Abstract
Our three ongoing series this month are all written by people familiar to readers of Theology. In Difficult Texts, Professor David Catchpole finds fascinating nuances on Joseph’s parentage in Mark 6.3. In Cult Books Revisited, Professor Tim Gorringe assesses Gustavo Gutierrez’s seminal A Theology of Liberation. And in New Directions, Dr Lydia Schumacher writes on Franciscan studies. Following his contribution to Cult Books Revisited in the previous issue, Professor Ted Peters discusses intelligent design and scientism. Next is a newcomer, Dr Chinedu Nweke, who reconsiders religious syncretism (a topic that anticipates the next issue of Theology with its focus upon non-Western Anglican theology). Then John Hardy offers another parish-based theological reflection. Finally, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, Martyn Percy, and the former Regius Professor of Divinity there, Keith Ward, both contribute short review articles, the first on ministry and leadership and the second on religion and atheism. A rich collection.
On a topic related to both John Hardy’s article and Martyn Percy’s review article, I have been reading an unusually truthful book:
Jessica Martin and Sarah Coakley (eds),
Many parish priests in Britain today will recognize at once just how truthful this collection is. Other recent books on parish ministry have tended to be aspirational (telling us about the wonders of fresh expressions) or polemical (denouncing such expressions as theologically misleading). Instead the contributors are concerned to map changes in parochial ministry that are happening quite fast, to understand their complex repercussions and, only then, to attempt to discern where the Holy Spirit may be leading. Unsurprisingly, given Canon Jessica Martin’s pedigree (the daughter of David and Bernice) and Professor Sarah Coakley’s interests (the author of a major study of Ernst Troeltsch), this group displays a high level of sociological awareness. They acknowledge frankly the debilitating effects of churchgoing decline in Britain, with pockets of eclectic resilience in cathedrals and some wealthy suburban churches, but a dominant pattern of (ever more) multi-church sparsely attended benefices in rural areas and barely surviving congregations in deprived urban areas. They are not even sanguine about how long all of this can last given the Church of England’s stretched finances and the imminent retirement of many of its stipendiary clergy (themselves dependent upon these finances) and given, of course, the ever-increasing mean age of churchgoers. Those who find such analysis defeatist had better avoid this book altogether.
If on the other hand this rings true, then do buy a copy. It is well worth reading. The authors bring to it a wealth of up-to-date impressions of parish ministry today. They map, for example, changing patterns of baptisms, weddings, funerals and parish life. In each of these contexts a largely unchurched congregation, on special occasions in surprisingly great numbers, confronts the parish priest with theologically puzzling expectations. Managing such a congregation at a baptism can be quite a challenge amidst the constant chatter and texting (as I know well), let alone understanding what baptism really means to the parent/s. Yet baptisms remain pastorally important, as do church weddings and funerals. Jessica Martin muses about the now ubiquitous eulogies at funerals, especially when there is little to celebrate about the one who has just died – seeing them as both ironic and theologically indicative. Catriona Laing sets out the pastoral challenges, when interviewing couples, of adhering to the episcopal line on second marriages, let alone the non-line on gay marriages. Cheryl Collins wonders how she can be physically present at simultaneous harvest festival suppers in her multi-parish, supposedly ‘united’, benefice. Others puzzle about daily offices in cold empty churches, alcoholics at the Eucharist, parishioners who talk to the dead and much else besides in our religiously confused and theologically untutored society.
Rowan Williams concludes sagely that ‘the Church of England so far refuses to die quietly’ and that ‘it is kept alive for us only by the constant exposure that is prayer’ (p. 182). His predecessor was surely also right to have recognized so frankly that decline rather than hostile secularity is one of the greatest challenges facing the Church of England today. The British do seem to want their local church to be there for rites of passage (as John Hardy’s article illustrates) and carol/Christingle services, yet they are manifestly unwilling to commit themselves to giving or attending on any kind of regular basis. And that has now been so for several generations. Resolving this paradox (mapped by David Martin 50 years ago) remains a major challenge for British (and European) parochial clergy and congregations alike as this book recognizes so clearly. Not exactly Armageddon, but cultural climate change to be ignored at our peril – not merely by managing decline but by acknowledging and then adapting wisely to that change. This book is an important prod in that direction.