Yesterday, having just returned from Kazakhstan, I went with my family to support a friend being ordained in Leicester Cathedral. We left Croydon at 6.30am and got to Leicester in time to park the car and look for a place to get something to eat or drink. The first place we came across was a Wetherspoons pub, already open at 9.00am, and already with a number of people drinking. We felt a bit over-dressed while eating the fry-up and drinking coffee. By the time we left (around 9.45am) one bloke was on his third pint and others were not far behind.
At 9.15am on a Sunday morning. What was about to happen in the Cathedral seemed a million miles away from this pub and its early boozers.
Today, while the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA) was being launched in London, I was doing a Parish Visit in a suburban parish. I have 102 parishes and visit each one for a day each four years (plus loads of other visits for services, etc., of course). These visits enable me to know the parishes better and gives the parishes access to me for whatever purpose they wish. Furthermore, I get the opportunity to encourage and raise questions/challenges about worship, mission, etc. The main thrust at the moment is questioning how each church can create the space in which people can learn to read and understand the Bible, growing confident in the content of Christian faith in order to be able to communicate and defend the faith.
While in this parish I spent some time in an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous and listened to many stories of grief and hope. What characterised this meeting was the raw honesty of those who spoke, the respectful attention of those who listened, the acceptance of failure and encouragement to try again, the promise of real fellowship in a common struggle. Here there was no posturing, no game playing, no self-righteousness or superiority, no judgment, no accusation. There was an articulated acceptance of a common condition, an explicit need for mutual support and a genuine mutual compassion.
To me it felt like what the church should be.
When I went into the room I got talking to a woman who questioned my presence there. She had had a bad experience of the church and my clerical collar and pectoral cross spoke to her primarily of authority and judgment. I held my cross and indicated that the man who was crucified on it was loved by those who knew their need and weren’t afraid to acknowledge it – and was crucified by those who put the purity of their religious institution above the signs of God’s presence and kingdom in their midst. We are all in need of confession, mutual support and God’s healing grace – alcoholics do not have a monopoly on this, but they are the most honest people you can meet.
It also got me wondering whether some of us have a ‘faith addiction’ in the sense that we fixate on elements of the faith, missing the broader point of it all and displaying the symptoms of addictive behaviour seen in other forms. Just wondering…
Anyway, I came home late tonight and have been reflecting on this. Should I have gone to the FCA launch? I know my credentials as a Christian and a bishop have been questioned, but that doesn’t worry me. I do not think that all in the Anglican garden is lovely and unproblematic. But I do think I chose well to be in a parish where the world is raw rather than in a meeting discussing protecting God from muckiness. I have come home to read again the Gospels and find that Jesus challenged the purity-lovers and healed those who had been excluded from the ‘church’, told that they did not count in God’s economy.
Given that the media have apparently ignored today’s launch, I have no idea what (if anything) happened. What I do know, however, is that while they were doing their holy stuff in London, I was seeing healing happen in a place where the Gospel is being lived out and struggled with on the ground. I was with some people whom I respect enormously for their courage and discipline – and for their love and compassion.
I think that is what Jesus looks like in the Gospels – and the church is called to look something like the Jesus we read about in the Gospels. So, regardless of the judgments of others who are (obviously) closer to God than I am, I will keep plugging away at encouraging the churches in their faithful ministry, trying to inspire them with a vision for the Gospel and opening up the Bible to and for them.
And I won’t worry too much about those who (in the words of Karen Armstrong I heard on the car radio on the way home) are ‘more concerned to be right than to be compassionate’ – or something like that.
July 7, 2009 at 7:30 am
“I have 102 parishes and visit each one for a day each four years…” Wow! In 25 years of ministry, I have never had a bishop spend a day in my parish! Once, I had an archdeacon. For most clergy, I suspect, the phrase, ‘receive the cure of souls which is both mine and yours,’ doesn’t mean much, unless there is a crisis.
July 7, 2009 at 7:31 am
+Nick,
Your posting would have validity if you could demonstrate that a)The people at FOCA are not concerned with mission and reaching the lost and b)Do not engage with and support mercy ministries. In my view, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to demonstrate that, though. Are you not in danger of burning a straw man?
Incidentally….Do you ever spend time in fellowship with networks of like minded people?
Other than the last 2 postings, nice blog, by the way.
July 7, 2009 at 7:31 am
Nick, I think you have your head screwed on in knowing that not everything in the Anglican garden is lovely and unproblematic; and your priorities absolutely right in choosing to be in a parish where the world is raw rather than in an institutionalised meeting discussing protecting God from muckiness!
I was privileged on Sunday to do a talk in Church on “This is the word of the Lord”. Giving due acknowledgement to you, I finished by telling your 5 minute resume of the Bible. Unexpectedly, the uniformed groups (scouts etc) had turned up bringing with them lots of Mums and Dads who don’t often come to church – I think perhaps God had a hand in bringing those people into church this Sunday to hear a summary of His story!
Keep up your good work.
Best wishes from Anne.
July 7, 2009 at 7:36 am
In the Diocese of Southwark the bishops systematically visit every parish – no one escapes. The task is to encourage and support – wherever they appear on the spectrum.
July 7, 2009 at 7:46 am
Matt, I am not suggesting they are not interested in mission; but ‘they’ believe I am not. I am not sure what you mean by ‘fellowship with networks of like minded people’. I don’t actually join any networks – I am not sure it is a good thing for bishops to do.
July 7, 2009 at 7:56 am
Hi Nick
Really enjoying reading your blog and finding lots of things to stretch the brain!
Just wondered why, after being AoC’s representative in Kazakhstan your credentials as a bishop are questioned? Seems to me that any point of view that encourages church to become more involved in the raw/down-to-earth side of things would be welcomed?
July 7, 2009 at 8:03 am
It is simply that an evangelical who isn’t quite ‘kosher’ (in a bacon-slicing theology sort of way – which I realise is a terrible mixing of metaphors) makes you worse than an outright heathen in the minds of some. This isn’t exclusive to evangelicalism, of course, but is a human thing: we are more suspicious of those closest to us (but who deviate slightly) than we are of those we know to be ‘wrong’.
July 7, 2009 at 8:39 am
Wow! FCA is a ‘distraction’, it’s ‘self-indulgent’, ‘self-important’, ‘trumped up’; it offers ‘yet another example of Christian facturing’. By implication you are suggesting that those involved in FCA are not involved in the real business of the gospel with the excluded etc. In fact, you’re comparing them with the ‘purity-loving’ religious authorities of Jesus’ time. In addition, you smear them with the charge of ‘‘dodgy behaviour’ of ‘scheming’, ‘lying’, ‘misrepresentation’ and ‘subterfuge’.
And if unity is your concern, how exactly do you propose to help heal the divisions among us? More of the same?
July 7, 2009 at 2:52 pm
More of what the blog is for, Nick – a place to ponder, a place to air questions rather than answers, a place where compassionate questions replace arrogant certinty. Keep going!
July 7, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Andrew, yes, FCA is a distraction. The ‘implications’ are ones you could draw, but not necessarily. And the ‘implication’ of FCA is that the rest of us are not faithful or ‘Gospel’ people. Do you believe that?
Bishops get flak for being supine and not leading and not standing their ground. I realise that I am putting things pretty robustly. Would you prefer me to be mealy-mouthed?
Finally, could you indicate how your columns in the CEN ‘create unity’?
July 8, 2009 at 11:46 am
“Finally, could you indicate how your columns in the CEN ‘create unity’?”
Isn’t that as evasive as saying that you can’t criticise someone or something unless you can do it better?
July 8, 2009 at 11:54 am
No, it isn’t. It is a valid question in an on-going dialogue between us.
July 8, 2009 at 12:07 pm
It seems to me that you chose precisely the right place to be, Bishop Nick.
July 8, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Thanks for the reply and the lovely metaphor
I suspect that its one of those dodgy cliches that most things get stronger if questioned/debated but I think the initial questioner always gets a particularly hard time. Us watchers from the sidelines really do appreciate the good conversation, so thanks!
July 8, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Well, now, our cousins across the pond are finally getting a little taste of what we American Episcopalians have had to put up with for years if not decades. Pretty soon, these folks will be demanding a new “Province” in England, staffed by bishops consecrated in Africa. Then they will try to take possession of the family silver. How anyone can take seriously backward-looking windbags like Duncan and Jensen is beyond my understanding. (TEC supports “the sanctification of sin” Dr. Jensen? We American Episcopalians were preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, baptizing sinners saved by Grace and celebrating the Holy Mysteries when Sydney was a collection of canvas tents and mud huts scattered along the Tank Stream). These people are the last theological gasp of the 19th century mind confronting the 21st century.
July 8, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I found your blog to be right on the spot.
So much to be done, and FOCA is looking inwards, rather than outward, which is what I feel they should be doing.
You were quite right to be in the Parish, Surely, that is what Bishops should be doing. Providing for them the presence and care and love and support they deserve to affirm them in their struggle to be all that God is calling them to be.
Keep it going, you always have something to say to challenge and to make people think and to question the issues raised, whether they agree or disagree with your perspective.
Again, surely that is what Bishops are for – to lead and challenge us read the Bible and to follow the lead set for us by Jesus in the Gospels.
July 9, 2009 at 2:29 pm
#15: Feel the love!
(Not to mention the Gospel-centered humility. Did you forget to remind the Aussies that they’re the descendants of convicts? …. Oh, I feel a joke coming on:
Q. What’s the difference between Americans and Australians?
A. Americans are descended from Englishmen who left the Old Country for the sake of their convictions, but Australians are descended from Englishmen who left the Old Country because of their convictions!
…. Only, TEC today has nothing in common with the Pilgrim Fathers.)
July 9, 2009 at 4:35 pm
#17 Episcopalians don’t promote “the sanctification of sin”, whatever Peter Jensen might think. PS: Your “cultural cringe” is showing.
“…. Only, TEC today has nothing in common with the Pilgrim Fathers.”
I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, friend, but Episcopalians NEVER have had anything in common with those Calvinists refugees of 1620 (The first American-born Anglicans were baptized in Virginia in 1587)
July 9, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Hi Nick,
Sorry not to have replied earlier, I’ve been away for a couple of days.
Of course, I don’t want you to be mealy-mouthed. Thankfully you’re not and that’s why this blog is worth visiting.
However your posts on FCA will be perceived as pretty insulting really by your targets. There’s no qualification of what you’re saying. I always try to use the terms ’some’ and ‘many’, for example when imputing views to groups such as ‘evangelicals’ or ‘liberals’ because there’s always diversity. So it’s unfair to make implications about the honesty or integrity of people in FCA by extrapolating from a situation you were close to. Furthermore the idea that FCA supporters view you as unChristian or dodgy might be true of some but not others.
But you yourself also said that people tend to be more suspicious of those close to them (ie the same tradition). Does that explain your hostility and defensiveness as well as that of some of the FCA people you have encountered).
The unity thing is a serious question, given the fact that you’ve accused them of ‘fracturing’ the Church despite their denials of that. Answering a question with a question is all very well, but I’m not a bishop, and don’t have the specific gifts, responsibility and calling to the Church you have. You’re entitled to think me a hypocrite, though I don’t concede that I am on this particular issue, but I think that you and Graham Kings now both have an uphill struggle in your ministry with FCA-types now.
Is FCA a distraction? Well at a time when the views of someone like +Michael Nazir-Ali are seen as extremist when they were entirely acceptable only a decade or so ago, then there’s definitely a need for movements/organisations of this kind. I support loyal but robust protest in response to some trends both in society and the Church. FCA has the potential to a focal point for that. If they ever become separatist they’ll leave me behind.
July 9, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Are we not all commanded by Jesus to love God, Love our neighbours as we love ourselves? Jesus said a new command is this love…. and yet all people in the church seem to do is discriminate, treat people who are not the same as them think the same as them with contempt… wow what a message to those who are are not followers of the life giving resurrected Messiah!
no wonder people not associated with the church don’t think much of God, Jesus or the church!
July 10, 2009 at 10:41 am
Andrew, thanks. I will reply to the issues you raise in a full post as I think they are important.