers for a meeting about ‘change’ would be as resistant as any of Pope
Francis’ conservative cardinals. Generous
giving, caring pastoral work, outward looking initiatives, a few people
investing much hard work in ‘supporting the Rector’, and a variety of
liturgical experimentation, together with a friendly welcome and good use of
the church building for concerts and other community happenings, gives it all a
good feel, and is often effective, but does not perhaps grasp the need for
restructuring for the duration.
In the 1980s in the Church
of England, the movement towards team and group ministries, together with an
influx of non-stipendiary ministers, was a factor in enabling ministry in (for
example) rural Norfolk to manage the care of people, while radical measures
were taken to de-commission churches, while conserving the heritage.Today,
in the Thames valley, for example, in spite of similar measures during that
period, and the strengthening of lay education and ministry, there are still
rural villages where one stipendiary priest, perhaps with a non-stipendiary
minister or self-supporting minister, is serving seven or more parishes, each
with a Parish Church Council, an aging and diminishing congregation, and a
resistance to change. We are still in danger of substituting ‘I believe in holy
and energetic clergy’ for ‘I believe in the Holy Catholic Church’ as Herbert
Kelly said in 1916 – a hundred years ago! What is needed (as Kelly also said)
is the replacement of the whole system and the localisation of church life.
People’s Church
In 2010, I was taken to a
small downtown church in San Francisco for a mid-week Communion service. I
walked into the Church of St Gregory of Nyssa and was confronted by a throng of
people milling about the nave of the church which had been cleared of pews and
was set up like a market place, groaning with food collected from a large food
bank. The recession was biting and there were about 500 people – Chinese,
Mexican, Caucasian and many other ethnicities – who relied on their visits to
St Gregory’s for subsistence.
But now many began
gathering towards the worship space at the Chancel end of the building, which
was prepared for the Communion. It was a chaotic service, with everyone who
wished being given a part. I was handed a thurible with incense. ‘What shall I
do with it?’ ‘When you feel like it, cense anything, whether it moves or not.’
was the reply. No one was ‘vetted’ because all, whether criminal, alcoholic,
drug dependent or simply poor, were human. As team leader Sara Miles 14 said to
me afterwards, ‘We aren’t bound together by our same-ness, or political views
or cultural interest; we are bound together by Christ’s peace, which notably
passes human understanding.’ During the communion, which was distributed one to
another, the priest disappeared and then, after a blessing, re-appeared wearing
an apron, with volunteers bearing soup and bread and fruit, which was shared
around. Then the ‘congregation’, invited to take what they needed, went into
the nave with trolleys, taking what they wished. No doubt some took advantage –
probably regularly – but no one was judging. What impressed me most was that
there was no ‘them’ and ‘us’, no ‘clients’ and ‘middle class volunteers’; here
were human beings working at a task together.
Since that occasion, the
pace of such local initiatives has quickened to a torrent, in the USA, Europe
and the UK. Churches are being re-configured to provide different versions of
food banks, post offices, play groups, cafes, and a host of other community
facilities. Worship is still central, but takes place within a community hub.
Of course some significant churches like St Martin-in-the-Fields in London,
have a decades old tradition and practice of this kind, which in succeeding
generations it has developed and renewed. Now however, many networks from inside
the Church at large are resourcing a variety of local initiatives of which the
Church Urban Fund (set up as a result of the controversial Faith in the City
report, as noted earlier) and Inclusive Church are both excellent examples.
These provide both theological education as well as practical support.
A ‘Trinity’ Model to
Pursue?
The Church Urban Fund is
now sponsoring the mustard seed appeal, the network for making money-lending
facilities available for the needy, which Archbishop Justin Welby pioneered in
his publicised battle with pay day loan sharks in 2012 when he was Bishop of
Durham. Two years later, as Archbishop of Canterbury, he launched a scheme for
the Church of England to make available funds to set up credit unions, making
facilities for people to save or borrow at reasonable cost, through the 16,000
parishes that serve the community in England. However, it was made clear that
he hoped that these local initiatives would galvanise not just churchgoers, but
many others in the community, caring compassionate people who are neither
believing nor belonging, to join such an enterprise, and so it is proving. This
provides a vibrant example of ‘bottom up’ ecclesiology: a perceived community
need, ‘top’ sponsorship, with joint top/bottom planning, energising and
resourcing, followed by local provision. Let us call this a ‘Trinity’ model.
Another Church Urban Fund
venture following a similar pattern is designed to meet the needs of the lonely
and socially isolated. Launched in August 2016 the Full Community Sponsorship
Scheme, was designed to make a contribution to the continuing global flow of
refugees by providing a welcome for them in the UK. That this is a ‘crisis’ is
an acknowledged grass roots concern polarising opinion; increasing intolerance
among those who feel threatened; generating anxiety in those who find a
conflict between head and heart, and at the same time fuelling among some a
fervent outgoing compassionate urge to be involved in welcoming refugees who
have lost everything. This scheme also follows the Trinity model, being
launched jointly by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Amber Rudd, the British
Home Secretary, on the basis of the perceived need, and the Government promise
to receive direct from Syria 20,000 refugees. They will of course be vetted
before being allowed into the UK. Then registered charities, or community
groups of congregations or businesses will be able to sponsor families in
collaboration with the local authority in which the sponsorship is situated.
The sponsors will then be responsible for a continuing welcoming and settlement
programme for the refugees they accept, offering accommodation, language
skills, cultural integration of all sorts – and friendship. The Archbishop has
welcomed such a family from Syria into the Lambeth Palace complex where he
lives.
The Trinity model is being extended to parishes, ensuring that community needs are on the agenda. A Parish Church Council (PCC) with its lay representatives, together with the clergy, formulate a plan, offering it to the Bishop (and, as an aside, we might say that bishops need to be more local) or to priests like the Roman Catholic ‘episcopal vicars’, for scrutiny, resourcing and local oversight, then the plan will go back to the parishioners and local partners for implementation. Current progress in such models builds on the work of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, for whom inter-faith understanding and collaboration was and (remains) a major priority. His ability to form warm relationships with his Christian ecumenical partners, including Cardinal Murphy O’Connor, his successor Cardinal Vincent Nicholls, and all heading up the ‘Christians Together’ network, provided a firm basis for the various inter-faith forums with Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Sikhs, together with their networks that have become integrated into the way of life for large numbers of faith community leaders. In 2010, while still Archbishop, Williams took up the then Prime Minister’s (rather vague) concept of ‘The Big Society’ and gave it teeth by adopting the ‘Trinity’ model with his inter-faith colleagues, collaborating with the Community Ministers in how to increase and resource the already considerable numbers of faith-based volunteers in areas needed to help the poor, marginalised, elderly and vulnerable in a society hit by economic recession.
Regardless of falling
numbers, the place of the Church of England, by law established in England (not
the rest of the UK) has had some acknowledged advantages for faith leaders;
although what that now really means, and what the future holds, needs careful
consideration and debate.
The work of transformation
has been widely spread, among voluntary bodies of various kinds. Marcus
Braybrooke, a Anglican priest, is Joint Chair of the World Congress of Faiths,
and Co-founder of the three faiths Forum. Like me, he has worked with Kamran
Mofid’s ‘Common Good initiative’. The work and presence of the Islamic Centre
in association with Oxford University has offered a stimulating opportunity to
offer educational and inter-faith opportunities throughout the university, and
for many years in association with the Department for Continuing Education. I
have been impressed by and involved with the work of the Graduate Theological
Foundation in the USA, changing from a Christian Education Institute to a
multi-faith one. Readers may have had other and different experiences, or out
on the streets have witnessed the follow up after an ‘incident,’ when
volunteers from all faiths have turned out together to assist in the clean up,
or mourn together in mutual respect and grief for death and injury.
Learning to Nourish the
Human Spirit
Before closing, we should have a word about how we train clergy for the
future. As the pattern of social and cultural life in England has changed, so
the church has responded with variations to its investment in training for
clergy and lay members, and more recently, wrestlers.
The number of residential
colleges diminished after 1965, and those remaining gradually became more open,
associated with rigorous and varied degree opportunities and a changing
curriculum. The non-residential courses of the 1980s and 1990s were of varying
quality and, certainly, in the area I know well, it was a good move when the
Oxford course, after flourishing for a decade in a link with St Alban’s diocese,
in the new century found a home at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. There, under the
principalship of Martyn Percy, the Oxford course diversified its curriculum,
revitalised its spiritual heart, and included opportunities for a wide variety
of seekers in the new culture that was emerging.
Sarum College in Salisbury
Cathedral Close (formerly Salisbury Theological College, which was closed in
the early 1990s) was also developed for the new age by its second Principal,
Keith Lamdin, and now, under the leadership of James Woodward, has a collection
of ‘Centres’ for learning.15 It has university-linked programmes as well as
many that are not. The Centres include not only those with a new take on basic
theological and spiritual disciplines but also, for example, one entitled the
‘Centre for Theology, Imagination and Culture’. I am hopeful there are many
more examples of innovative change in recruitment, content, style of learning
and pastoral guidance emerging, and that a rich pattern may emerge up and down
the country as the Church of England engages with the changes that are upon us.
Last Chance Saloon?
If you had difficulty in
recalling the film Life of Brian then maybe the 1895 Punch cartoon of ‘The
Curate’s Egg’ will present even more difficulty. A fresh-faced curate is being
presented with a bad egg but, wishing to please, remarks ‘It is good in parts.’
The fact that the Church and other Faith networks,
at national and local level, are living differently and serving imaginatively
is good and encouraging; but it is only good ‘in parts’. We are still faced
with cultural disorientation, and our renewal is scattered and chaotic. Chaos
does not necessarily lead to creativity, but it can help us to see what is
important, and what is disposable. I believe the Woolf Report is right when it
points to the need for a kind of Magna Carta, recognised by all, a statement of
principles and values that foster the common good, and underpin our public
life. We need to reflect on how this may be achieved, what may inhibit it, and
what preparations we need to make to ensure that the good practice all around
us, the experienced leaders who are pioneers, and the development projects that
are still embryonic, are coordinated at least at regional level.
Meanwhile, in the scale of
a lifetime, the ‘Anglican Agony’ of the past quarter of a century may come to
be seen as a prophetic forerunner of change with the Church of England – as a
kind of John the Baptist who prepares ‘the Way’. The crisis of the Church of
England with its diminishing congregations, lack of ‘rapport’ with at least
three generations and another on the way, is real. ‘Vincent’ said a friend to
whom I tried to explain this, ‘You’ve lost your head.’ ‘Well yes, but so did
John the Baptist didn’t he?’ I replied. However, this is not a death wish.
Unlike some, perhaps many, of my fellow wrestlers, I have loved the Church of
England with its history and its idiosyncrasies, and there are things about it
I cherish and which I think need to flourish beyond the response to the crisis.
Preparations for all these things will be needed, because the bridges to
achieve them are shaky and the barriers are many.
The Naked God: Wrestling for a grace-ful humanity by Vincent Strudwick with Jane Shaw is out now in
paperback, £12.99.
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