The reality of ministry in many Church of England parish churches is preaching to empty spaces. But the bishops don't tend to see it.
The reason for that is not hard to see. Bishops - diocesan, suffragan and assistant - tend to come to parish churches for special services. A deanery confirmation where there are candidates plus families plus supporters from several churches looks full. An induction of a vicar or priest-in-charge with their family plus supporters from their previous church plus community representatives again looks full.
So the bishop feels 'encouraged' as he hops round the churches.
But rent-a-crowd belies the reality of Sunday by Sunday ministry for many of us front-line parochial clergy. We minister regularly in buildings that are too large for the congregations that meet in them. A congregation of 15 meeting in a building designed to seat 150 is sadly not unusual.
In Sheffield diocese for example where Cranmer's Curate is privileged to minister as a parochial incumbent, 55 parishes out of the 106 that submitted their 2007 numbers have a usual Sunday attendance of fewer than 50 adults (there are 174 parishes in all). That means significant numbers of empty spaces in a significant proportion of the parish churches in South Yorkshire.
Clearly, the number of empty spaces will vary according to the size of the building. But most church buildings in the Church of England were built for the days of Christian Britain and were therefore designed to accommodate much larger congregations.
Propping up implacably liberal churches by rolling them into a team ministry or expecting the hard-pressed vicar of a slightly larger church to take their dwindling services or looking to the 'cluster' for a solution will not work.
The godly solution is to cut them loose and build up a base camp of viable churches that are in a position to plant new congregations. But a denomination committed to theological diversity has not got the stomach for such necessary retrenchment.
Evangelical Anglican churches that are seeing gospel growth must not allow their work for Christ to be sacrificed on the altar of liberal mediocrity and failure. Spurgeon's dictum applies here - learn to say no, it's more useful than learning Latin.
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Hi CC,
ReplyDeleteYou raise an interesting matter, which in my experience, in a different Anglican church, is not straightforward! Here in NZ it is mostly 'liberal' or 'progressive' churches which suffer paucity of numbers. But there are evangelical ministries which are not bearing (so to speak) statistical fruit. Normally, in my estimation, not because of a deficiency in gospel commitment but through factors such as limitations in the ministry being provided (putting it bluntly, if evangelical preacher A is boring and long-winded and evangelical preacher B in the neighbouring parish is stimulating and engaging, B's congregation will be larger than A's)!
Should A be cut loose? Possibly. But it will be painful. Should B's church engage in church-planting? Possibly. But I find little interest in church planting in our rural areas, so I feel our bishops cannot simply support 'church planting' as the strategic direction for the 21st century, they also need to have a strategy for effective rural ministry. A gospel strategy, of course!
CC - surprised the Bishops are so blind. Do vicars not talk to their Bishops and tell them? Do they not keep records of attendance?
ReplyDeleteI agree Peter - a representation in as wide a range of contexts as possible is desirable. But you need to build the base camps where the life is. Dead wood has to go.
ReplyDeleteChurch Mouse - a valuable bit of journalism would be to look at the level of front-line parochial experience in the current House of Bishops. I haven't got time - I've got a parish to serve.
Regards to both,
Julian
This is what we call the 'fresh paint phenomenon'. The old saying used to go that the Queen thought the world smelled of fresh paint, because everywhere she went everything was freshly painted. In the same way, bishops can easily think that everyone people are cheerful and enthusiastic and numbers are comfortable - because everywhere they go, people have turned out and are genuinely pleased to see them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Sydney a few years ago now, the area bishop used to just turn up in the local church sometimes, unannounced, in his shirt sleeves, and sit in the congregation. It was a great way of getting a real feel for what was actually happening (and people knew who he was too, because they saw him often enough).