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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/12/church-of-england-cathedrals
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| Back to the future: that’s where the church must dare to go | Back to the future: that’s where the church must dare to go |
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| The £27m growth programme just announced by the Church of England is of itself a very good thing. It will fund some desperately needed, creative and exciting initiatives across 10 marginalised and deprived areas, including more cafe-style, drop-in churches, debt coaching services, and networks of community support workers to engage with families and young people. These projects are part of efforts by the church to reach out to the communities it seeks to serve and bring about positive social transformation. | The £27m growth programme just announced by the Church of England is of itself a very good thing. It will fund some desperately needed, creative and exciting initiatives across 10 marginalised and deprived areas, including more cafe-style, drop-in churches, debt coaching services, and networks of community support workers to engage with families and young people. These projects are part of efforts by the church to reach out to the communities it seeks to serve and bring about positive social transformation. |
| But these initiatives need to be part of a bigger sea change in how the church approaches its work. The pattern of priests in single parishes may have served the church and the country well for hundreds of years, but society has changed. | But these initiatives need to be part of a bigger sea change in how the church approaches its work. The pattern of priests in single parishes may have served the church and the country well for hundreds of years, but society has changed. |
| This parish structure, with 16,000 churches, is failing because younger people are not joining churches. They do not have a pattern of going to services on a Sunday morning or evening. Rural areas recently have had some priests in charge of 12 or more parishes – with almost as many church buildings, many ancient and crumbling, all in need of heating and maintaining. | This parish structure, with 16,000 churches, is failing because younger people are not joining churches. They do not have a pattern of going to services on a Sunday morning or evening. Rural areas recently have had some priests in charge of 12 or more parishes – with almost as many church buildings, many ancient and crumbling, all in need of heating and maintaining. |
| If the church wants to survive, and thrive, it will need to see itself in a new light – more responsive, and willing to embrace how people live today. Most people, especially young people, don’t want to have to step through the doorway of a church to engage with the big issues of life. They don’t want to sit in pews on Sunday mornings to listen to a sermon or a set, age-old liturgy. They want to know how to navigate the complexities of their lives and how to address their deepest longings, doubts and fears. And they want to feel safe. | If the church wants to survive, and thrive, it will need to see itself in a new light – more responsive, and willing to embrace how people live today. Most people, especially young people, don’t want to have to step through the doorway of a church to engage with the big issues of life. They don’t want to sit in pews on Sunday mornings to listen to a sermon or a set, age-old liturgy. They want to know how to navigate the complexities of their lives and how to address their deepest longings, doubts and fears. And they want to feel safe. |
| So the whole church will have to become much more interactive and flexible. The pattern for the future may well look a lot more like the early church, with small groups meeting in each other’s homes. Some of the independent churches that meet in old cinemas or shopping malls draw crowds because of having brilliant resources for people of all ages in all kinds of families. It’s telling that cathedrals continue to show a steady rise in visitors, which can’t all be explained by a love of heritage. | So the whole church will have to become much more interactive and flexible. The pattern for the future may well look a lot more like the early church, with small groups meeting in each other’s homes. Some of the independent churches that meet in old cinemas or shopping malls draw crowds because of having brilliant resources for people of all ages in all kinds of families. It’s telling that cathedrals continue to show a steady rise in visitors, which can’t all be explained by a love of heritage. |
| A different way of working will demand different skills and talents, and therefore new ways of training clergy, who will need to learn to communicate without jargon and without any assumptions of a shared knowledge of the faith. They will need to be able to offer coherent Christian perspectives on contemporary issues and events, and expect lively debate. | A different way of working will demand different skills and talents, and therefore new ways of training clergy, who will need to learn to communicate without jargon and without any assumptions of a shared knowledge of the faith. They will need to be able to offer coherent Christian perspectives on contemporary issues and events, and expect lively debate. |
| The structure of the Church of England also needs reform. No Christian church should ever be only in the business of saving souls. Part of the church’s mission is to call out unjust structures and practices, including any it finds within itself: the recent inquiries into abuse by clergy in Chichester and other dioceses have revealed a disordered system. The church is still recalibrating what it needs to do differently in order to end, once and for all, a culture of abuse, collusion and cover-up. | The structure of the Church of England also needs reform. No Christian church should ever be only in the business of saving souls. Part of the church’s mission is to call out unjust structures and practices, including any it finds within itself: the recent inquiries into abuse by clergy in Chichester and other dioceses have revealed a disordered system. The church is still recalibrating what it needs to do differently in order to end, once and for all, a culture of abuse, collusion and cover-up. |
| The General Synod refused last year to accept a House of Bishops report that failed to take into account changing views of marriage. Synod members from the Christian LGBTI community felt their experiences and their understanding of Christian teaching and doctrine on sexuality had been largely ignored. As a result, the bishops acknowledged that they needed to do more “listening”. | |
| Richard Rohr, an American Franciscan, claims it has taken a long time for Christians to be able to see the gospel in a fully historic, social and political context. One can only pray that the Church of England’s initiatives will help to bring about the kind of real transformation, structural as well as spiritual, that the world needs now. | Richard Rohr, an American Franciscan, claims it has taken a long time for Christians to be able to see the gospel in a fully historic, social and political context. One can only pray that the Church of England’s initiatives will help to bring about the kind of real transformation, structural as well as spiritual, that the world needs now. |
| This article was amended on 13 July 2018. It was last year, not last week, that the General Synod refused to to accept a House of Bishops report that failed to take into account changing views of marriage. | |
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