Simon Jenkins wrote here in the Guardian recently about the sorry state of the Church of England. This has prompted some discussion about whether true reformation, renewal and revival of the Church of England (as opposed to within the Church) is possible. I may come back to talk about that specific subject but I want to talk about one specific thing he suggests.
Jenkins writes about the Church disestablishing nationally but re-establishing locally. His argument is that it is impossible for it to be sustained and function as an established state church. However, he argued that local churches will thrive if they are at the centre of their communities.
My comment here is simply to say that this is exactly what is already happening and that it is already happening but not in the way he suggests might constrain the strategy for the CofE.
You see, it isn’t happening through the CofE as a denomination disestablishing and I suspect that for various reasons this is a strategy the higher echelons of the Church are likely to pursue (not least because those who long ago gave up on God, the Bible and the Gospel lose their reason for existing as a church without that national role). Rather it is happening as Christians and churches disestablish themselves from the CofE itself and from the State. This happens both through churches separating themselves out from the State Church formally – many have been disestablished for centuries – and when Christians plant churches outside of those structures. It also happens less formally as CofE churches disconnect emotionally from the state church.
The other side of things is that those “disestablished” churches tend to establish or re-establish themselves locally. There are two reasons for this. First, because they have less concerns about national matters and denomination politics, they have more time and energy to give to the local community. They are also not bound by committees whether Diocese/Parish committees or the waste of time that is Churches Together. Second because they recognise that loving their place and community goes hand in hand with sharing the Gospel.
So, my experience in disestablished church leadership is that we often become the local established church. This became overtly obvious to me one Christmas when I was down at our church building. It was the day that the local primary School visited the parish church for their Christmas concert. I was a school governor and I was about to walk down the road myself. Soon there was a queue of parents at our door.
“We are here for the church thing.”
In their minds, we were the local church. That might be simply because we were bang opposite the school. However, I suspect it was also because we were where they came with their kids for messy church or arts days. We ran the community cafe and offered language classes. It was us that they came to if they had problems with their asylum application. It was our leaders and staff who did what parish priests used to do. We were visible, talking to people on the high street, visiting homes etc.
So, I’m up for seeing local churches establishing themselves in the community but it is crucial that they have something of worth to offer that community …The Gospel.
Faithroots 