Questions
I asked several questions at the beginning of the previous blog that I didn’t then follow up:
Are parish clergy in a healthy, contented state and is everything feeling fine to them in their parish?
Are clergy confident, content, at ease with their ministry and vocation?
Are the members of their congregations content with life and worship in their parish?
What is the relationship between the people in parishes and their clergy and the hierarchy?
What do people think of the dramas in the House of Bishops, the crisis in the Church and the agenda General Synod is going to be occupied with next week?
Whenever I write about the crisis in the Church some people post comments telling me that parishes are in a healthy state despite the crisis at the top and others tell me the opposite. One person recently commented that “everything is all right in the parishes” whereas another commented: “It is very hard to be a parish priest at the moment, trying to faithfully serve while having no faith in the hierarchy of the Church of England.”
Looking at the Church of England from my location in Norney Bridge, Marston, Wiltshire through the prism of Facebook groups, Thinking Anglicans, The Guardian, Channel 4 News, occasionally the Church Times and the people whose blogs, posts and comments I read plus those who talk with me about their person experience, there seems to be a gulf between local parish experience of the Church and the dramas that are dominating the life of the hierarchy and General Synod. There seem to be two separate worlds in which we are living. Members of congregations are not very aware of what’s going on at the top and the people at the top are immersed in safeguarding problems, resolving LLF at the same time as being confronted with challenges to their authority that are resulting in resignations and internal conflicts, and do not seem to be engaged with churches at parish or deanery level. It’s the clergy who in theory provide the connective relationship between the two worlds, interpreting what’s going on upwards to the hierarchy and downwards to their congregation, but I’m not sure that’s working in any kind of effective way at the moment.
And more questions
Every morning the Spirit reminds me that my curiosity hasn’t been satisfied – I am full of questions.
Another question arises in my mind: What are the relationships like for clergy with their bishop, archdeacon, diocesan office and staff?
And another question: are the people at parish level being heard? Or perhaps the question is: can the people at parish level be heard? Are the views of congregations, of “the average man, woman, young adult and their attitudes to LGBTQIA+ people, equal marriage in church, equality and preferment in women’s ministry, protection from abuse for LGBTQIA+ people, women, people of colour, those with disabilities, being communicated to and heard by the hierarchy?
The system for electing at deanery level members of diocesan synods and of the General Synod Houses of Clergy and Laity is not working. Well, maybe it is working, but only in ways that replicate in Synod meetings the same conflicts and tensions that are all too apparent in the hierarchy. The tribes are divided: there are those hostile to a fully inclusive church who need to be protected from the contaminating ministry of women and sexually active same-sex clergy and those who are committed to a fully inclusive church and an open-minded God.
Another question: What kind of God do people believe in? In what kind of God do those teaching the laity believe in, ordained ministers and licenced lay people, believe in? What kind of God do the theological training institutions for ordained ministry, residential or non-residential, actually train people to believe in? I know this question isn’t usually asked. The answer is surely obvious, isn’t it? We all believe in the same God in the Church of England, don’t we? Our faith is set out in the creeds and the Bible, the Canons and teaching traditions. In reality, the kind of God we believe in has changed dramatically over the past three centuries and continues to change. Failure to address this question is one of the reasons why the Church of England lives with an only partially resolved position on the ordination of women and is spending an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to resolve its teaching about LGBTQIA+ people and the kind of sexual activity we are allowed to engage in (or not). All these questions consume our time and energy because we do not have a commonly agreed idea about the nature of God.
One reason why congregations are declining in numbers is that people are well aware that the Church of England is conflicted and confused about what the characteristics of the God at centre of Christian life actually are. I’m used to being involved in conversations in which people are thinking, reflecting, puzzling and wrestling with the breadth and depth of life, God, the universe, the cosmos, gender and sexuality, global crises, and how our evolving, ever-changing lives and experience interacts with the teaching and practice of the Church and the kinds of orthodox, traditional ideas about God. I want to know whether or not the Church is being transformed in the life and process of its congregations and in meetings of the House of Bishops.
I have already described and explored in previous blogs the evolution of my own faith, especially in relation to our awareness of divinity and mystery and I have more ideas developing for future blogs. For the moment, I would really appreciate your response to the questions I am raising here. What is your experience of local church and parish life, and of the relationship between local parish churches and the hierarchy of the Church, the bishops, General Synod, the crisis that has developed in reaction to safeguarding reports and the failure of the House of Bishops to model the kind of transparency and wisdom that I, at least, expect them to manifest.