TRUSTFUL EVANGELICAL COLLABORATION IN BLACKBURN

This by Cranmer's Curate appeared in this week's Church of England Newspaper:

“I read the news today oh boy/Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire,” sang the Beatles in their celebrated 1967 song Day in the Life. Probably not so well known is the fact that the former mill-town to the world is surrounded by beautiful countryside with some gorgeous cricket grounds. The town itself, however, is a sticky wicket for the Gospel.

For the sake of Christ’s mission to their town, three parishes on the west side of Blackburn are involved in a positive conservative evangelical collaboration. They are St Andrew’s, St Barnabas', and Christ Church with St Matthew’s. Rev. Jonathan Milton-Thompson is vicar of St Andrew’s and priest-in-charge of St Barnabas'. The Rev. Andrew Raynes is vicar of Christ Church. His associate minister is the Rev. James Terry.

Mr Raynes is also Area Dean (Blackburn with Darwen) for the three parishes in a mainly Affirming Catholic and Traditional Catholic diocese. St Andrew’s has a regular morning congregation of around 40 adults with 20 under 16s; St Barnabas has 30 adults with 10 under 16s; Christ Church has 90 adults with 25 under 16s.

The three parishes are sharing an evening service, which takes place at Christ Church. Mr Milton-Thompson preaches twice a term at the 30-strong service. They also collaborate with a teenage youth group called ‘Blast’. The third element is a mid-week lunch-time Bible talk in Blackburn's Central Methodist Church.

The collaboration began out of necessity in 2008 when Mr Milton-Thompson, 60, had a minor stroke and needed help with his evening service. Mr Raynes suggested a joint service. The venture works "because of shared churchmanship and also personalities", says Mr Milton-Thompson. "I get on with Andrew and James. I don’t feel any sort of strain."

St Andrew's and St Barnabas' provide up to 10 of the evening congregation. A case could be made that the smaller churches should share the hosting of the service with Christ Church so that their PCCs properly own it. However, predictability of venue is an important factor in seeking to grow an evening service. Mr Milton-Thompson, described by a senior colleague as a 'go-for-it guy', says Christ Church is always assiduous in plugging his Christianity Explored course as well as theirs.

James Terry, 37, says: “Jonathan preaching helps to tie St Andrew’s into the evening service, so it’s not just a Christ Church thing.”

The three face particular ministry challenges with the large Muslim population in Blackburn, though Mr Milton-Thompson declares that “the indigenous white community is also a serious challenge and usually seems to be less interested in talking religion than our Muslim neighbours”.

National newspapers can understate the proportion of Muslims in Blackburn by including Darwen, the area south of Blackburn, in the statistics. According to the 2001 census, the local authority area of Blackburn with Darwen had 137,000 residents of whom 19.4 per cent were Muslim. So one national newspaper declared that one is five people in Blackburn is Muslim.

Mr Milton-Thompson says the inclusion of Darwen, a mainly white area “on the other side of the motorway” (M65), skews the figure. The Parliamentary Constituency of Blackburn, which includes the three parishes and has the Rt. Hon. Jack Straw as MP, has 101,000 residents of whom a higher proportion are Muslim than in the local authority area.

Damian Talbot, chair of Blackburn Labour Party, puts the number of Muslims in the constituency at around 30,000 (30 per cent). Asked about the prospects for Muslims converting to Christianity, he says: “Jack always describes Blackburn as a big village where everybody knows everybody else. If someone from the Asian community were to convert to Christianity, it would be probably well known in the community around them. I'm not sure how that would work out."

Mr Talbot goes on to say that local Muslim leaders have given assurances about their respect for religious freedom. But clearly it would be the local police who would be closer to the reality of how Muslims who do embrace Christ are treated by their own families and peers.

The Rt. Rev. John Goddard, Bishop of Burnley and suffragan for the three ministers, gives his perspective on the Christian ministry challenge facing the collaborators: “The difficulty of engaging in mission and ministry in Islamic areas is this: how do you have a lively presence and also engage in mission? Particularly from a conservative evangelical point of view, there is the element which wants to look towards conversion, which is part of the spectrum but not the whole spectrum of mission. I do believe there needs to be a lot of work done to win respect and honour and dialogue is a way in for that. These three parishes, with Andrew and James and Jonathan, have pastors of deep conviction and deep engagement.”

Clearly, as those who fully assent to the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion, the three would undertake 'dialogue' with Muslims on the firm understanding that Islam cannot provide salvation, "for holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved" (Article 18 - Of obtaining eternal salvation only by the Name of Christ).

The Archdeacon of Blackburn, the Ven. John Hawley, reflects on the benefit of the shared theological outlook of the churches in the cluster: “In a tough inner city area when we have issues of poverty and a significant Asian Heritage Muslim presence, it is helpful to have similar churchmanship because the other issues are so challenging. In a different context, say rural, a mix of churchmanship might be helpful.”

He continues: “In this context it's got to be a conservative evangelical cluster because of their understanding of the Gospel and mission and evangelism. If you are going to bring people together in an area they have to have a common bond and that has to be their churchmanship as well as their Christian commitment. You have to bring churches together of similar churchmanship to make the best of the resources."

Despite the special Islamic challenge these ministers face, their collaboration certainly has wider application for the Church of England. Small churches struggle to provide evening services and youth groups for teenagers, so sharing resources is manifestly a sensible way forward.

And more generally clustering is becoming an increasing necessity in the Church of England as resources dwindle. Shared churchmanship for clusters is clearly a huge benefit, as this collaboration demonstrates and as the senior staff of Blackburn have the wit to recognise.

The other vital dimension to this collaboration is the trust between the ministers. Common churchmanship does not always guarantee trust. In English conservative evangelicalism, smaller churches can feel that larger churches are happy to provide preachers but will not encourage people commuting out of their parishes to the eclectic congregation to support their struggling local church.

In this cluster, there is no evidence of imperialism on the part of the largest and best resourced of the three, Christ Church, but rather a servant-hearted, Christ-like desire to support and nurture the ministry and mission of the smaller two churches.

This - Tinker Tailor Spiritual Disaster - appeared on VirtueOnline.