Rector's Letter
FROM THE CLERGY
Dear Colleagues,
As an Assistant Minister at Vernon Baptist Church , Kings Cross, my Senior Minister, the Revd Humphrey J Vellacott, overheard me thanking someone for coming to Church. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not to do it again. These people had done me no favour, I was informed: rather, the opposite was true. They had been granted the favour of participating in worship and the great opportunity of hearing the word of God. HJV was right, of course, and the lesson I learnt as a 22 year old has stuck with me: I do not think that, other than for particular and personal reasons, I have been guilty of thanking anyone for attending worship since then.
But is worship and an encounter with God through the Word really what the Church is about? There are intelligent commentators who would question whether or not this really is the priority of the institutional Church. It could be argued that self-preservation has become the key note. In the 2001 Census 72% of respondents claimed to be Christian (against 16% claiming no faith), but this has to be set against 6.3% of the population who have any regular connection with the Church. Methodism is predicted to have less than 10 viable years left in it and the URC much less. Irrelevance, indifference, ignorance: these lead us away from brave and creative engagement with those around us to survival, merely thinking about just keeping going.
Is it self-preservation that has led to a style of being that corresponds so closely to running a corporate structure? There can be little doubt that the Church is being run like a business. A Bishop is a Regional Manager, and Clergy have become Branch Managers. Key posts are referred to as “Directors of …..” and Synod behaves as if it were the Board of Directors. The true test of effectiveness is in the ability to pay the parish share – a test of management and capacity to raise funds. It is, of course, almost impossible to find any quantitative test to assess the effectiveness of a Parish Church . How do you report on the practical and pastoral support given to the community – that same community from which the Parish derives its very existence? How do you report on how effective we are in the business of drawing people closer to God and God closer to people?
What does the Church, our Church – the Church of England – make headlines with? As is usual, arguments, disagreements and divisions. The slant, as always, is negative. The divisions in the Church over the issue of women bishops have drawn the parasites from the press to draw blood from every angry encounter and every threatened consequence of the vote. The Synod has decided in favour of women being appointed Bishops (sadly, still not elected Bishops as they are in Scotland , the US and in most other Provinces). I am fully aware that there are differences in our views here in Burbage and I am glad that we generally treat each other with more courtesy than those opposed to the appointment of women to the Episcopate received in Synod. If we really cannot wait for the whole Church to be agreed on something of this magnitude and will not accommodate the deeply held convictions of people who cannot, not will not, agree to this, then the Church is diminished as the Liberal west continues in the intellectual imperialism, indifferent to the rest of the world.
When you consider how the Church has survived through history, it is nothing short of a miracle. The past 2000 years have been full of turmoil and crisis, yet the Church has survived, keeping word and worship alive. The balance of Scripture, tradition and reason has served us well. To overbalance one in favour of another, rather than allowing each to interpret the others, does nothing to draw us back to meaningful ministry.
It is little wonder that we arrive at a point where we want to thank people for coming, because, in our bid survival in the Church of England plc, we need them. In a society when the common perception is that the Church is tearing itself apart, we need anyone who will agree with us and thereby lent us credibility.
I will confess to being pragmatic – of keeping out of the way of Bishops and leaving the world of ‘plc' to others. In the work of this parish there is much that is good news in the daily encounters and in our attempts to live out our worship and engage seriously with the word. The more that happens the less we will have to appear grateful to those who emerge through our doors: rather they will, as the Revd Humphrey J Vellacott indicated, have cause to thank us.
Fr Bob
